Glendale pitcher Caleb Combs threw five no-hit innings against Parkview April 12, 2016.
Missouri baseball coaches have an issue to tackle in the offseason — a possible pitch count mandate.
The national governing body of high school sports wants its member states to impose restrictions on pitchers in an effort to protect their arms from overuse and injury. The National Federation of State High School Associations Board of Directors voted on a rule to require each member state association to develop a pitching restriction policy “based on the number of pitches thrown during a game to afford pitchers a required rest period between pitching appearances.”
But why now?
“We shouldn’t ask a 16-year-old to do something that a major league team wouldn’t ask Clayton Kershaw to do,” said Scott McGee, Willard High School’s baseball coach, referring to current state pitching guidelines.
The NFHS, however, did not offer a set of pitch count guidelines. That responsibility is left up to the state activities association, thanks to a resolution from the national board of directors.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association is in the process of deciding how it will comply with the national order. MSHSAA Director of Communications Jason West said the state organization’s board of directors would be responsible for passing a pitch count resolution for baseball.
“Ultimately I believe with this it would go to the board of directors, because it wouldn’t necessarily be a bylaw change that would require a vote of the membership,” West said.
MSHSAA also has a baseball advisory committee that can recommend policy changes, but the committee does not have the authority to make rule changes.
Fair Grove High School Assistant Principal and baseball coach Christian Overstreet represents southwest Missouri on the advisory committee. The committee typically meets once per year, but Overstreet said that won’t be the case this year thanks to the pitch count order.
Overstreet said there was some foreshadowing about pitch counts.
“The talk was, ‘guys this is coming eventually. It may be next year, it may be a couple of years,’” said Overstreet, who also played at Missouri State. “We’re having an emergency meeting here in the next couple of weeks to talk about what route we’re going to take.”
Kickapoo pitcher Kaleb Schmidt (22) pitched six innings and allowed one earned run on two hits against Ozark on March 29, 2016.
Present MSHSAA rules contain an inning limit for pitchers of no more than 10 innings in three days. The rule’s intent is to keep coaches from overusing pitchers, particularly in the playoffs. The limit was installed three years ago.
Willard coach Scott McGee doesn’t feel that the inning limit is adequate, especially in district playoff tournaments when teams often start a pitcher on Saturday and ask him to start again the following Tuesday.
“I think that is way too many innings to be throwing over three days,” McGee said.
In the 2016 season, McGee let one pitcher, Fort Scott Community College baseball-bound Kyle Smith, throw more than 100 pitches in a game, and he only did it once. Sometimes pitchers aren’t honest about how their arm feels when a coach visits the mound, which can lead to injury from overuse.
“They always want to stay in. Your best pitchers will do anything they can to stay in the game, because they’re competitive and that’s why they are good,” McGee said.
Major League Baseball responded to the national trend of increasing elbow injuries in youth baseball by unveiling a set of guidelines called “Pitch Smart” in 2014.
USA Baseball offers a set of guidelines for the maximum number of pitches a player should throw in a game, season and year. The guidelines are broken down by age group, but do not account for kids maturing at different paces.
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Pitch Smart guidelines call for 15-and-16-year-olds to throw no more than 95 pitches in one day, and for them to rest for four days if they throw more than 76 pitches in an outing. For 17-and-18-year-olds, the Pitch Smart guidelines allow a maximum of 105 pitches.
Pitch Smart also contains guidelines for younger pitchers.
Overstreet doesn’t believe Missouri will add a pitch count rule in time for the fall high school baseball season, but believes the rules on pitcher use could change as early as the spring of 2017.
“It gives coaches some time to adjust to it. Really, where I think it could be used more is when kids start coming in at the lower levels,” Overstreet said.
McGee believes a rule change is overdue.
“I think No. 1, there is a pretty decent understanding that there is a need there for something,” McGee said.
McGee’s major concern is how MSHSAA will hold teams and coaches accountable to keeping pitchers under their pitch limit.
“That’s my one concern is how are we going to keep track of ourselves,” McGee said.
Ash Grove pitcher Jackson Bagley graduated in 2016.
Coaches at smaller schools, especially Class 1, are concerned that pitch counts could cause a team to run out of pitchers during packed portions of their schedules.
“A lot of the smaller school classes have reached out to me about this issue. They say, ‘I’ve got 10 guys on my team, how am I going to do this? How am I going to have a team?’” Overstreet said.
Kentucky high school baseball has rule placing a maximum pitch count of 120 in a single game, and any pitcher who throws more than 76 pitches will be required to take three days rest from pitching.
“There are some model states that we can look at and see what they like and dislike about (pitch counts),” Overstreet said.
MLB Pitch Smart guidelines for high school-age pitchers
Ages 15-16: 95 pitches maximum per outing.
Rest required: zero days for 1-30 pitches, one day for 31-45 pitches, two days for 46-60 pitches, three days for 61-75 pitches and four days for 76 or more pitches.
Ages 17-18: 105 pitches maximum per outing.
Rest required: zero days for 1-30 pitches, one day for 31-45 pitches, two days for 46-60 pitches, three days for 61-75 pitches and four days for 76 or more pitches.
Billings pitcher Nolan McCain graduated in 2016.
