Teams must adjust to new pitch-count limits

High school Teams must adjust to new pitch-count limits

By BRICE CHERRY bcherry@wacotrib.com

High school baseball coaches in Texas, at least the vast majority of them, haven’t been leaving their pitchers on the mound until their arms fell off.

Talk to coaches, and they’d tell you that they’ve monitored pitch counts for years. Maybe more importantly, they keep a watchful eye on how their pitchers look, asking themselves, are they laboring, is their velocity dipping?

But this year coaches will be required to watch their pitchers closer than ever.

As the 2017 UIL baseball season prepares to get underway next week, teams will be faced with new guidelines when it comes to pitch counts. Last October, the UIL legislative council passed rules stipulating that high school pitchers – no matter their age, size or ability – will be limited to 110 pitches in a single game. Hurlers will also be required to rest a certain number of days based on how many pitches they threw in a game.

Central Texas coaches aren’t necessarily opposed to the guidelines, even while noting that they may not be perfect.

“They’re fair, but there’s some quirky instances where they’re not consistent,” West coach Cory Beckham said. “There are some loopholes, some inconsistencies, that I know are going to be tweaked in the future. The UIL didn’t actually have a lot of time to develop the rules. I know they were as thoughtful as possible, but there are some cases where there could be some weird issues at play.”

When Robinson coach Bryan Kent saw the guidelines, he said he was a little puzzled.

“My question: Where do they come up with the number?” said Kent, whose team reached the state tournament last year partially due to a pair of powerful aces on the mound. “Kids are different. Some kids can throw, throw, throw, and others are sore after 30 pitches. … My thing is to always have a good relationship with the pitcher, so they can be honest with me. Tell me how you feel, don’t try to be a hero.”

Beckham thinks the guidelines won’t affect his team much this year, because he has about five or six pitchers of similar ability. But the West coach thinks it may have had a bigger impact on his team in the past couple of years, as some of the top Trojan hurlers had the strength and ability to come back on short rest late in the season.

Robinson’s Kent said that the new limits will probably affect teams more in the early stages of the season.

“Early on, tournaments are going to be difficult to navigate,” Kent said. “I think you’re going to have to do more planning ahead of time as a coach. … You’re definitely going to be relying on some arms you normally might not have.”

This rule will help young aspiring pitchers, as they pursue a career after high school whether it be college or any other avenue in an attempt to reach the majors, teams within the RDB academy will build teams based around pressuring defensive teams in many ways other than simply depending on the pitcher.