tribune article

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/highscho...cs-hs-baseball-print

Good article stressing a point that deserves repeating. The better the understanding of the epidemiology and biomechanics of pitching, & kinematics studies on proper baseball delivery the more you come to realize that pitching is tuff on an arm under ideal circumstances. The risk of injury increases exponentially with each additional pitch beyond the “fatigue point”. The current understanding puts this fatigue point for high school and college age pitchers between 80 to 100 pitches with 115 considered “red-line”, professionals may reach the fatigue point around 130. Sure conditioning may increase this fatigue point toward the high end (115) for HS pitchers but why take the risk? What I find interesting is the average pitch count per game of pitchers from some highly respected powerhouse Chicago area programs (found at the end of the article), 64.8, 77.0, 66.3, 59.3, 82.6, 77.8, 103.3.

“Once you fatigue, it affects your mechanics and you can’t pitch with the precise timing required for a smooth, compact motion.” ~ Nolan Ryan

yeah I saw that kid from Providence is averaging 103.3 for an average pitch count and I don't care how hard you condition that is a lot of stress on a teenager's arm.

The pitchers throwing less pitches have better command hit their spots keep the ball down and have a high strike to ball ratio. If we can put aside the coach who mismanages his pitching staff, the kids with high pitch counts really almost always are the kids with control problems. Agree?

I wouldn't say almost always, but yes, it is probably more common then having a pitcher who records a lot of strikeouts.

From the article

quote:

Summer travel teams can put a tremendous strain on a pitcher without much supervision. When Hinsdale Central's Nick Kurash returned from a summer with the Florida Bombers last year, his arm was jelly.

Where did this false information come from?

We are absolutely positive that Nick would have pitched MANY more innings had he been with any other team except the Florida Bombers last summer. I think he and his dad would agree that he would have preferred to pitch much more last summer.

If the Bomber work load last summer turned his arm to jelly, the number of pitches he's throwing now in high school will completely destroy it!

I just don't care much for false information.

nickyk, care to comment?

I wonder where all these numbers came from.

Numbers are important, but they have to be accurate.

You can debate this from now until eternity. I've already written my comments which are based on having a son undergo TJ surgery and my discussions with Dr. Andrews on the subject.

What is not up for debate, IMO, is when a HS coach is quoted saying this; "he's the type of kid, strength-wise that can go 115, 120 pitches". High pitch counts have a cumulative effect which means that the young man might remain healthy while pitching in HS, but so many pitchers are needing elbow and shoulder surgery within their first year in college. Being "strong" is a fallacious excuse for allowing HS pitchers to run up consistent high pitch counts. In way too many instances it is about winning TODAY'S game with little or no regard for the player's future. It was equally encouraging to see some very moderate pitch counts put up by some of the top pitchers in the area and I say kudos to their coaches.

The numbers came from the coaches of the kids listed in the article. Brian (the writer) asked if we kept pitching charts on every kid. He asked for the numbers and put in a few kids from a couple different schools.

itsrosy, I agree with you 100% but I also think it is very important to understand the kid becasue like I said in the article, there are kids out there who may not be able to throw 90 pitches a game. You also have to give the kids the rest needed in between starts and keep track of the innings over the season.

The other kid from Providence had 138 pitch count against Lockport 4/1!!As a freshman that same kid had over 170 pc against same team in 11 inning game!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by GrenRF4:
yeah I saw that kid from Providence is averaging 103.3 for an average pitch count and I don't care how hard you condition that is a lot of stress on a teenager's arm.