How many pitches is too many?

[tigertim2]

I heard that a Middle Schooler at Coffee Co. actually threw 160 pitches during a game this week. I hope this is not true for the kids sake. I'm no expert but how many pitches is acceptable?

[SLOWNEZ]

I heard that a Middle Schooler at Coffee Co. actually threw 160 pitches during a game this week. I hope this is not true for the kids sake. I'm no expert but how many pitches is acceptable?

 

 

I'm no expert either but I know that my sons travel team Coach will not let a pitcher throw more that 80. I assume that he know what he is doing since he played Pro Baseball and he was a Pitcher.

 

Sounds like a Coach wanting to win a little too bad!!!

[DyronNix]

Middle School I would be concerned with anything above 75. High School just really depends on the player, I know some coaches that start to be concerned at 75, and others that might let their kids get to a 100 before any concern.

[bigchief]

There is no "set" amount of pitches. There are general guidelines, however each pitcher has different tolerences. One guy might only have the conditioning for 50 or so while another can throw 100 before you shut him down. Apples and oranges. The coach has to know his kids and what they are capable of without looking at it only to win.

 

That being said, 160 is insane. /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />

[66in74]

Many factors go into making that decision:

 

Age, Players Conditioning, Players Style (hard, control, curves, etc), how much rest planned after throwing, etc, etc.

 

But to throw a player 160 is insane. /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

 

Somewhere between 70-100 is probably a good rule of thumb imo.

[Hater1]

Many factors go into making that decision:

 

Age, Players Conditioning, Players Style (hard, control, curves, etc), how much rest planned after throwing, etc, etc.

 

But to throw a player 160 is insane. /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" />

 

Somewhere between 70-100 is probably a good rule of thumb imo.

 

 

The thing about the 160 that is insane: If the kid threw 7 inn., then that is 20-40 in the bullpen warming up, 7-8 before the start of the first inning, and then 5 every inning after that........so a possibility of between 210 and 230 pitches

[Iroot4vols]

The thing about the 160 that is insane: If the kid threw 7 inn., then that is 20-40 in the bullpen warming up, 7-8 before the start of the first inning, and then 5 every inning after that........so a possibility of between 210 and 230 pitches

 

 

You also have to take into account that middle school only started a couple weeks ago. There are still very early into the season and arms take a while to get strengthened and conditioned. Even at the high school level you might not go as high of pitch count with a pitcher early on but let him go higher later in the season.

[Strokerace]

I heard that a Middle Schooler at Coffee Co. actually threw 160 pitches during a game this week. I hope this is not true for the kids sake. I'm no expert but how many pitches is acceptable?

 

I think 161 would have been to many. 160 is o.k. though. What kind of idiot does that to a kid. Middle school or any age?

[davidlimbaugh]

I found this while surfing:

 

http://baseballtips.com/pitchingreport.html

 

A good rule of thumb is age * 6

 

10 = 60

 

12 = 72

 

etc...

 

for the maximum they should throw....

[StarRaider]

Our middle school coaching staff limited pitchers to 60 pitches, maybe a few more if they were close to finishing off an inning.

 

That is a good link davidl, thanks.

[ksgovols]

That is a great link David. I'm printing out Table 3 for reference.

 

My question is if everybody knows that coaches are abusing kids arms by leaving them in too long, why doesn't the governing bodies step up and do something about it? It would be easy enough to keep an honest man honest and a dishonest one would have to work pretty hard to break the rules. Pitches per outing and days rest are not requirements for middle school, high school and travel ball teams. Why not?

[tigertim2]

That is a great link David. I'm printing out Table 3 for reference.

 

My question is if everybody knows that coaches are abusing kids arms by leaving them in too long, why doesn't the governing bodies step up and do something about it? It would be easy enough to keep an honest man honest and a dishonest one would have to work pretty hard to break the rules. Pitches per outing and days rest are not requirements for middle school, high school and travel ball teams. Why not?

 

 

That is a great question. I believe tht most coaches do a very good job of making sure that this sort of thing does not happen but there are always a few just want to win too bad.

 

I know that Little League has a pitch limit. I think that it would be a good idea to atlease look into how to keep this from happening.

 

Great Link- Very good information. Maybe we can get it into the hands of the coach who let this happen.