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Recently a local high school pitcher was allowed to throw over 100 pitches in a game situation in late January/early February. Clearly not the time of year pitching is even a good idea, no matter if the player is involved in a league this time of year.

 

As a professional hitting and pitching instructor who has had the large majority of varsity high school players I’ve worked with go on to play college baseball at every level from Div. 1, 2, and 3.

 

If you’ve worked with me you know one of my biggest concerns is protecting a pitchers arm by:

  1. Teach the bio-mechanically soundest approach to pitching I know of.
     

  2. Proper ramping up of conditioning both in long toss, drills, and tubing/bands exercise use.
     

  3. Avoid at all costs pitching year around. A pitcher needs to rest his arm for a good 2 ½ to 3 months and then ramp his arm slowly up for a good 3-4 weeks before actually pitching again.
     

Are there coaches/instructors who say it’s perfectly safe to pitch year around? Sure. But ask yourself how many of them are someone you are writing a check to so they can have you kid pitch the entire year. Every year I have a parent or two that will ignore my advice and have their child pitch in dome leagues, etc. in the winter. Most will one day see their pitcher run into arm problems. It just isn’t worth it.

 

See the below that was recently sent out by a member of the Chicago Cubs organization, pitchers coaches in particular. It echoes much of what I’ve said. Sometimes it resonates more when there’s the affiliation with a Major League baseball club.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read it and hopefully take it to heart.

 

Bill Berg

‘The Swing Doctor'

Pitching Safety Guidelines

After reaching a balance point, Jimmy will use his entire body to deliver a pitch with the most accuracy and velocity. As strong of a hitter Jimmy is, a couple of the top Div. 1 colleges offered Jimmy a scholarship based on him strictly being a pitcher for the school’s team. Jimmy’s fastball has hit 93 on the radar gun in just his sophomore year in high school. Jimmy throws a four and two seam fastball, circle change, and a devastating curve-ball that I created and have after trial and error with several pitchers. At any height, but especially at 6’7”, Jimmy is wise to use a downward angle on the ball’s path to the plate. Although Jimmy has often been a workhorse on the mound he’s avoided arm pain and injury through nutrition, proper stretching and warm up, limiting pitch counts, sound management by his in game coaching staff and sound mechanics that I’ve helped Jimmy develop over the years.

 

To coach/player/parent:
It is healthy to question pitch usage, to make sure everyone is on the same page in keeping players healthy.  Being critical of a pitchers usage for me is something that doesn't happen enough at the amateur level, because every Major League team is extremely critical when analyzing their own pitcher's usage.  So professionally, it is just part of the process in trying to maintain healthy arms. They/we sit and discuss every pitcher's usage totals from the years prior and find the range (innings & pitch totals) that they/we want a pitcher to fall into for the upcoming season. Once that limit is reached, the player is shut down.  It is hard to shut down a player because of the unknown, because who really knows what an individual pitcher's arm can handle?  It comes down to what is the best chance (by the numbers) to keep a pitcher healthy...FYI, it is a hard discussion to have and the pitcher is never good with being shut down or taken out.  Questioning usage is a great way to spark real/honest communication about how a pitcher is being used and if that usage is in their best interest...it might be or it may not be.  You can't get to any conclusion without the difficult questions.  To help stop or at least slow down the rash of injuries in youth baseball, dialogue and guidance (in game, in a season, over the year) are paramount.  Especially as baseball is becoming more of a year around activity.

 

Dr. Andrews and Dr. Fleisig are the foremost authorities on throwing injuries and they point to fatigue as the number one issue when it comes to arm injuries (one of the thousands of articles written on it is hyperlinked).  Fatigue can sometimes be seen in a specific game, but fatigue is a challenge to diagnose because it is an accumulative effect on the pitcher's arm (not necessarily a single game) that poses the biggest concern.  Signs of fatigue aren't always seen on a daily basis and velocity maintaining or gaining doesn't mean that fatigue is not present.  When a pitcher's arm is tiring, sometimes they will get "loose" and get out of their mechanics to get some more out of their body because their arm is tiring.  Velocity may go up or may not go up, control goes down, but not always...so you can see why fatigue is such a challenge to determine in a pitcher.  There are other warning signs of fatigue which can be researched by an easy Google search for those interested.  Here are the recommendations of a case study on throwing and injuries from Dr's mentioned earlier in this paragraph.

