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One of the things questioned in the article is how it will effect the game. I am starting to see coaches in Colorado catch on to the strategy affects of pitch counts. We have taken one loss on the season. In that game, a dominant starter got out of the early innings with low pitch counts and didn't run up against the count until two outs in the seventh. The bullpen was extremely weak and we lit up their best option for three runs even with two outs and no one on in the seventh. A light turned on for our HC - you have to make a dominant starter throw pitches especially later in the game when he's reaching limits. I have no problem with it. Everybody has to play by the same rules. Where it is most notable is in the lower classifications where there wasn't much pitching to go around in the first place. Some of the area schools here have less than 40 high school kids total. Once they get past the starter, it gets ugly.
Since this year is "optional" (rules don't officially go into effect until next season), I haven't seen any coaches really talking about this or monitoring it per se. Although most of the coaches I know already have some type of personal pitch count limits and really care about the kid's welfare. My son plays in the largest classification in the state, so we may be a little better positioned to deal with these counts than those at the lower divisions. The counts are reasonable and the OSAA already has a system in place to report and monitor the counts for those schools who are choosing to abide by the rules this year. It's done at the same time that game scores are reported on a nightly basis and will be monitored by the OSAA.
Where the pitch counts may be felt the most are during post season play. Teams will no longer be able to ride the arm of one great pitcher deep into the playoffs. It's going to require schools to develop their #2, 3 and 4 pitchers to pick up the slack for a post season drive. What complicates that is the very limited time that coaches are allowed to work with pitchers before the season starts. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out next season. I expect some growing pains, but overall, I think it will be positive.
Our coaches are already doing the right thing voluntarily. Our starting pitcher usually go for 85 pitches, then the reliever and closer come in. I've only seen a couple of D1 committed pitchers go beyond 85. The system seems to work pretty well so far. 3 starters and 3 relievers covered all games. So we'll have no issue with the pitch count rule.
Saw the first instance of the season last night where the coach threw a kid a little too long, in my opinion. The kid still got the one-run win against us, but it wasn't pretty. He struggled throughout the game and I knew he must have had a fairly high pitch count going into the 6th inning. Couldn't believe the guy left him in for the 7th too. Ended up somewhere North of 120 pitches (it was counts from our pitch tracking sheets and son couldn't remember the actual number). Next season, this kid would top out at 110 pitches and would not have gotten the complete game win. I saw the kid warming up who would have replaced him and I can sort of see the motivation for sticking with the starter, but I would have been livid as a parent. For comparison, we threw four pitchers during the game.
Read the article and as somewhat alluded to above, in smaller classification schools where its far less likely to have overall depth, especially pitching depth, there may become a need to insert non-pitchers onto the mound.
This in and of itself may prove to cause injuries to players who simply are accustomed, trained or fundamentally prepared to pitch. It was interesting to hear the coach comment on potentially changing their schedule to accommodate a lack of pitching depth.
Personally, that's one of my biggest worries for my son. His future at the next level is as a position player, although he is one of the top pitchers on his HS team. He doesn't train as a PO or put in all the conditioning as a PO, but rather works on his hitting and position with pitching a distant after thought. I'd hate to see him injure his arm on the mound and have that carry over to affect his position play. His coach is very protective of his pitch count and time between starts, but it is certainly a concern.
I realize its different for everyone.Here enough kids come out to field 2 teams. V and whatever you want to call the other team.Some years theres enough kids to pitch some years not so much.The years with not so much it can and does get really bad for ALL plaers/coaches/parents. if the powers that be would just cut 5-6 games (1st week to 10 days) We tipically play 32-35 games before playoffs.Playing 26-28 games wouldn't do anything accept help all the way around.