How would travel ball change "If pitchers were put on a pitch count"?

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Dec 15, 2018
809
93
CT
How do they do it in youth baseball? I have not been around youth baseball since I was a youth, for reference when I was a kid, we all fought over who could play center field, because Kirby Puckett was THE MAN!

Most of the baseball I umpire is played under Babe Ruth / Ripken Leagues (and travel ball coaches 12U and under usually use the same)...

There are no limitations on the number of innings a pitcher may pitch in a tournament (bracket or pool play) game subject to the following pitch count limitations:

TOURNAMENT PITCHING REST REQUIREMENTS
AGE
DAILY MAX (PITCHES IN A DAY)
REST PERIOD
0 Days
1 Day2 Days
7-8
50​
1-20​
21-35​
36+​
9-10
75​
1-40​
41-65​
66+​
11-12
85​
1-40​
41-65​
66+​
13-15
95​
1-45​
46-75​
76+​
16-18
105​
1-45​
46-75​
76+​
If the pitcher reaches the maximum pitch count limit while facing a batter, he may continue to pitch until the batter reaches base safely or is put out.
 
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
Unfortunately the nature of the game works against developing pitchers. A coach doesn't want the game to turn into a walkfest, which is very common on the rec level. So he uses the girls who can throw strikes. The best mechanics to throw strikes are not the ones you need to be successful as you age up. Basically you start out as a bowler (HE) because you can throw strikes and the coach will give you innings. The kids who are lucky enough to be working on IR, and there aren't very many, will be wild and won't get innings, so they tend to give it up. In my area the pitchers with good mechanics are rare, because the coaches at the lower levels don't want to put up with the walks and don't understand how long it takes for a good IR pitcher to develop. Limiting innings will not develop pitchers, it will just add more walks per game, which is already a big problem.
 
Jun 7, 2021
5
3
How would travel ball change "If pitchers were put on a pitch count"?
I am asking in regards to game play and team construction.
Would it help or hurt the fast pitch game in general?
I think this is a bad idea. My kid just committed to a D1 as a pitcher. she Got to this level as she did not make it 10U for our high school club team. This allowed her to become better on the Bteam and had to pitch her way out of trouble as there was limited pitching help. As skills improved and velocity increased I decided to pull her to the b team for another 2 years as I knew that the A team just wanted to win and would pitch the 1st pitcher a lot more. This was the best decision we ever made and she then went onto pitch for a national travel ball team for 2 years before committing. Now I have an 11 year old daughter who pitches. Here journey is going to be hers. I already see the same attitude in the 10U and 12U programs who have not only stacked the team with pitchers and some may never pitch which I think is a shame but this is due to the parents only carding that there kids play on a winning team rather than there kid pitching more. This NEED to win at 10-12U is a bigger problem…..
 
Dec 21, 2012
14
3
Pitch counts are a must to protect young arms...Unfortunately we depend on travel ball coaches to police this on their own. Which becomes a balancing act between trophies and development.
 
Apr 11, 2016
133
28
I am all for "recommended" pitch count. When DD came to her last team, the coach knew nothing about it. She kept pitching DD to the point DD had 300 pitches over 2 days. I finally put my foot down after taking her to physical therapy for a month. I started using Game Changer (no one else knew how to do so.) Once DD has 100 pitches, I would tell coach no more. Thankfully she listened.

Another pitcher guess-played for us, and her pitch count for one day was reaching 120 due to multiple fielding errors. I told the coach that should be enough, so she asked the pitcher, and of course the poor girl said she was fine. She reached 150 that day. A few months later, her dad told me that the girl's HC was pissed with the high pitch-count as they were "watching" the game on Game Changer. No wonder she never guess-played for the team afterward.

During a game when DD was pitching, some lady was telling me how pitchers could have unlimited pitches. She said that back in the days when she played ball, the pitchers could pitch everyday with no problem. I was hoping she'd never say that to the HC, as I was guessing her back-in-the-days was at least 30 years ago, which I believed pitchers back then weren't even pitching near any of the speed they are doing now. I guess she knew better than DD's physical therapist, who specialized in shoulder and back pain, who advised no more than 100 pitches a day and no more than 200 pitches a week at this young age.
 
Jun 7, 2021
5
3
its not just the pitch count. Lets say my kid is 1 of 2 or 3 pitchers on a 14-18u team. You play in 5 - 7 games in a weekend tournament. For each game you may pitch 3-5 innings depending on the situation but you also WARM up for the other games to be able to step in when needed. That's another 50 pitches per game.....you see these kids who don't warm up correctly get injured but i have seen a kid pitch 4 inning (60 pitches) in a weekend but warmed up for 5 other games!!! (250 pitches). As long as you have 2-3 pitchers and you truly spread the innings then they will all develop. Trying to put a false limit would result in alot of balls being hit as there is no way to have 4 high class pitchers on the same team.
 
Mar 20, 2015
174
28
In the beginning of professional baseball it was the wild west and it was not uncommon to have a pitcher start both games of a double header. Over time because there was money involved, the game figured out that this was not a good idea. It further developed into a the 5 day rotation we have today. This has matriculated down to youth baseball where there are pitch counts and its is frowned upon if a kid is over pitched. In travel softball we are still in the wild west. It seems like college softball is starting to figure it out and hopefully it will matriculate down to travel.
 

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