Big leaguers’ message to youth baseball pitchers: Wait on the curve
Parents and zealot baseball moms and dads, you don’t know more than Major League Baseball managers or players. Do what they say.
If they say not to have your kid throw a breaking ball before 12 or 13, stop.
This story was originally slated to run approximately 15 years ago, which is two weeks in coronavirus years.
When all of us trapped in our homes, and every single sport stopped, parents are now officially “Coach.”
Now more than ever before, listen to the professionals.
As participation in youth baseball in America continues to rise, so do injuries related to the sport.
Blame a majority of the injury increase on the inane schedules of the inherent stupidity that is year-round baseball. And blame some of this on too many young kids throwing pitches that rip their maturing arms.
It’s not just the number of pitches they throw, but the type.
Snapping off a 12-6 curve ball looks cool, and throwing a slider on a 1-2 pitch will impress the girls, but if your kid’s arm is not ready it’s a risky proposition. Winning a tournament for a 13U select team is worth nothing anyways, and it’s a waste if he ends up with a serious arm injury in the process of claiming that dustable trophy.
The type of elbow injury that often ends up requiring Tommy John surgery.
Back during spring training I spent a week in Arizona, and I asked Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who is a father of two boys who play baseball, when is the earliest a kid should throw a breaking ball.
“I don’t know the specific age but I’d guess 12 years old,” he said. “We threw it [when he was young] with a whiffle ball and just messing around, we’d throw breaking balls early. They told me not to.
“It’s specific to each pitcher but it’s not great probably to start throwing breaking balls, or spin baseballs, at 10 or 9. It’s too much stress on the elbow. If you are taught properly how to throw it, maybe it’s not that big of an issue but guys probably aren’t [teaching it properly].”
Sports orthopedic specialist Dr. James Andrews told me in an interview that in the last 10 years he routinely examines 16-year-olds with the type of injury normally suffered by someone in his mid 20s.
In 2019, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reported that overall youth baseball injuries have decreased while elbow injuries have increased.
Between 2006 and 2016, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimated there were 665,133 injuries in American youth baseball. Over that span, shoulder, knee, wrist and ankle injuries all dropped by at least 20 percent. However, elbow injuries increased by 30 percent.
“My son is 10, and he has not seen any breaking balls yet but I am sure kids are messing with it,” Woodward said. “Kids have come to me and said, ‘Look at my curveball.’ No. Don’t throw that. Messing around it is OK, but actually throwing it in the game I don’t see a reason why.”
Virtually all pros say the same thing: If your kid is a pitcher, master throwing, and locating, a fastball.
The right time to throw a breaking ball
The Texas Rangers have a pitcher who has the best curveball in baseball. He didn’t start throwing it until he was 12, and it wasn’t with a baseball but a can of Diet Coke. Taylor Guerrieri, per Woodward, has what he figures is an unhittable curveball. It’s so good that umpires have to be warned to look for it’s abnormal arc.
He learned how to throw it in his front yard playing catch with his dad. “It was an exciting day because that was the first day he allowed me to start throwing curveballs,” Guerrieri said. “My dad told me, ‘Grab something as tight as you can in your hand, and just get on top of it and spin it.’”
Leading up to momentous day in the Guerrieri front yard, his dad took an empty Diet Coke can and put a small dent in it, giving it a slight slant. That’s how he learned to throw the best curveball in baseball.
“What you want to do is have it top to bottom, and I’d flip it out of my hand,” he said. “In the weeks leading up him allowing me to throw a curveball with a baseball, that’s what we did.”
His father, Chris, is a former placekicker at Alfred University in New York, and led all Division III kickers in points in 1970.
In 2011, Taylor Guerrieri committed to attend the University of South Carolina on a baseball scholarship. Later that spring, he was a second-round pick of the Tampa Rays. He made his MLB debut in 2018.
Again, he was not allowed to throw a breaking ball until he was 12.
Throwing hard all the time
MLB has issued a list of suggested guidelines for youth baseball pitchers, one of which is not to “throw curveballs and sliders at a young age.”
But kids now watch YouTube videos, and then try out what they just watched with a buddy. How does a parent stop this?
“My kid is 13 now and he just started flipping it. I just now let him start to pitch,” Texas Rangers pitching coach Julio Rangel said. “The real problem I see in youth baseball is how I see them use pitchers. They don’t get enough rest. They pitch in the morning, and then again at 2 o’clock. We don’t do that. Their bodies aren’t mature.”
Equally difficult is preventing the kid from throwing every pitch as if his life depends on it. As MLB evolves, the primary asset from a pitcher is now velocity. If a guy can throw a ball 96 mph, he can get away with missing on pitches. You can’t hit what you can’t see. The guy becomes more attractive to college coaches, or big league scouts.
“In high school, you are probably going to need a breaking ball to make the team,” Woodward said. “I don’t love see a 12-year-old throw 17 breaking balls in a row because they know the other kids can’t hit them. It frustrates me.”
Rangers pitcher Joe Palumbo was more brutal: “Coaches in travel ball, they don’t care about that. They just want to win. And they don’t know anything about rest, and they are going to use their best guys.”
Now combine a guy throwing a tiny ball as hard as he can with the strain of spinning it, and you have your injury. The elbow has only so many of those before it pops.
And do not buy the myth that having the Tommy John surgery helps. “There are those rumors that Tommy John makes you stronger. That isn’t true,” Rangers pitcher Kolby Allard said. “You spent 12 months rehabbing and making your arm stronger. It’s not a new ligament makes you better. That is a common myth. That is not a thing.
“Going under the knife will not make you a better pitcher.” Take it from one who knows. Palumbo, who had the surgery in 2018, said: “Tommy John surgery is luck of the draw. Younger kids should refrain from throwing a breaking ball until 13 or 14.”
Your kid will snap that curve or slider soon enough, just be sure to have him wait.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
