Maine high school baseball moving toward pitch-count restrictions – Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — Momentum to bring pitch-count restrictions to Maine high school baseball is growing.

The baseball committee of the Maine Principals’ Association discussed the use of pitch counts during its winter meeting Tuesday, and while nothing will change for the 2016 season, all signs indicate that adoption of the practice statewide is inevitable at all levels of high school baseball.

“It’s something that’s being talked about a lot nationally,” said Brewer High School athletic administrator Dave Utterback, a former high school and Senior League baseball coach who serves on the MPA’s baseball panel.

“I think it’s just a thought process where you get away from the innings-pitched mentality to get into some of these scientifically backed philosophies about the number of pitches a kid can make healthfully. It’s a different way of trying to manage young pitchers and their shoulders and their elbows.”

Most states, including Maine, currently place limits on the number of innings a high school pitcher can work during a given timespan. MPA policy says a player who pitches four or more innings in one day may not pitch again until after three calendar days have elapsed, while those who pitch more than one inning and less than four innings in a day may not pitch again until at least one calendar day has expired.

Proponents of using a pitch count rather than innings pitched say a pitch count provides a more precise numerical measurement of arm use, given that one inning could involve an indefinite number of pitches.

“I think the pitching restrictions and the pitching rules that are currently in place came about because we saw injuries and overuse,” said MPA assistant executive director Mike Burnham. “Now it’s just continuing to progress and some of the rules aren’t protecting them enough and we need to start monitoring how many pitches are being thrown.”

With more sports medicine information available to better determine the impact of pitching on a player’s arm, elbow and shoulder, the use of pitch counts already is prevalent in youth baseball.

Little League Baseball employs pitch-count restrictions in all of its age divisions, including the Senior League (ages 14-16) level that stages its annual World Series at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor each summer.

When Senior League Baseball switched from innings pitched to pitch-count restrictions several years ago, the Mansfield Stadium scoreboard was adapted to display the pitch count for each team’s hurler working in a game at a given time, according to SLWS executive director Mike Brooker. A new scoreboard installed at the venue in 2014 also features display space for pitch counts.

“I think the pitch count is preferable to the innings, personally,” said Utterback, who coached the Bangor Senior League World Series entry in 2002 and 2004, before the pitch-count rule was adopted. “I think that has the best interest of the student-athlete in mind when you’re thinking about the actual number of times the arm is engaged in that activity or that motion. I think that’s the way to do it.

“In my own experience, we always tracked where our kids were with pitch counts in a game.”

At least three states have approved the use of pitch counts at the high school level, with Delaware and Vermont already employing such restrictions, while the Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of Control unanimously voted last fall to change its baseball pitching rule from innings pitched to a pitch count beginning with the 2017 season.

USA Baseball has published recommended pitch-count restrictions for various age groups, with guidelines for ages 15-18 requiring no calendar days of rest for 0 to 30 pitches in a day, one day of rest for 31-45 pitches, two days of rest for 46-60 pitches, three days of rest for 61-75 pitches and four days of rest for 76 or more pitches, with per day limits of 95 pitches for 15- and 16-year-olds and 105 pitches for 17- and 18-year-olds.

In Vermont, the standards are slightly different, including single-game maximums of 120 pitches at the varsity level and 110 for the junior varsity and freshman levels.

Additional Vermont standards at the varsity level require no days rest for 1-25 pitches in a day, one calendar day of rest for 26-50 pitches, two days of rest for 51-75 pitches and three days of rest for 76 or more pitches.

The MPA’s baseball bulletin currently includes an advisory that recommends coaches remove a pitcher from the mound once he reaches 90 to 100 pitches.

Burnham said any pitch-count restrictions used for Maine high school baseball would be developed in conjunction with the MPA’s sports medicine committee. Dr. William M. Heinz, a liaison to the sports medicine panel, currently chairs the sports medicine advisory committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“We know these discussions are taking place at the national level,” said Burnham. “We know that the potential for a pitch-count rule to be implemented through the rulebook is there, so we want to take our time and let that play through as we’re developing our own policies here in the state.”

One issue separate from any potential numerical limits on pitchers involves how pitch counts would be tabulated during games and then reported for future reference regarding a pitcher’s eligibility to return to the mound.

“I think the committee and most people would recognize that there’s got to be a better way to manage your pitchers,” said Utterback, “but the implementation is where we’ve hit a roadblock. Who’s going to track it and and how do you verify that Coach A has the same count as Coach B on the other side of the field? Who’s ultimately responsible for verifying that that’s the accurate count and keeps track of it for your next game?

“Those are some of the things that need to be worked out before we move forward with any clear-cut, definitive proposal.”

The MPA plans to pilot a pitch-count program at all high school baseball levels this spring — not for immediate implementation but in order to help develop the most efficient way of tabulating pitches and tracking subsequent eligibility.

“There’s nothing official being done with pitch counts for this year,” said Burnham, “but what we would ask all schools to do starting this year is to start tracking pitch counts and getting used to coordinating with the other book. In other words, train your people who are doing it for the coming year without there being any actual restrictions, provide us with some feedback after the season or even during the season, and then if we’re going to move forward with a pitch count it would be a proposal that could be brought forward next fall.”