How MLB velocity has reached high school baseball and why 'it isn't everything' (2024)

With every game Verona senior Jack DeTienne plays, he gets one step closer to achieving his dream of pitching in Major League Baseball.

The self-proclaimed late bloomer entered the season as the state’s No. 2 player and top pitcher after a successful first stint on the summer circuit, according to Prep Baseball Report.

The 6-foot-3 DeTienne committed to Xavier in December 2022 but is projected as an early round draft pick in July’s MLB draft.

“Having that around the corner is really exciting and if you told me two years ago I would’ve been in this spot, I wouldn’t have believed you,” DeTienne said.

DeTienne said scouts compare him most to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, as they share a similar mix of pitches. DeTienne throws four-seam and two-seam fastballs, a curveball, slider and a changeup. His fastball reached 96 mph over the summer and is routinely 92-95 mph.

Buehler’s teammate, Tyler Glasnow, is an advocate for chasing velocity, a trend that’s impacting pitchers at all levels.

“The mentality I’ve had since I was in high school was (to) throw the ball as hard as you can all the time,” Glasnow said on the Chris Rose Rotation podcast.“That’s the highest chance of you playing in college, the highest chance of you playing pro and if you get hurt we got good doctors. … I think everyone is going to take ‘throw hard, get hurt and make money.’”

DeTienne agreed with Glasnow and said chasing velocity has taken off in this age of baseball, and DeTienne has benefitted.

“I think velocity is great and helps pitchers, but it isn’t everything because pitch movement and spin rates play off of that,” DeTienne said. “Everyone thinks of injury, but it's not something to be worried about unless you’re having symptoms.”

The risk of increasing pitching velocity

The ideal time to begin velocity training is between the ages of 15 and 16, “when boys become skeletally mature,” physical therapist Jeff Schleusner said. Schleusner is one of the owners of Pro Physical Therapy in Middleton and helped Madison Edgewood’s Steffen Mello recover from a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury he suffered in June. The UCL is located inside the elbow, attached to the humerus (bone of the upper arm) and ulna (a bone in the forearm), according to hopkinsmedicine.org. And the injury was proof that the unnatural motion brings risked for all pitchers, even those who, like Mello, throw 80 mph or softer.

Mello didn’t throw for three months before he gradually started working his way back. Each week he added 10 throws and 20 feet of distance to his workout, starting with fastballs before incorporating other pitches.

“My first few months pitching live were in the winter and I didn’t have any confidence, so I was limiting my arm by not fully winding up,” Mello said. “Looking back, the recovery has helped because it actually made my arm stronger.”

Since then Mello has been proactive with his arm care to prevent any further injuries. He, along with his peers, uses several pieces of equipment to strengthen muscles around the elbow to put less stress on the UCL.

That includes the use of j-bands and plyometric balls after games. DeTienne said he performed plyometric deceleration drills after throwing 100 pitches in Verona’s 4-3 loss to Sun Prairie East on Wednesday.

Pitchers also take care of their arms with daily stretching, icing and have mandatory rest days between pitching outings. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) implemented its maximum pitch count rule of 100 pitches in 2017 and requires rest days for pitchers based on the number of pitches thrown during a game.

“Before a game I always make sure my shoulders are warmed up,” Monona Grove sophom*ore Cal Moreau said. “I like to use bands a lot and start off easy with throwing. When my arm has been feeling bad, I’ll either play second or I’ll just not even play at all.”

Moreau, listed at 6-3, 175 pounds by Prep Baseball Report, is similar in stature to DeTienne and has had similar growth. Moreau was clocked as fast as 85 mph by PBR but said he’s since reached 91 mph.

“We have them do resistance band exercises to strengthen and stabilize their shoulders,” Woodall said. “They also do towel drills, where they hold a towel and go through a variety of throwing motions to train their body for the movement, without it being a high impact throw.”

Training for pitching velocity

With velocity training becoming an integral part of high school baseball, training programs are in high demand.

Bryan Shepherd, a former college baseball coach of over 25 years, owns the Beast Baseball training facility in Middleton. Shepard said velocity training needs to be individualized for each player and that cookie cutter programs are adding to the injury risk. Under his guidance, players aren’t allowed to start training for velocity until they’re able to weight train and develop muscle.

