What do college baseball recruiters look for in a pitcher?
1. First thing they are going to look at is your academics. They want to know you can take care of your studies when you are at their school.
2. Can you compete? How to handle yourself on the mound? How do you deal with failure? What is your body language like? How are you as a teammate? How well do you communicate?
Pitcher Velocity and Command Benchmarks
What college coaches look for in high school prospects:
Division 1
Pitch velocity: 84 MPH consistently; up to 95+ MPH
Command of at least 3 pitches
ERA: below 2.00
At least 1 K per inning pitched
Walk less than 1 batter per 2 innings pitched
Division 2
Pitch velocity: 82 MPH – 90+ MPH
Control of one off-speed pitch and 1 additional pitch thrown to spots consistently
ERA: below 3.00
Around 1 K per 1 innings pitched
Walk around 1 batter per 2 innings pitcher
Division 3 and NAIA
Pitch velocity: 77 MPH – 82 MPH
Control of at least one off-speed pitch and developing another
Strike out to walk ratio of 1:1
ERA: 2.50–3.50
Junior College
Pitch velocity: 80 MPH consistently
1 or less than 1 K per inning pitched
ERA: below 4.00
What does a D1 baseball pitcher look like?
How coaches find pitching prospects?
Coaches can’t get out to every game so more and more they are counting on using social media and referrals to find their college pitchers. Twitter is the most popular platform for college coaches and you should have your own Twitter account. On your Twitter profile, you can add a link to your 180 Scouting Profile that allows you to share all the relevant details coaches want, the metrics they are looking for and make sure you have as much video of game footage, training, etc as possible on the page so that you they want to plan to come and see you in person.
P.S. Check out how you compare on our Pitching Velocity Leaderboard.