The Real Difference Between A High School Pitcher And A D1 Pitcher

Most people assume it’s velocity.

It’s not.

When I was in professional baseball I’d see guys throwing 86 to 88 at the AAA level. Numbers that sound unimpressive…until you realize that pitcher probably has five pitches he can command and knows exactly what he’s doing with every one of them.

That’s the gap most high school pitchers don’t see coming.

Throwers vs. pitchers.

High school success is often built on one thing…a fastball that blows people away at that level.

The problem is that fastball stops being special real fast.

At the D1 level almost every pitcher has two or more pitches they can locate. They understand sequencing.

They know how to set up one pitch with another. They pitch to weak contact instead of trying to overpower everyone.

When I threw a complete game shutout at a Perfect Game WWBA event in East Cobb…the game that got me my NC State commitment…I topped out at 87 mph.

What got me recruited wasn’t velocity. It was a complete game on 69 pitches, pitching to weak contact with a fastball and a change up I could locate to both sides.

That’s pitching. Not throwing.

Know what your fastball actually does.

Not all fastballs are created equal.

Some rise. Some run armside. Some are flat. Each one plays differently and sets up different secondary pitches. High school pitchers rarely know which category they fall into…and that matters more than the number on the gun.

I was an armside run guy. That movement is what made my change up so effective because the arm action looked identical coming out of my hand.

Two great pitches beat four average ones.

I see high school pitchers all the time with four or five pitches.

In professional baseball they actually strip pitches away. If your fourth pitch grades out as a C- they’d rather you throw three pitches with conviction than four pitches with doubt.

For me it was fastball and change up. My slider was okay but I never trusted it the way I trusted those two. Own two pitches completely before adding a third.

Pitch to the count.

This is where I struggled transitioning from high school to college.

I was so proud of throwing strikes in any count that I kept throwing the same pitches in the same locations regardless of the situation.

In an 0-2 count a D1 pitcher isn’t throwing a strike. He’s going elevated or burying one in the dirt to get a chase. He’s using his last pitch to set up the next one.

High school pitchers often treat every count the same. D1 pitchers treat every count like a chess move.

Last thing, next pitch mentality.

Your defense will make errors. Your catcher will have a passed ball. Things happen on a baseball field that are completely out of your control.

The best pitchers at every level have one response to all of it.

Next pitch.

Take a breath. Let it go. Execute.

That mindset is what separates the pitchers who compete under pressure from the ones who unravel when the game gets hard.