Risk Factors for Shoulder and Elbow Injuries in Adolescent Baseball Pitchers by Samuel J. Olsen II, MD, Glenn S. Fleisig,* PhD, Shouchen Dun, MS, Jeremy Loftice, and James R. Andrews, MD From the American Sports Medicine Institute, Birmingham, Alabama

 

(Their) Safety Recommendations for Adolescent Baseball Pitchers-

  1. Avoid pitching with arm fatigue. 

  2. Avoid pitching with arm pain. 

  3. Avoid pitching too much. Further research is needed on this topic, but reasonable limits are as follows:

  • Avoid pitching more than 80 pitches per game. 

  • Avoid pitching competitively more than 8 months per year.

  • Avoid pitching more than 2500 pitches in competition per year. 

  4.  Monitor pitchers with the following characteristics closely           for injury: 

  • Pitchers who regularly use anti-inflammatory drugs or ice to “prevent” an injury 

  • Regularly starting pitchers 

  • Pitchers who throw with velocity >85 mph 

  • Taller and heavier pitchers 

  • Pitchers who warm up excessively 

  • Pitchers who participate in showcases

 

Having worked as a pitching coach with the Kansas City Royals for 5 years and now a working with the Chicago Cubs.  Here is the information (and the answer) I share when I am confronted with a situation where there are questions of pitcher usage.  Nobody invests more money and care into pitcher's arms than Major League baseball teams.  Teams invest millions to not only acquire pitchers, but to find ways to keep them healthy.  With that said, one of the most important tools used in maintaining pitcher health is to limit pitches per game/season. 

An excellent example of a delivery that will release a pitch with accuracy, maximum movement, and velocity, repeatedly. From a safety angle, his hip has come through right behind his shoulder, and released. This creates a longer arc from acceleration to deceleration of his pitching arm to minimize wear and tear on his shoulder and elbow. 

Of note:

 

2015 Legion Baseball season:

- Jon lead the team in innings pitched at 43 innings, allowing only 4 earned runs, 7 runs total, with an excellent strikeout to walks ratio of 4.5:1, with 45 Ks and 10 Brooke. Most amazing Jon finished with an ERA of 0.60 and finished 2nd in the voting for the Al Pierson Most Outstanding South Hennepin Legion Pitcher. (1st place winner was Ryan Helgeson who I also had the pleasure to instruct over the Legion season.

 

Professional pitchers usually range in age between 18-27 years old and train daily for a minimum of 7 months with some of the best trainers, coaches and support staff around.  All the pitch limits below are "in-season" pitching limits for both the Royals & Cubs organizations.  The numbers are considered "hard ceilings" (meaning the number shown is the absolute maximum number of pitches in a game).  The Arizona Fall League (which I played in and later coached in) is an off-season developmental league for minor league pitchers.  Starters there are only allowed to throw 5 innings or 75 pitches...whichever comes first.  That is what all the Major League teams voted on as an appropriate in game work load for their pitchers in an off-season activity and I agree with those limits.   

 

Royals-

  • Extended Spring Training- 75 pitches

  • Idaho Falls (short season team)- 75 pitches

  • Burlington (short season team)- 75 pitches

  • Lexington (low A)- 90 pitches (100 if 2nd full season in professional baseball)

  • Wilmington (high A)- 100 pitches

  • Northwest Arkansas (AA)- 100 pitches ("soft ceiling"- no at-bat starts after pitch 100)

  • Omaha (AAA)- same as AA

  • Royals (Majors)- no official limit, but starting pitchers averaged 98 pitches on the season.

    Cubs-

  • Extended Spring Training- 75 pitches

  • Arizona League- 90 pitches

  • Eugene- 90 pitches (75 if first year in pro ball)

  • South Bend- 95 pitches

  • Myrtle Beach- 100 pitches

  • Tennessee- 100 pitches

  • Iowa- 105 pitches

  • Cubs (Majors)- no official limit, but starting pitchers averaged 101 pitches on the season.

     My advice is be "Big League and treat player's arms like they are worth a million dollars".  Parents should require that level of commitment by everyone in charge of their son's arm and baseball career. 

     

    Jim Brower

    Chicago Cubs Minor League Pitching Coordinator 

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