High school coaches are throwing their pitchers under the bus – Chicago Tribune

Paul Bergstrom pitches Friday for Notre Dame College Prep against Loyola Academy. He left the game after about 50 pitches. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Editorial Board

May 30,2016

High school baseball pitchers rack up some pretty impressive stats these days: Fastballs in the upper 80s and a 9.12 percent annual increase in UCLRs.

Translating for nongeeks: Hard-throwing high schoolers are wearing out their arms and driving up the need for Tommy John surgery, a serious elbow procedure technically known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.

What a bizarre and completely unnecessary phenomenon. Where are the coaches? Watching from the dugout as kids hurt themselves by pitching too many innings in too many games.

In the major leagues, where pitching time is carefully monitored to prevent injuries, a typical starter throws about 105 pitches per game. Still, hurlers get hurt because pitching is tough on the body. Then there’s Brady Huffman of Genoa-Kingston High in DeKalb County, who tossed 167 pitches in a game this season, the Tribune’s John Keilman reports. “I trust him when he says that he has something left,” Huffman’s clueless coach told the Daily Chronicle of DeKalb.

IHSA looks at limit on pitches thrown in baseball

High schoolers play for love of the game, but at elite levels kids also are competing for college scholarships or a shot at the pros. Pitchers play on multiple teams and practice year-round. They throw heat and nasty breaking balls, putting extra stress on still-developing bodies. A coach watching his phenom mow down the opposition can worry about a pitcher’s health, or think: I’ll just wait on that call to the bullpen.

Nationally, high schools are catching on to their responsibility to protect players. Alabama’s new max for varsity pitchers will be 120 pitches followed by three days of required rest. Opposing coaches and a neutral official will keep track, and a team that violates the rule will forfeit the game and pay a fine. Minnesota is looking at a rule that would limit juniors and seniors to 105 pitches, followed by three days’ rest.

In Illinois, meanwhile, it’s let ‘er rip (both the collateral ligament and the rotator cuff, we guess). The Illinois High School Association has no policy on pitch counts. The group’s sports medicine advisory committee plans to broach the subject with the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association in August, but coaches sound skeptical, the Tribune’s Keilman reports. They’d rather decide when to mosey out to the mound and take the ball from their lanky left-hander. “The biggest thing that they’re trying to do is eliminate any thought process,” said Paul Belo, president of the association.

Yes, and replace baseball wisdom with science and devotion to the kids’ well-being.

One study by Dr. Anthony Romeo of Rush University Medical Center and other experts found that 15- to 19-year-old athletes account for more than half the number of Tommy John surgeries. The rate is growing at nearly 10 percent a year. That’s startling. Romeo, who also is a team physician for the White Sox, is part of a movement that calls for a maximum pitch count of 105, though he believes 90 is safer. High school coaches are either “not listening to the data, or not interested,” Romeo told us.

The IHSA has a responsibility to institute conservative pitch count limits and punish teams that break the rules with a forfeiture. It’s wrong to put these young players at risk, counting on surgeries to patch them up.

High school baseball is a great game, but coaches — listen up — it’s a team sport for kids, not the big leagues.

Source: High school coaches are throwing their pitchers under the bus – Chicago Tribune