Pitcher development question.

[pjalst]

Why is it that almost everytime we read progress reports about a pticher's development, they almost always mention that he is working on adding a change up to his asenal of pitches? You rarely see that a pitcher has a plus change up in a prospect scouting report. Why aren't more pitchers practicing, or being taught to throw a change up at the high school level or maybe even younger? It just seems like the change up is one of the deciding factors on whether you get "The Call" or not.

[J35J]

Why is it that almost everytime we read progress reports about a pticher's development, they almost always mention that he is working on adding a change up to his asenal of pitches? You rarely see that a pitcher has a plus change up in a prospect scouting report. Why aren't more pitchers practicing, or being taught to throw a change up at the high school level or maybe even younger? It just seems like the change up is one of the deciding factors on whether you get "The Call" or not.

Most of the time when in high school and college they may work on a changeup but those MLB level pitchers generally have an advanced fastball and curve/slider and that's all they need to mow down hitters in high school and even college. By the time they get into big league ball there changeup has been neglected due to them being able to skate by with their mid 90's fastball and good curve/slider. It's tough to get kids to work on a change up when they are already blowing by hitters without it. With that said, there are a select few guys that come in with a good changeup and those are usually the guys that needed that little extra since they didn't have the dominate fastball/slider combo.

[Tavish]

Just adding on to what J35J said, pitchers are usually scouted and drafted/signed based on their velocity since that is (for the most part) something that can't be taught. There are very few pitchers that enter the minors with more than 1 developed pitch. Teams scout under the assumption that they can take any pitcher with decent mechanics and add secondary pitches during the development process.

I think the reason why more pitchers don't throw the change at a younger age was pretty well covered (no real need). That being said, most pitchers actually do throw a change of some sort, its just a really big leap from knowing how to throw a change and being able to throw a major league change.

[Ender]

High School and College are about getting noticed to the point where you get drafted, it isn't as much about development. The change up is a pitch that gets clobbered while you are still learning it~.