Saw the top-ranked 2027 player this weekend

[_MIA_]

I wonder how hard it would be to track the health issues of pitchers that have been used a lot at young ages?

A local 14U kid who was a workhorse in 10U and 12U just had both of her hips operated on..I doubt she will pitch again. Not sure it is a coincidence.

 

[FlSoftball]

Unity does it with Heavener, as does her HS team. I fear the kid may get injured before she gets to LSU.

She pitched around 116 innings this HS season- so far that's about 70% of her teams innings. Florida HS balls first games start right around Feb 21 so her 116 innings were spread out over 3 months- I think it is a big stretch to say they over used her. There are other pitchers in the state that you absolutely could say that about though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sonerai]

We just ended our HS season with the coach throwing 1 primary pitcher 119 innings. There were games that we were leading by many runs and the coach would not sub her out. The team had at least 2 other fairly good pitchers. Now we are starting our travel ball season and she is out with shoulder pain and needs to get an MRI. This shortsighted decision making can impact the long term health of players and their chances of getting exposure in the upcoming summer travel season, which is where the college coaches are really going to be.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

We just ended our HS season with the coach throwing 1 primary pitcher 119 innings. There were games that we were leading by many runs and the coach would not sub her out. The team had at least 2 other fairly good pitchers. Now we are starting our travel ball season and she is out with shoulder pain and needs to get an MRI. This shortsighted decision making can impact the long term health of players and their chances of getting exposure in the upcoming summer travel season, which is where the college coaches are really going to be.

We had a similar situation at our school this spring. Thankfully, the MRI results showed no damage, so it's rest and some PT before travel starts.

 

[Lance Steckler]

it is reaching the point where parents really need to start considering policing these HS coaches that overuse these pitchers. Simply "Tabathia is not pitching today. She needs rest".

 

[uncdrew]

Fortunately we're on a travel team with 3 pitchers who split innings evenly, and a HS team that has multiple pitchers. While the glory can be nice, their health comes first.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

She pitched around 116 innings this HS season- so far that's about 70% of her teams innings. Florida HS balls first games start right around Feb 21 so her 116 innings were spread out over 3 months- I think it is a big stretch to say they over used her. There are other pitchers in the state that you absolutely could say that about though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's still a lot of innings pitched, especially when compared to baseball.

I did some research on the top HS baseball pitchers in my area. The leader in wins for baseball has 10 wins on the season. In those 10 wins, he's pitched 62 innings. No one else has more than 8 wins, and some very good teams have multiple 7 or 8 game-winners.

For comparison, our leader in wins in softball has 21 wins, including playoffs. She's thrown 139 innings this season so far. There is not one team with two pitchers on the leaderboard. The team in our county championship has their top pitcher at 11 wins, their #2 at 5 wins, and their #3 at 2 wins.

Maybe baseball coddles them too much, but the idea that we can run these girls out there until their arms fall off is just silly.

 

[Top_Notch]

Hey gotta make sure you win Super Duper PGF 13u..will worry about the kid’s arm later

Arm care is no joke and often overlooked, even at the older ages!

 

[CoachJD]

Maybe baseball coddles them too much, but the idea that we can run these girls out there until their arms fall off is just silly.

Throwing overhand is worse than throwing underhand. That doesn't mean there should be no limits for softball players, but it's a bad comparison.

I've said before that I can easily throw 200+ BP pitches (full arm circle, probably around 45 mph. If I really let loose in a full pitch I can throw low 50s) without any arm pain. 200 overhand throws of a baseball at that level of intensity would have me not throwing for multiple days after.

The problem with all the softball studies is there does not seem to be any differentiation between pitchers who pitch properly and those who don't. How many of the injuries are because pitchers are using HE mechanics? We need to remove those pitchers from the samples entirely before studying pitch counts.

tl;dr version: There should be limits. But basing them off faulty studies and baseball limits seems like the wrong solution.

 

[tim_s]

how many start with good mechanics, and over the course of that many pitches (in a day/weekend/cumulative), their mechanics go out the window and stress on the shoulder increases