Most coaches agree with pitch-count rules, study says impact will be moderate

A case study of last season’s GHSA Region 1-5A baseball teams indicates only a moderate impact on teams from new pitch-count regulations that will take effect in Alabama and Georgia in 2017.

The National Federation of State High School Associations approved a rule change that will require all of its member state associations to develop rules governing pitch counts and overuse in baseball. Alabama already approved a set of new rules last October that will go into effect in the 2017 season, while Georgia is expected to vote on its proposal at its next executive meeting on Aug. 15.

By and large, high school coaches agree that a change is a good thing. Columbus High coach Chad Mathis said he agreed with it and that most quality coaches are already keeping a close watch on the number of pitches their players are throwing anyway. Harris County’s Steve Westmoreland called the change “long overdue.”

“Especially in today’s baseball environment,” he said. “From the age of 9 and up, I think kids are overused. It’s our responsibility as high school coaches to take care of our players.”

Alabama’s rules will stipulate a maximum of 120 pitches in a single day and the following days of rest: three days for 76 or more pitches, two days for 51-75 pitches, one day for 26-50 pitches and no days for 25 or fewer pitches.

That follows closely with Pitch Smart guidelines that have been endorsed by the American Sports Medicine Institute and Major League Baseball, with a few minor variances. Pitch Smart recommends a maximum of 95 pitches for 15- and 16-year-olds and 105 pitches for 17- and 18-year-olds. In addition, it notes four days of rest for 76 or more pitches, three days for 61-75, two days for 40-60 and one day for 31-45.

Using the 2016 season for GHSA Region 1-5A teams as a case study, coaches already follow fairly closely to those guidelines with only a handful of would-be infractions. If the approved Alabama rules were used in Georgia, the region would have had 10 infractions last season, six due to exceeding 120 pitches. If the Pitch Smart recommendations were directly applied, that number goes up to 24, though seven would-be infractions would have been pitchers finishing out games at 105-109 pitches.

Mathis, despite the lack of a deep starting rotation last year, still kept Columbus relatively close to those numbers. Senior Cason Greathouse exceeded 120 pitches on two occasions, but observed proper days of rest as recommended by Pitch Smart. The team would have had no other infractions in 2016.

“Every inning, we chart pitches,” he said. “I know in the third inning how much they’ve thrown. It’s especially important early in the season.”

He said 100 pitches is generally his cutoff point, though he and assistants listent to how the player says he feels and pay attention to things like velocity and control to look for fatigue.

Westmoreland keeps his pitchers on an even stricter number, rarely exceeding 80-90 pitches later in the season.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever gone over 100 unless he’s finishing his last inning,” he said. “We have some strict limits.”

Indeed, only six times did a Harris County pitchers throw more than 60 pitches in a game this past season. Only once did a pitcher throw 90.

“I don’t think much will change for us because we’re used to it,” Westmoreland said. “Our guys are on a seven-day rotation. We don’t try to bring our guys back after a few days and we don’t play matchups. If they’re our Friday starter, they’re our Friday starter. We may lose a couple games because of it, but it’s our responsibility to protect our players.”

The required change in pitch count regulations are meant to combat the rising frequency in shoulder and elbow injuries brought on by fatigue.

Over the past decade and a half, the sport has seen a vast increase in the number of Tommy John surgeries performed on players at the professional level. Since 2000, there have been 135 surgeries performed on 122 players. By comparison, between the first instance of the surgery, in 1974, and 2000, only 13 other Major Leaguers underwent the procedure. The increase is even more dramatic when you consider the number goes up to 79 procedures on 71 players at the game’s highest level since 2010.

A portion of that increase can be explained away by advancements in medicine, allowing players who may otherwise never play the game again a viable surgery that can get them back on the field within a year. But famed orthopaedic surgeon James Andrews, whose name has become as closely associated with Tommy John surgery as Tommy John himself, points to the risks in overuse at a young age as a chief perpetrator in the epedimic.

In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer last week, Andrews, who has lost count of the number of Tommy John surgeries he’s performed, said that research at the ASMI has indicated a 3,600-percent increase in injury risk to the shoulder or elbow when throwing with fatigue.

While there is no hard-and-fast definition of fatigue, he pointed to three examples: event fatigue (throwing too many pitches in a game), season fatigue (throwing too many innings in a season), and year-round fatigue (playing the sport year-round).

Two of these can’t necessarily be monitored in high school baseball full-time, because so many players also play in summer or fall leagues and additional showcases. The National Federation of State High School Associations is aiming to attack the third, event fatigue, with its new rules requirements.

But Mathis points out that stipulating pitch counts during the high school season doesn’t totally address the larger issue, and it’s an opinion that Andrews shares as well. High school coaches can only monitor what their players are doing during their four-month season, not throughout summer leagues, travel ball and showcases.

“I agree with it, but I feel that if they implement it in high schools they need to implement it into travel ball as well,” Mathis said. “We pretty much had them on a pitch count throughout the season, but I don’t know what that travel ball coach is doing during the summer.”

Westmoreland said a lot of the responsibility falls on the players themselves, paying attention to how their body feels and not being afraid to tell a coach he isn’t ready to pitch.

“There’s only one person who can truly know how you feel, and that is you,” he said. “If you’re not feeling good that day, or if you’re sore, and that coach asks you, you’ve got to say no.”

Pitch Smart guidelines take it a step further. They say players shouldn’t even be playing as much throughout the year as they oftentimes are. The guidelines suggest not throwing more than 100 combined innings in a 12-month period, taking at least four months off from competitive pitching every year, including two or three continuous months of no overhead throwing, and following the same guidelines across leagues, tournaments and showcases.

Andrews said that is a battle he and other medical professionals continue to fight.

“Right now, the tail wags the dog,” he said. “Even parents and young players have lost control because the system dictates what the kids do. The system dictates that if you don’t let your kids play year round, he can’t be on my team. The whole social aspect of this has got to be changed.”

And while regulations obviously present challenges to coaches, who have to figure out how to navigate as many as six games over a one-week period in the playoffs, the overwhelming feelings it that it will be a welcome change.

“I think that stuff is really good,” Westmoreland said, referring to the Pitch Smart guidelines. “If they can use that as a baseline, I think the state will get it right.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Most coaches agree with pitch-count rules, study says impact will be moderate."