While my lesson students warm up their arms to pitch to me, I like to talk to them about their most recent games.

When I ask, "How did you pitch last game?" and they say "Bad," I always need to dig deeper because "Bad" usually doesn't tell the whole story, especially in a young pitcher's mind.

By watching games on TV, they've been conditioned to think that when a pitcher gives up a lot of hits and runs that he pitched poorly, and yes, in the Big Leagues, that's usually true. But in reality in Little League, giving up hits and runs is usually a sign that they actually pitched well. Let me explain.

If a Little League pitcher throws a strike, 4 things can happen (and all of them are good!):

1. The batter doesn't swing, and the ump says "STRIKE!"
2. The batter swings and misses.
3. The batter swings and hits a foul ball.
4. The batter hits it.

All 4 of these results help the team because every Strike gets them 1 step closer to an out, and every time the batter hits the ball fair, there's the opportunity for the defense to make a play and get an out.

Here are the 3 things that can happen when the batter hits it:

1. The defense makes the play.
2. The defense makes an error.
3. The batter gets a clean hit.

When the defense makes the play...awesome! That means everyone did their job: the pitcher threw a strike, the batter hit the ball, and the fielders fielded it. Love it!

When the defense makes an error...while sometimes frustrating for the pitcher, it means that he did his job to help the team. That doesn't mean the pitcher should be selfish and only worry about how he did, but everyone on the field has a role to play in helping the team, and the pitcher's job is to throw strikes. Period.

When the batter gets a clean hit...that's ok too! There's a reason why no-hitters are a big deal; they almost never happen! That means that every pitcher is going to give up clean hits all the time, and that's totally fine; it's part of baseball and something that pitchers have to learn to deal with.

Here's all the good things that can happen for the team when the pitcher throws a ball:

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We all know that the defense in Little League (at all kid pitch divisions) is inconsistent at best, but what young pitchers need to learn at as young an age as possible is that challenging hitters and using their defense to make outs is the best way to be successful on the mound in the long run.

In Minors, a high percentage of the time the ball his put in the play, the defense does not make the play.

But for you Minors Pitchers, when you go to Intermediates, more of the routine groundballs that are errors this season will be outs next season as everyone continues to improve defensively.

For the pitchers in Intermediates, when you go to Majors...same thing.

For pitchers in Majors, when you go to Junior League or High School...same thing.

So even though the hitters will continue to get better, pitching actually gets easier because the defense will get better, with more and more outs being recorded by the fielders.

The only thing a pitcher can do on the mound to not help their team is to walk lots of batters. And while that will happen often at young ages, let's make sure as coaches and parents of youth pitchers that we are encouraging them every time they throw strikes, regardless of the outcome of the at-bat!

And on days where the pitcher did walk a lot of guys, remember that pitching is hard! The target (aka Strike Zone) is NOT big and it's NOT easy to throw it in there.

There's a reason Big Leaguers, despite being the best pitchers in the world, also get 4 balls before they walk the batter. It's because throwing strikes is tough!

A quick story about my first inning on the mound in professional baseball that illustrates how pitching gets easier, even as the hitters get better. I was pitching in this stadium in Lakeland, Florida in June of 2003, a couple weeks after getting drafted and cashing a MASSIVE $1,000 signing bonus check (most people think that 1st rounders get all the money, but the real payday is in the 42nd round😁).

After retiring the first 2 batters I faced (and thinking I would be promoted to the Big Leagues by the end of the day), I threw an awesome 2-2 slider to the 3rd guy up. A few weeks earlier pitching against the Shortstop from Princeton who scored a perfect score on his SATs and was on his way to Med School, throwing that pitch would been have a guaranteed strike out.

But against a professional hitter, he stayed right on it and bombed into the right-center gap. Gulp, maybe I was going to start the season in A-Ball, and not in Detroit, after all.

A few weeks earlier in college, a ball hit like that in the gap was never getting caught by our college Centerfielder (no offense to him). A sure double, maybe even a triple.

But in Lakeland, something amazing happened; my professional Centerfielder casually ran the ball down and made a fairly routine catch near the wall. OUT!

So while I was now facing hitters who were MUCH better than anyone I had ever faced before in my life, I learned in my very first outing that I also had fielders who were MUCH better than anyone I'd ever had playing defense behind me in my life.

Did I have outings in pro ball where I gave up lots of hits and runs? Of course. The defense can't catch everything (especially, as I learned the hard way many times, when the batter hits it over the fence). But remembering that all those guys in the field behind me are there for a reason definitely takes a lot of the pressure off. After all, if the Pitcher was supposed to get everyone out all by himself, there would be no such thing as a Shortstop or Centerfielder or, or, or...the game would just be the Pitcher on the mound all by himself, with an empty field behind him.

And while it can be hard sometimes to want to "use your defense" in Little League, we must continue to celebrate throwing strikes with our young pitchers, regardless of the result because even if your son grows up to have a 100mph fastball, if he can't throw it for a strike, it's not worth anything to the team.

PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!