Baseball Scrimmage

Michael's travel baseball team had an intra-squad scrimmage today. They've had quite a few practices and done a lot of "hitting and running" kind of scrimmaging, but hadn't been through like it was a game.

Michael had a pretty good day. He pitched two innings, which is the most he's ever done in a single game. The first inning was pretty good. He seems to either throw the ball right over the plate or way off - not a lot of inbetween. The second inning wasn't as good - a lot more wild pitches. I think just because he hasn't had to pitch two innings in a row, that was a lot for him.

I'm going to start counting pitches for him - because by playing on two different teams (one travel, one little league), with two different coaches, he could certainly be throwing too much.

I read an article today about kids throwing their arms out younger and younger. This has been a concern of mine since Michael starting pitching - so I got him some lessons so at least he would be throwing it correctly. But one of the most interesting things I read in the article today is that sometimes the pitchers throw their arms out because in addition to being a pitcher, they are a catcher or a third baseman. Positions that require a lot of throwing (catcher) or hard throwing (3rd base). The two innings Michael didn't pitch today, he played 3rd base. I think its because he is one of the stronger throwers, so the coach has him at 3rd (at least that's the explanation we've come up with because its very strange to have a left-handed 3rd baseman - he can't cover the gap because his glove is on the other hand). At least I got the coach to NOT have him catch.

But it was a good scrimmage and the boys played well together. We look forward to his first real game