Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine
I've been reading The Arm by Jeff Passan - really interesting book for any baseball fan - talks about the increasing epidemic of UCL tears and Tommy John surgeries and how baseball doesn't really know what to do about them. Kids specializing in baseball and throwing all year round in tournaments etc can't help - lots of good stuff here.
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Since I started coaching travel baseball I've been saying that the epidemic of arm injuries isn't a problem at the major league level. It's a problem that starts in youth baseball and continues into high school and college. We're seeing damaged pitchers drafted and their breakdown point is either in the minors or majors.
Before I quit coaching last year I saw (and as a parent of a 14 year old continue to see) so much abuse on young arms it's stunning. I once saw a 9 year old throw 95+ pitches in a game. An 11 year old go 117. A 13 year old throw 97 and 112 in the same week. I've seen a kid go 180+ over a 3 day tournament. I see kids with average fastballs throwing 80+ pitches and 30-40% of those are breaking balls.
Youth tournaments don't have pitch limits, they have innings limits. No one is willing to go to hard pitch counts because most teams don't like going too deep into their rotations for tournaments because they might lose and that makes the coach look bad. Coaches use their overall record for the season and tournament results to recruit players. Losing a couple games because you pitched your 6th and 7th pitcher to save your top pitcher's arm is just out of the question.
Even those that use hard pitch counts have them too high. Little League, which is one of the leaders in player safety in youth sports, has a pitch limit of 85 for 11-12 year olds and 95 for 13-14 year olds. Major league teams typically pull pitchers around 100 pitches but a kids 10 years younger are fine with just 5-15 less pitches. It's ridiculous.