Great read in the NYTimes...should be required reading for youth coaches and parents of young pitchers. Why have pitch counts for young pitchers? To protect them from their parents, their coaches and themselves.
In 1999, with $150,000 in financing and sponsorship by USA Baseball, Andrews and Fleisig began the first in a series of studies on the interlocking relationships between pitch count, pitch type, arm fatigue and pain. That year they collected data from 476 Alabama youth-league pitchers between the ages of 9 and 14. Their findings:
-over the course of the season, more than half of the pitchers experienced shoulder or elbow pain.
-for each increment of 25 pitches thrown after 50 pitches, the percentage of pitchers experiencing pain increased as fatigue set in.
-those who threw curveballs were 52 percent more likely to feel shoulder pain.
-those who threw sliders were 86 percent more likely to endure elbow pain.
-by the age of 20, a baseball player who has regularly pitched past the point of fatigue is 36 times as likely to need elbow or shoulder surgery as one who has not.
As for Alden, I was wondering if his coaches/parents learned anything. Based on the last paragraph, I don't think so...after a year off due to surgery, in his 1st return to the mound, in a practice game, Alden pitched six innings. Something tells me he'll be seeing Dr. Andrews again (assuming that's still possible under Obama's health plan but that's another topic).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08...azine&pagewanted=all
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