Pitch velocity by age

Question
My son is a tall (6'-3") 14 year-old playing Junior Baseball(13 & 14 year olds).  He just completed the 8th grade, and is hoping to play on his high school's Freshman team next year. I recently got a radar gun and timed all the guys on our team (they were all pretty excited about this).  In general, they all threw in the 50 - 55 MPH range, with the exception of our catcher (59) one of our pitchers (61) and my son (68).

My son has always had above average velocity, but has only developed decent control (> 60 % strikes) in the last 3 months.

So -- the question is, what's a typical range of speeds for a freshman pitcher (assuming decent control)? What constitutes exceptional speed for that age?  How much difference in velocity should he strive for between his fastball and his change up?

Thanks for your answers.

Answer
Mark,

First of all, velocity takes a back seat to control when it comes to winning HS games--especially Freshman ball.

You should know that there are 15 year olds here and there that pump it up pretty good ( some touching 90 ) so there is considerable room for improvement.  At 6'3", I would expect a 14 y/o right handed pitcher to be in the mid to upper 70's on average.  You will find some HS freshman that can hit the low 80's.  He should expect to gain 2-4 mph per year for several years.  

A good change-up is 8-12 mph slower than the FB---with some movement.  Once again...he needs to throw strikes with all pitches in order to win games.


Please see perfectgame.com for info on pitchers of all ages.  They have reports on thosands of players which include velocity.

Best of luck.

Pete