High School Kid Pitches Fourth Consecutive No-Hitter

[KevinmH9]

I didn't see this anywhere, but pretty cool stuff.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/21/national/main4959337.shtml

 

[BYH]

Dr. Frank Jobe just penciled him in for an appointment July 12 and has no idea why.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Dr. Frank Jobe just penciled him in for an appointment July 12 and has no idea why.

And has booked the young man for a two-night stay in the Mark Prior Suite at the Birmingham Marriott.

 

[RickStain]

Dr. Frank Jobe just penciled him in for an appointment July 12 and has no idea why.

And has booked the young man for a two-night stay in the Mark Prior Suite at the Birmingham Marriott.

I would have said Kerry Wood.

Prior had a fragile arm all along, it was coddled as long as it could be. Wood's was ruined in high school.

 

[Fudgie the Whale]

What's the "Tampa Bay Tribune"?

I can't wait for a softball parent to call and demand national coverage after their daughter throws her 15th consecutive no-hitter. (1-0, run scores on an error. :))

 

[BYH]

Dusty Baker wonders why the kid isn't throwing in relief in between starts.

 

[93Devil]

So what ever happened to Ben Webb?

 

[Armchair_QB]

Dusty Baker wonders why the kid isn't throwing in relief in between starts.

Because he's not Aaron Harang.

 

[JackReacher]

Not sure I understand why everyone thinks this kid's arm is going to be shredded. The story never says how many pitches he threw in his last four starts. And pitchers usually throw fewer pitches in no-hitters, correct?

 

[RickStain]

Not sure I understand why everyone thinks this kid's arm is going to be shredded. The story never says how many pitches he threw in his last four starts. And pitchers usually throw fewer pitches in no-hitters, correct?

I'd be worried about how often those four starts were. I wouldn't put it past a high-school coach to let the kid throw four starts in 10 days or something if it's the playoffs.

And more importantly, the best way to be this dominant in high school is to throw a lot of nasty breaking stuff, which is also the best way to ruin an 18-year-old arm.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

The guy who holds the record (six straight no-hitters) now works for ESPN.

 

[JackReacher]

Not sure I understand why everyone thinks this kid's arm is going to be shredded. The story never says how many pitches he threw in his last four starts. And pitchers usually throw fewer pitches in no-hitters, correct?

I'd be worried about how often those four starts were. I wouldn't put it past a high-school coach to let the kid throw four starts in 10 days or something if it's the playoffs.

And more importantly, the best way to be this dominant in high school is to throw a lot of nasty breaking stuff, which is also the best way to ruin an 18-year-old arm.

That's an awful lot of assumptions. Not saying it's not true, but we don't know that.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Not sure I understand why everyone thinks this kid's arm is going to be shredded. The story never says how many pitches he threw in his last four starts. And pitchers usually throw fewer pitches in no-hitters, correct?

Not if most of the outs were strikeouts.

A bigger concern would be the number of breaking balls he threw over the four games. That takes more of a toll than the total number of pitches.

 

[outofplace]

http://blogs.tampabay.com/preps/2009/04/schuster-tosses-3rd-consecutive-nohitter.html

To be fair, these games were spread out over 19 days, with at least four between each start, and one was only five innings.

According to the story I linked here, he threw 94 pitches in the third no-hitter. Not quite the abuse heaped upon Kerry Wood's arm, but perhaps some reason for concern. I just wonder how heavily he is relying on sliders rather than just throwing the fastball by people, which was another thing that led to Wood's arm troubles.

Edit: A_QB beat me to the part about breaking pitches.

 

[RickStain]

Not sure I understand why everyone thinks this kid's arm is going to be shredded. The story never says how many pitches he threw in his last four starts. And pitchers usually throw fewer pitches in no-hitters, correct?

I'd be worried about how often those four starts were. I wouldn't put it past a high-school coach to let the kid throw four starts in 10 days or something if it's the playoffs.

And more importantly, the best way to be this dominant in high school is to throw a lot of nasty breaking stuff, which is also the best way to ruin an 18-year-old arm.

That's an awful lot of assumptions. Not saying it's not true, but we don't know that.

Well, we're not major-league scouts advising against drafting the kid. We're just guessing.

Given the information available, I'd say the odds that one of the two situations described applies is better than 50/50.

 

[RickStain]

IIRC, Wood threw 180 pitches in both ends of a double-header right around the day he was drafted.

 

[BYH]

The guy who holds the record (six straight no-hitters) now works for ESPN.

I heard that last night. Quite the cautionary tale. Kid oughta take the first-round money and run.

 

[Armchair_QB]

You are correct. It was two games of a UIL playoff series played on the same day the weekend before the draft that year.

 

[outofplace]

http://www.maxpreps.com/florida/baseball/mitchell-(new-port-richey)/patrick-schuster/stats.aspx?athleteid=17d8a64a-370d-47a4-85b9-237d2a615e27&ssid=adbd6bc0-7585-418e-8d8c-bf56eb02934e&urpath=,local,player&group=4

FWIW, here's the kid's pitching stats on MaxPreps.

And according to this story, he threw 105 pitches in the most recent no-hitter. That number courtesy of his mom (gotta love high school sports).
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseballpreps/article993893.ece

 

[spnited]

Four starts in 19 days is hardly that taxing. 105 pitches isn't going to kill him.

Some moron coach in South Jersey let a kid throw 188 pitches in a game a couple weeks ago. NJ has limits on the number of innings a kid can throw in a week but not on pitch counts...yet.