“Some people’s arms aren’t built to withstand the training at the point they’re at in life, whether it be maturity or physical strength,” Shepard said. “You must learn how to pitch before you learn how to throw hard because if you try throwing hard without good mechanics the risk of injury increases.”

Schleusner said most injuries occur early in the season when pitchers unleash max-effort throws for the first time after not doing so during the offseason.

“The single most important thing pitchers can do is have a gradual ramp up of throwing volume and intensity,” Schleusner said. “They have to approach some max throwing in the offseason because the best way to bulletproof themselves to throwing hard often is doing some of that leading up to the season.”

Pitchers prepare all year to make sure their velocity peaks during the summer. DeTienne prepares by not throwing in November and December before ramping up ahead of the high school baseball season. For multi-sport athletes like Beaver Dam’s Eli Bryant, football season is the natural break from pitching.

After rest, the second phase of ramping up is playing catch and moving into long toss. Bryant, who is committed to Kent State and throws 87-89 mph per PBR, said he starts long tosses between 90-100 feet before gradually increasing the distance.

Next is off-mound pitching, or flatground bullpens, which allows pitchers to focus on perfecting mechanics and “putting spin on the ball,” DeTienne said. While the final phase hones in on strengthening the arm by pitching from the mound in the bullpen, doing pull downs and throwing weighted balls.

“With all the winter training stuff they do in the facilities, I noticed in the last few years that guys are showing up on the first day more ready to go and not needing as much time to ramp it up,” Verona coach Brad D’Orazio said.

Pitchers play into early August at summer showcases, where pitching velocity is needed to impress college coaches and professional scouts. These showcases typically involve pro-style workouts and culminate with a game in which pitchers are slotted for two innings each.

Top velocity reports go out on social media and “when someone hits a certain velocity, everyone is talking about it,” Mello said.

“Those showcase days, velocity is all it's really about, kids are taking like three energy drinks or Advil tablets to do anything they can to throw as hard as possible,” he said.

DeTienne first attended summer showcases following his junior year, a late start compared to some of his peers who began when they entered high school.

He had an impressive showing at the Midwest Scouts Association’s showcase in July at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. He also was invited to the four-day Area Code Games at the University of San Diego in August.

“The Midwest showcase really put me on the map because my fastball was buzzing there and I hit 96 mph for the first time, after being at 92-93 mph the whole summer,” DeTienne said.

In comparison, Woodall maxed out at 88 mph, which he said “would’ve made me an exception to the rule these days.”

The older generation acknowledges the benefits that increased velocity training has brought to the sport.

Shepherd, who’s playing career ended on a rotator cuff injury, said he wishes today’s arm care knowledge was available when he played. He added that some of his former teammates could’ve gone further in their careers with today’s training.

“I completely agree with Glasnow because the mentality hasn’t changed much,” Woodall said. “I don’t blame these pitchers at all because we were all trying to throw as fast as we could for a long time.”

While supportive of this culture shift, former players like Woodall seem more concerned about the injury risk than current players. Woodall’s career ended after he suffered a torn labrum and partially torn rotator cuff.

“You realize pretty quickly just like these days that most pitchers end their career on an injury,” he said.

Bryant said it's necessary to throw hard at a young age because it gets your body accustomed to it.

“If you do get hurt then it's early in your career and you can recover from it faster,” Bryant said. “The injury will be a setback, but I feel it's a learning process you’ll have to go through and have that mindset that you’ll be OK if you do get hurt.”

Bryant’s pitching coach at Beaver Dam is Terry Kieffer, a former first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1974 MLB Draft.

Kieffer had five surgeries on his left shoulder and only played one year in the minors before having to leave the sport. He said he does his best to protect the Golden Beavers pitchers from making the same mistakes as him.

“At the University of New Orleans if we needed someone to pitch I would and, during the NCAA regionals, I threw 19 innings in two days, which probably ruined me,” Kieffer said. “So I’m always looking for rest time with them and I’m a fundamentals guy big time. I’m watching their arm slot, hip movement and where their feet land because fundamental things give you more velocity.”

Mello said despite his injury, pushing to increase velocity helped him become a college-level pitcher. The UW-Oshkosh commit is concerned for the younger generation of pitchers however.

“There are kids in sixth or seventh grade only focusing on trying to throw as hard as possible, which I don’t think is a great thing personally,” Mello said. “I think when you’re younger, focusing on being able to command pitches and have a good mix of them is more important to learn. As your body grows, that's when you add the velocity.”