With High School seasons underway, and youth baseball getting started here in the Midwest, we thought it would be helpful to provide some thoughts on Pitch Counts.
While most of this would seem like common sense, you can look at the box scores on Game Changer following every weekend of activity and clearly see that it’s not. When grown men on Major League rosters are given 4 days between starts to rest and recover properly, it should go without saying that youth pitchers should be treated the same.
Pitch Count Guidelines:
- Max Pitch Count for 1 game= 5x players age plus or minus 10.
Ex. A 12u pitchers max pitch count for 1 game would be 60 pitches
( they can get the plus 10 if they are having clean innings) Note: (2) 30 pitch innings is not clean
- If they go 75%-100% of their Max Pitch Count then he does NOT Pitch for 3 days
- If they pitch 50% of their Max then he gets (1) day Off from Pitching
- If they go 25% of their Max then they can pitch the next day
Other Thoughts:
- The Max Pitch count should be built up to in games, over the 1st 2-3 weekends of games. In other words just because 60 is a 12u pitchers max pitch count, going 60 pitches in his 1st outing should not happen.
- Plan ahead with your Catchers that pitch. Please Do Not catch a kid in the same game/day that he has gone 75-100% of his Max pitch count
If you have questions feel free to reach out.
Thank you,
The MACH 1 Baseball Staff