New Legion Baseball pitch count rule

[say_oww]

Pitch counts should be mandatory because they are just common sense.  At the lower levels its definitely needed to protect kids, and also to develop other kids who may otherwise not have a chance to pitch.  Even at the higher levels of competition it is necessary for protection.  Who can forget this case a few years back when many called for some big time coaches to be fired for allowing relief pitchers to throw over 100 pitches.

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=624

Wood had to have surgery less than a year later, and neither one has had much of a career since.  Classic case where the coaches basically cost them a chance at a career just to win a game.

[pennstater1212]

That's absolutely absurd to make your own pitching rules! The teams that ride one guy have to be behind this, like Patton. Why not follow the same rules as high school and the same ones you'll be playing at regionals!?

[hitnrun10r]

Pitch counts should be mandatory because they are just common sense.  At the lower levels its definitely needed to protect kids, and also to develop other kids who may otherwise not have a chance to pitch.  Even at the higher levels of competition it is necessary for protection.  Who can forget this case a few years back when many called for some big time coaches to be fired for allowing relief pitchers to throw over 100 pitches.

http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=624

Wood had to have surgery less than a year later, and neither one has had much of a career since.  Classic case where the coaches basically cost them a chance at a career just to win a game.

That's a really good story. This is a must read for any coach or anyone who has kids. Legion has seemed to be just like high school season. If you have 1 pitcher to rely on, they get as many possible innings as they can. Kids don't realize their future and say "I'll tough it out coach." It's easy to tell when a kid is out of gas or sore. The pitch count is great for high school baseball. Not only for the sake of the kid's arm, but to see how much depth a team has if they play 3-4 games in a week toward the end of the season.

[bigrig15]

Pitch count is a good thing for kids up until they are 16 after that point it should be used as a reference. For example a kid starts a game and usually get starts tiring around 85 pitches so when u get close to that number u start to look for signs of fatigue. I know some guys I played with who it seemed like they weren't warmed up until they threw 70 pitches. I think sometimes we baby kids arms too much and it causes kids more injuries cause when we do need them to throw a higher number of pitches they aren't used to throwing that many pitches 

[say_oww]

I say we should follow medical science.  We tend to follow it for everything else, except for behaviors that we don't want to change. Kids shouldn't play tackle football until they are in their teens.  Baloney!  Kids shouldn't have pitch counts. Phooey! Etc, Etc.

My experience being around this game for a long time is that pitch counts aren't arbitrary and we have a lot of supporting data to reference.  Those coaches who don't want to move forward with any kind of guidance shouldn't be allowed to force this upon others, especially other people's kids.  Being around a lot of professional players over the years I have one correlation that is often overlooked.  The guys, err kids, who are able to absorb tremendous workloads and not end up the worse for wear are able to do so because of their God-given physical makeup.  We should never expect a kid to be just getting warmed up after 70 pitches when all of the science and data from thousands of orthopedic surgeons paints a different picture.  

Sad thing is a lot of those guys who want to say that we are babying kids and that kids should throw everyday are former players who were blessed with certain tools and characteristics which enabled them to perform at a much higher level than the average kid.  It doesn't mean it applies to others, and most of the times is the complete opposite of the truth.  Even MLB data shows how pitchers aren't as effective when pitching on short rest or after extended outings.  Its one of those things that you can't see with the naked eye, but when you analyze the data it is very clear.  Pitchers need rest.  The amount of pitches thrown is directly related to how much rest and (KEY WORD) recovery is necessary.  

If more is better, then every kid who plays year round should be lighting up the radar gun.  

[knowitall]

What I don't get about pitch counts is it doesn't take into account warmup pitchers before games and between innings and of course side work throughout the week. How many pitches thrown in the bullpen are too many?

[hitnrun10r]

You're very right on that one. We all know that some kids take longer than others to warm up. Warm up is essential too because I've seen too many times where coaches have let kids go out on the hill not warm enough and something happens. Of course the side work throughout the week plays a huge role in how a kid pitches also. You can tell when a pitcher is fatigued within the first couple innings that they may have had too much of a work load that week.

[say_oww]

One difference between warmup pitches and side work is the intensity level - provided a kid doesn't throw 100 warmup pitches or do bullpens everyday.  However, during games everything is amplified and the body definitely feels more stress from the different situations.  As situations progressively get more tense, the body expends more energy and effort to perform the same function.  There are even statistics which measure this kind of intensity.

[hitnrun10r]

For this season, Cambria County will use the same pitching rules they used last year. Not sure if that's a good thing. The teams that move on to regionals will then have to abide by the new legion rules.

[223113]

For this season, Cambria County will use the same pitching rules they used last year. Not sure if that's a good thing. The teams that move on to regionals will then have to abide by the new legion rules.

Same as last year?
Wasn't that something like a max number of innings in a game, and a max for the week, regardless of the number of pitches?