Kevin A posted:Question really isn't whether he is JV or not or 10th grade or 12th.
How long has he been training? I'm in PA and we haven't had a game yet. I know my son tells me when he's catching pitchers and I was surprised they weren't doing more to prep pitchers. So for us I would say it's a lot cause I know the limited throwing they have been doing.
There's schools in GA that are apparently 7-8 + games into it. Warmer climate states get started a ton earlier than us.
At face value it can seem like a lot early but details really do matter.
IMO.
Yeah, with high school pitchers this is not a one-size-fits-all. With pros, they've spent the off-season working out and almost always enter spring training coming off of a break from pitching, so it makes a lot of sense to slowly ramp up the pitch counts. With a high school kid, he could have been gearing up for two months to be prepared to throw 90 pitches. Now, some kids enter the season coming off of another sport or with no throwing at all right before official practices. Those kids need to be babied along.
Here in Colorado, official practices - where you can mandate players show up - only started February 27, yet the season started yesterday. Additionally, basketball playoffs are still going on. You will literally have kids step on a field for the first time three games into the season. However, most of my pitching staff has been gearing up since the day after Christmas so they can be ready to step on the mound and go a max number of pitches. Our season is only 19 games. If I had to baby the arms - pitch count wise - ten games into the season, we'd be half way through the schedule.
As to JV, I'll agree that I don't see a lot of need in a kid going 90 pitches in what should be development for varsity. If I've got a kid that's a burgeoning stud pitching on JV, then I'm probably thinking more along the lines of holding his pitch count down so I have a good fresh arm for the varsity down the stretch if I need it.