Life Lesson #42: Annual Pitch Counts

ANNUAL PITCH COUNTS: How many... How often?

Discussions on pitch counts and their relation to arm health have increased recently with the introduction of guidelines for game and week limitations. Sometimes lost in the discussion of protecting young arms, is the idea of quantifying an annual pitch count for a specific athlete. This is the total number of game-pitches thrown per year (not including practice or training throws), and monitoring this number should follow along with the number of pitches per game, week and season.

In 2004, the USA Baseball Medical & Safety Advisory Committee issued some recommendations for the annual pitch counts. The committee’s goal is “to provide scientifically-based information to its youth baseball members in an effort to reduce the risk of injury and maximize the younger player's ability to perform and advance to higher levels.” Committee research came up with the following suggestions:

9-10 YEAR OLD PITCHERS
2000 pitches per year
11-12 YEAR OLD PITCHERS
3000 pitches per year
13-14 YEAR OLD PITCHERS
3000 pitchers per year (higher per game limit)

Alone, these figures are not terribly insightful. However, if the recent pitch count recommendations issued by LL are taken into consideration, some interesting calculations can be made. According to LL, a typical 12-year old can throw up to 85 pitches per game. With 3000 pitches per year deemed as the healthy maximum, this athlete has roughly 35 games that he may pitch in per year. Let’s assume that this pitcher throws his 85 pitches in half of the youth league season’s 30 games (over 4 months). This means the athlete has used 15 of his 35 allowed outings in the Spring Season (roughly 4 months). This also means he has 20 games remaining for the other 8 months of the year. Initially, this seems like a very reasonable number. But it’s very easy to see how quickly this number can be exceeded.

Now, let’s take this number and see how easily an athlete can enter dangerous territory! Let’s also assume that this pitcher plays in one of the following: summer league, winter league or travelball league. With a shorter season of 20 games, our 12-year old again pitches in half (10) of the games. This additional league leaves our athlete with only 10 games of pitching remaining for any all-star or tournament play throughout the year. It’s very easy to see how the annual 3000 pitch limit could be passed.

Looking at the calendar year, one of the best ways to manage annual pitch counts is called periodization. The USA Baseball’s Medical and Safety Advisory Committee suggested periodization in conjunction with its pitch count limitations in the 2004 position statement:

"In certain parts of warm-weather states (Florida, Texas, California, etc.) baseball leagues are available in all seasons. However, the principle of periodization states that an athlete should have different periods and activities in his annual conditioning schedule. Specifically, baseball pitchers need a period of "active rest" after their season ends and before the next preseason begins. During active rest a pitcher is encouraged to participate in physical activities that do not include a great amount of overhand throwing."

It continued to read:

"Baseball pitchers should compete in baseball no more than nine months in any given year, as periodization is needed to give the pitcher's body time to rest and recover. For at least three months a year, a baseball pitcher should not play any baseball, participate in throwing drills, or participate in other stressful overhead activities (javelin throwing, football quarterback, softball, competitive swimming, etc.).

Using the concept of periodization, it’s much easier to keep an athlete under the annual pitch count limitations. Periodization says that an athlete should have periods with varied amounts of throwing loads (i.e. pitch counts) over the course of a calendar year. The three main “periods” are in-season competition, off-season competition and rest:

• In-Season Pitch Counts - Generally higher, allowing for complete games and extended outings, and pushing the physical limitations of the throwing muscles.
• Off-Season Pitch Counts - Lower by design, turning the focus of mound time to developing mechanics and fundamentals (see Life Lesson #22, Off-Season Pitch Counts).
• Rest - No baseball, no pitch count.

The hyper-competitive state of baseball (year round play / lack of an off-season) brings forth the responsibility of maintaining this practice of periodization and tracking annual pitch count numbers. A healthy combination of these three periods can help to keep a pitcher underneath the annual pitch count total and avoid dangerous throwing loads. To keep track of annual pitch counts, I’d suggest a running spreadsheet complete with game, week, season and yearly counts. With clearly established limits at each level, it will be much easier to make tough decisions as to how many pitches, innings or games an athlete will be allowed to throw. Many things have changed with regard to the simple game of baseball, and this includes using technology to keep our kids safe on the baseball field!