Pitchers

Ok I have had some time to think about it and would add a few thoughts. First I agree very much with the fact that most girls careers are over at 21 to 22 years of age. If these girls were looking to sign million dollar deals out of college would there be more push to have pitching restrictions? Also I believing in looking to the highest level. At the national level, team USA, they have a true pitching staff. Seems that is a hint that we should mix it up more. As far as helping the sport as a whole if teams were required to use multiple pitchers it would mean more girls would be pitching which would lead one to beleive more participation. It would also cause "some" coaches to do a better job of coaching rather than riding the arms of individually blessed girls. I guess to me I don't really see anything negative except it would require lots of folks to work harder at the game: pitching, defense, hitting the whole game. Seems that would be a good thing, right? And the most important thing is it would help prevent injuries. Whether they show up in a 40+ year old as some back or knee ailment should not matter. Why wait till we find out we were wrong. If there is any doubt should we not error on the side of caution when it comes to the health of players. Just a few more thoughts to add to the discussion.

 

Agree 100%

I absolutely agree. Our game would be better if coaches were forced to use more pitchers. Ken Ericksen at USF was the pitching coaching for Team USA for several years. Take a look at the number of innings his college pitchers throw. He almost always has four girls in the mix and rarely does any one pitcher throw over 120 innings. That said, there's too much at stake for pitching restrictions to occur at the college level. The immediate impact would be that the teams from the elite conference would begin to recruit more pitchers. Many of those recruits now go to mid-major programs. Thus the gap between have's and the have nots would get bigger. The fact that there are far more coach's at 'have not' than have schools means there will not support for the change.

 

As long as there is competition there is going to be someone willing to risk it all, leave it all on the field. There are many risks and many willing to take those risks. Not only pitchers; catchers are probably at the most risk.

There aren't enough pitchers to limit them to 3 or 4 innings once a week. Short of outright abuse, you have to accept the risk--or not play. There are always choices.

 

DukeDog.....wish I had said that and you did very well.....

This has been a problem since the beginning...walking is also a natural motion, but we don't do it every day to the point of exhaustion.

Other issue which has not been discussed........constant over pitching with horrible mechanics......This leads to all the lower back and knee injuries..... It's not just the arm and shoulder effected...