What's your take on this pitching schedule?

I know of a pitcher who threw the following number of innings for the playoffs:
Fri.--- 5/11-- 7 IP
Tues.- 5/15-- 4 IP
Sat.-- 5/19-- 5 IP
Tues.- 5/23-- 5 IP
I'll try to get the pitch counts for each outing later, but on the surface , is this excessive?

 

No.

 

Sounds pretty normal to me.

 

Check out this one:

Monday: 7IP
Friday: 7IP
Tuesday: 7IP
Saturday: 6IP

 

From the little bit I have seen in the last two years this looks normal for the playoffs but not for the regular season.

 

I have conflicting opinions about pitchers being overworked down the stretch. The first is that I always flinch to see a pitcher throw a ton of pitches or innings over a very short period of time.

The other argument is only convincing to the really competitive. This pitcher's arm is in the best shape it will be all season, (assuming he has thrown all season to get to the playoffs). After he goes through this stretch run he can always take a few weeks off.

And my last argument for overwork in the playoffs is this is probably the closest to being a baseball hero this kid is ever going to be. These are the memories he will keep with him. Very few great high school pitchers will ever have an opportunity to be overworked in college. those parents with kids in college pitching know what I mean.

This is his last chance to carry a team to the championship. What if an over cautious coach didn't throw the pitcher you are referring to in the second round and the season was over. Then this whole conversation would be hypothetical.

Lastly, I'll say injuries usually don't come from throwing 250 pitches a week. They come from not throwing for three or four days in a row and then trying to throw 100-125 pitches with an arm not in top performance shape.

 

I have to

chime in on this one. If a kid throws a complete game on Tuesday and then is brought back on Friday for any throwing at all that is excessive and just not right. The playoffs are the time that you constantly see these kids overused. This year the playoffs started on Friday. Then some kids were brought back out on Tuesday on three days rest. Then some of these kids were brought back out on Friday after two days rest. Come on it doesnt take a genius to see that that is overuse. I dont care how good of shape a kids arm is in. And they probaly wont have to worry about pitching at the next level at least untill they have TJ or labrum. You hear comments like "He knows his arm he is a workhorse". "The coach knows better than you how far his kids can go". "They have a great work out program these guys can throw in two days rest with no problem". You can try to justify it anyway you want to. I would not do that to my kid and I am not going to be a part of doing it to anyones kid. No HS game is worth taking that kind of risk with a kids arm. If you dont have anyone else to throw then develop someone else that can throw. Look on NC Preps at some of these innings pitched this year. If it were your kid would you have a problem with him throwing 70 80 90 innings in a HS season? The fans want to win. They want the stud on the hill. Its not there kid. What do they have invested in the young man? The coach wants to win. But at what cost? Im sorry many of you will disagree with me and thats fine with me. Im not going to risk a young mans arm to win a ball game. There comes a time when someone else needs to learn to step up. Its hard to do that when one guy is asked to carry the whole team. And at what cost?

 

Studs

Kudos to the Harnett Central coach then for not throwing his ace Brad Buske last night against NNash for the very reason of not overusing him. It might have cost him the game since they did have a 6-0 lead at one time. Kudos Coach Morris.

 

Southern question was 21 innings over 12 days. In high School like it or not that has been normal for many years. Still dont know how many pitches.

 

The kid I mentioned struck out over ten in three of his appearances. He had to have thrown over 100 pitches in each one.