New State Rules Create Sea Change In High School Pitching
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A new, complicated formula has recently been adopted by the Minnesota State High School League.
It is called a pitch count, and the idea is to limit the number of innings high school pitchers can throw.
The hope is for better arms for a longer duration, and a filter-down effect that will take wing with the younger wings.
At Minneapolis' Washburn High School, they are making changes to their pitching staff due to the new rule.
"The biggest thing that we've learned is that you've got to have more guys throwing," said Washburn baseball coach Jim Clancy. "We were fortunate enough to go down to Florida for a week during spring break, and while we were down there we had eight guys throwing, and we knew that we had two guys that we knew would be our one and two."
The theory is don't destroy a good arm by trying to win too soon. And while the MSHSL is making a stand, the hope is it will trickle down and become the norm at lower levels.
"Before I got this job I was doing little league with my 10-year-old son … I've seen a lot of things when I was doing the little league stuff that [made me scratch] my head and going, 'What are we doing here?'" said Minnesota Twins pitching coach Eddie Guardado. "It's all about the win, all about the coach getting the win."
This is a macro look at preventive medicine.
'It's good they're monitoring those things. I think they can save a lot of injuries," said Twins star Joe Mauer.
The good news in all of this is that kids playing baseball that have not thought about it can now think about being a pitcher, because you need more arms, unlike some travel teams.
"It's going to force people to develop pitchers," Clancy said.
The other part of the directive is that parents are taken out of the equation.
"You're having kids having Tommy John [surgery] at 10 years old. What does that tell you? What does that tell you? Too many pitches, or too many pitches going into the summer, playing travel ball after travel ball, going to different teams … 'Can he play with us this weekend?' Mommy and dad go, 'Sure!' That makes mommy and dad feel good, but I think it's wrong," Guardado said.
It's easy to get locked into a hot hand, and the euphoria of the moment can keep a kid on the mound for too long.
"You don't want to keep running your best pitcher out there every day," Mauer said. "I've seen that growing up, and you don't want to kill a kid for sure."
Where it becomes most challenging is in the smaller schools, where having the depth can be an issue.
"I think it's probably good in the long run. The difficult part is going to be … for the small schools, the Class As who generally have, you know, they have a short stop and a pitcher and they kind of rotate back and forth, and they're going to be limited," Clancy said.
But the movement has a chance to keep kids healthy and remind the rest they are developing baseball players -- not having to win games.
"Nowadays with these young kids, we're overusing them. Why? Why right now? Oh, to get the trophy? Oh, because my kid is good? So you can brag? I think that's wrong," Guardado said.