Was watching the southwest regional final little league game between Roswell, NM and a team from Lubbock. The Lubbock team had a pitcher named Garrett Williams who threw a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts in 6 IP. He was throwing in the 70s all game with the last pitch of the game being clocked at 79 mph. Just a lanky kid. Was trying to remember how hard Danny Almonte was throwing when his team played in Williamsport. I think he was throwing in the 70s. Course, he was 14 or 15 at the time. Williams had a heck of a breaking ball which has me worried he may throw his arm out before he reaches his potential. That is still very impressive to me. Anyone ever heard of a kid throwing that hard at that age?

Kyle Carter from Georgia last year threw about that hard. I believe I remember him hitting 82 once. The Hawaii kid with the long brown/blonde hair a couple years ago was consistent 77-78 and hit 80 a few times.

[This message has been edited by northernhorn (edited 8/12/2007 1:07a).]

Jon Peters

are they really throwing that hard, or does it an adjusted speed? kind of like the fast pitch softball pitchers who are throwing in the 70's but its like facing a 90mph fastball from a big league pitcher.

Texas Prospects has one from Henderson, Tx that was clocked by the Devil Rays this summer at 91 mph. He just turned 15, 14 at the time this was done. 6'3" and all legs!

the adjusted speed on the pitch was 103 mph. 91 at 14 or 15 does not surprise me as Josh Beckett was throwing 98-99 as a sophomore in HS. Throwing 79 at 12 years of age by a kid who is not overly developed makes me think he could be someone who was throwing 95+ as a senior in HS. like I said though, he throws a lot of cureballs so I question whether his arm will make it.

Yep, a couple of 12 yr olds on this select team throw upper 70's... how do I know? We played them a couple of weeks ago. They play against the best 12's and 13's and their only loss this year was to a 13 Major team. Simply the best 12 year old team on the planet.

http://eteamz.active.com/banditosblack12u

ps- those coaches on the right are 5'11" or 6' so that gives you an idea.

[This message has been edited by Lefty Ag '89 (edited 8/13/2007 2:38p).]

Realize that the birthday shifted to earlier in the year which had the effect of making the kids in this tournament older than in years past. This kind could be 3 months beyond his 13th birthday and still be in this tournament. It was impressive nonetheless but be careful comparing it to prior years.

this happens ALOT more than yall may think. most of these kids develope the wrong way or something and plus the mound getting moved back to 60'6" doesnt help either. yeah, 79 is fast, but believe me it does happen ALOT.

yea, we butted heads with those guys last yr in the 12U major division....they won, of course....
BUT the coach is a REAL Richard, he flys in kids from Corpus and the rest of the state to play for him, so yea...he's got a good team...they're just trophy-hunters, nothing more....

we'll see where these kids wind up in a few years....

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Jon Peters

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What Rocks said. My sister pitched against that Brenham team in sectionals and shut them down except for a bomb she gave up to Peters to beat them by 1 or 2. They didn't know she was a girl until the 5th inning.

Is that Banditos team out of the Woodlands? When I was 14 we played a team called the Woodlands Banditos and they were ranked #1 in the 14u. They had a kid who was 14 that was supposedly topping out in the low 90's. His name was Ryan something.

Sidd Finch

Texas has 1 pool game on Tuesday at 5 pm, most of the pitchers will throw less than 20 pitches. Texas is 2-0 and already slotted as the number 1 team in pool B. They will take on the number 2 team in pool A. All teams in ""A' are 1-1. The pitcher Garrett Williams will pitch on Wed in the 1st bracket game. If Texas wins that game, than they will play Sat for the US Title.

Loyal Ag, that age shift has effected many select teams as well. My son worked out with a team last fall that was being assembled with players that were up one year of experience than the league they were playing in. 3/4 of the team was born between May-July; my son was one of the younger ones being born in October. They went on to win one of the AAA World Series tourneys last month.

My son was in the middle talent wise on this team, but we decided to stay in our local LL for many reasons. Primarily, he's not ready to play with the intensity select demands - all he wants is to win and have fun. I'm also not ready to dish out all of the money to travel and pay entry fees that select requires just to play baseball. My job is to keep him competitive with some of the better kids in his age group and hopefully by 13 he'll be ready to focus and play select ball.

Very few of those kids make it though, you throw that hard that much, especially on these select clubs who play tourneys where kids arms get worn every weekend.

I coach in that age bracket too, and we sacrifice some wins for getting all the kids work. In having a professional MLB pitcher as an advisor and Dad on our club helps us set the right priorities because we want our kids at least to last as long as High School.