Brandon Agamennone
Founder of Pro Source Athletics
Guest Blog
Topic: Arm Care and Pitch Count for Young Pitchers
So far this baseball season I have gotten at least
10 phone calls and had another dozen or so conversations with parents
regarding pitch counts and abuses on the mound. At this point, there is
so much information out there medically and scientifically that it
would be considered malpractice by a coach to allow a pitcher to throw
an extreme amount of pitches all for the sake of a meaningless win at
10u through HS baseball. So far this year I have gotten reports of a
13 year old throwing 167 pitches in a 2 day time period, a 14 year old
throw 119 pitch complete game last week , a 16 year old throw 145
pitches and another 18 year old throw over 200 pitches in a 3 day span.
This is stupidity at the highest level.
If
I were a parent of one of these boys this would enrage me. The reason
for this is simple. This is NOT the Major Leagues. These boys are not
under multi-million dollar contracts and have insurance on their arms.
When you hear big league managers/pitching coaches allow a MLB pitcher
to go 135+pitches it is not comparable to youth baseball in any way,
shape or form. The reason for this is the MLB pitchers for the most
part have a very good understanding of their body, their mechanics and
how to throw to take stress off of their arms and transfer that to the
rest of the larger muscles and have been training properly for the
entire off season and by the way are full grown men who are much
stronger and their bodies able to handle that type of stress much
better. They also have been through a building up process in spring
training to get their arms ready.
The
other side of this is development. At younger ages, you usually have
two “pitchers” on a team who just happen to have good arms and throw
harder than the rest of their teammates so they get most of the time on
the mound. This means that a guy who may have huge upside on the mound
but has control problems never gets a real chance to work through some
of his issues because a coach is “scared” to put him on the mound
because they might lose if he pitches…call the therapist, the kids will
never recover emotionally or mentally if they lose a game! Actually,
it’s the coach who is finding his self-worth through winning a 12U or HS
game that needs the help. The kids will be fine, they just want to
play the game and be taught well!
Amount of pitching:
Age Max pitches/game Max games/week
8-10 52 +or- 10 2 +or- 0.6
11-12 68 +/- 10 same
13-14 76 +/- 10 same
15-16 91 +/- 5 same
17-18 106 +/- 5 same
These
are the pitch counts from Dr. James Andrews group and ASMI in
Birmingham, AL. He was my surgeon on my Tommy John surgery. The part
to understand in these numbers is that these are not a starting point.
They are a MAXIMUM, meaning if it is March, these kids should not be at
their maximum number of pitches but they should be much lower than this
and giving some of the other guys on the team a chance to develop as
well and not just worrying about a win. Also keep in mind it is not the
number of innings a kid throws but the number of pitches and you
combine high pitch counts with poor physical conditioning and a lack of
good throwing mechanics(there is a right and wrong way to throw a
baseball) and you are just asking for your kid to end up on the
sidelines or on the operating table.
If
it were my son, there is no way I allow these abuses to go on. Say
something to the “coach” or pull him off the team. It’s that simple.
For what it’s worth, my 13u team went 29-15 last year and not one
pitcher threw over 75 pitches, we are 8-3 to start out this year and we
have not had one throw over 60 pitches so far. Could we win a few more
games by keeping a guy in there longer…probably. Do I care? No. Do
you?
Brandon
Brandon serves as the Founder and President of Pro Source Athletics. He
played with the Montreal Expo, Baltimore Oriole and Pittsburgh Pirate
organizations, amassing a professional record of 42 wins and 18 losses
and an earned run average of 3.68. Brandon has a true heart for
development of young ballplayers. He is dedicated to helping young
players maximize their performance on and off the field. A Maryland
native, he graduated from Arundel High School in 1994, where he was an
All-American pitcher and outfielder. He was a member of the 1993
National Championship Team and then won the MVP award at the Crown
All-Star Game at Camden Yards. In 1994 Brandon was awarded the Maryland
HS Player-of-the-Year, and Maryland State Legion Tournament MVP
honors and was also the Gatorade Circle of Champions Player of the Year
for the state of Maryland. Brandon attended the University of Maryland
on a baseball scholarship where he was an honor roll student-athlete,
the All-Time leader in career starts and innings pitched and was second
all-time in strikeouts. Drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1998, Brandon
was selected as pitcher of the month in July 1998 and was also a member
of the 1999 Eastern League championship team. Brandon has an extensive
public speaking background that includes speaking to over 50 schools on
anti-tobacco and anti-drug awareness. He has also spoken at events on
behalf of Athletes in Action and the Johns Hopkins Children's Oncology
Center. Brandon is a 1998 graduate of the University of Maryland with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication.