Posted by: FG () on Mon May 17 21:10:33 2004

Just this weekend I attended a LL day at SBC park with Giants bullpen coach Mark Gardner, former pitcher Mike Krukow and others. Basically they said breaking pitches should NOT be introduced until High School. Instead,young pitchers should learn a good fastball and change-up. (Jesse Foppert, also there, said he really learned in college!). I've read many things on many boards. Conventional wisdom says that one should wait until 13 or 14. Another pitch that saves arms (and could be deadly in H.S. if a youngster starts now) and is fun is a knuckleball!