Coaches....seriously the kids are 13!!!!

• bartsimpson

  Wow, I've gotta say I am stunned by what I've seen the past 3 days. I coach a 7th grade junior high team.....no real league, nobody keeps records, standings, etc. Basically we're playing just to play.
  
  Wednesday: We played a team whose coaches told me "we've lost 1 game"....I tell them beforehand that we're missing our top 3 guys...so plan accordingly.
  
  They throw a kid 119 pitches, a complete game, 7 innings in a 7-3 win (they won). The sad thing was the kid almost ran to the mound between innings so that he could practice his curve ball while warming up. Between the 6th and 7th innings, their coach was making substitutions...the kid threw at least 15 warm up pitches....every one of them at full speed, as hard as he could throw (and he threw low-mid 70's as a 13 year old).
  
  Tonight we win 2-1 in 7, our pitcher and theirs both throw complete games. Our pitcher throws 81 pitches.....theirs throws 121. Here's the kicker...the same kid THREW 4 INNINGS LAST NIGHT!!!!!!
  
  Are you kidding me? Who coaches these kids? I wasn't going to let our pitcher go past 85 even though he had a 1-hitter into the 7th.....keep in mind he started throwing indoors in January so he was fine to go as far as he did.
  
  I almost feel like I should call the kid's parents from tonights game and just let them know that 120+ pitches the night after throwing 4 innings isn't normal or acceptable. Keep in mind, these are "school teams"...and neither of them have any kids playing upper level "travel" ball. They could very well not know that pitch counts like this are just absolutely horrible on a 13 year old's arm.
  
  What would you do?
• Ghmothwdwhso

  bartsimpson wrote: Wow, I've gotta say I am stunned by what I've seen the past 3 days. I coach a 7th grade junior high team.....no real league, nobody keeps records, standings, etc. Basically we're playing just to play.
  
  Wednesday: We played a team whose coaches told me "we've lost 1 game"....I tell them beforehand that we're missing our top 3 guys...so plan accordingly.
  
  They throw a kid 119 pitches, a complete game, 7 innings in a 7-3 win (they won). The sad thing was the kid almost ran to the mound between innings so that he could practice his curve ball while warming up. Between the 6th and 7th innings, their coach was making substitutions...the kid threw at least 15 warm up pitches....every one of them at full speed, as hard as he could throw (and he threw low-mid 70's as a 13 year old).
  
  Tonight we win 2-1 in 7, our pitcher and theirs both throw complete games. Our pitcher throws 81 pitches.....theirs throws 121. Here's the kicker...the same kid THREW 4 INNINGS LAST NIGHT!!!!!!
  
  Are you kidding me? Who coaches these kids? I wasn't going to let our pitcher go past 85 even though he had a 1-hitter into the 7th.....keep in mind he started throwing indoors in January so he was fine to go as far as he did.
  
  I almost feel like I should call the kid's parents from tonights game and just let them know that 120+ pitches the night after throwing 4 innings isn't normal or acceptable. Keep in mind, these are "school teams"...and neither of them have any kids playing upper level "travel" ball. They could very well not know that pitch counts like this are just absolutely horrible on a 13 year old's arm.
  
  What would you do?

  I understand your concern for the kid, but you are in no position to say anything. It's between pitcher, his parents and the coach.
  
  Nice win in game 2 though.
• royal_k

  

  Very poor coaching skills....If in your shoes, calling the coach may be the better option rather than the parents.
• Mr. 300

  

  We'll start our season next week for 7th and 8th graders. Plan on keeping the pitchers to no more than 50 pitches in the early games. These are multi sports kids who don't just play baseball. They need to work into the season and not blow out arms. Last year in our league we had 2 kids go down who just happened to be the aces of their teams. Hmmm, wonder why that happened??? Our team had no arm troubles and won the leaguand tournament titles. Also heard about a 7th grader blowing out his elbow this spring in a scrimmage.
  
  How does this happen??? Coaches with egos bigger than their team.
• Swamp Fox

  There are a lot of very competent and caring coaches who always have the interests of the kids at heart. There are also a lot of leagues that limit innings and pitches by rule, which I heartily agree with. For the morons that think they are big league coaches and winning these games somehow singles them out as great baseball minds, even though they could give two shakes about the welfare of the kids on their teams, I think they should be removed from their coaching positions. Naturally, this will be almost impossible to implement but if the parents of kids on teams like this rise up, at least some of these egotistical mental midgets will fall by the wayside.
• Swamp Fox

  I would add that all of my sons who have been involved with youth baseball in our town have had tremendously positive experiences and the coaches have all been outstanding community people who genuinely care about the kids first and foremost and would never do anything to jeopardize a kid's arm or a kid's future. We also have pretty stringent rules about the way the pitchers are to be used in the games and that helps a great deal. Going to the games in our town is a fun event and I look forward to watching my grandchildren play each week. (I've also taught many of their coaches, as well as most of the umpires.)...........not to mention nearly all of the parents.
• darbypitcher22

  

  I'm normally not one for intstituting huge rules on pitch counts, just somebody who prays and screams for common sense, but the more I hear about this type of thing, the more I think something needs to be written into the rule book about it
• wags6817

  

  All I will say is this, "Coaches that coach young ones should be graded on how much their kids improve over the course of a year not the W's"
• darbypitcher22

  

  ^^^^
  
  this is true, the question is how do you come up with a quantifiable entity to measure this in?
• BenHur

  I think pitch counts are important at all ages. We had a kid in our area throw 161 pitches in the first high school game this season. He never pitched again this season. This same coach then blasted umpires in the tourney game for his teams loss. I would rather say look in the mirror. Our trainer was saying the other day most of the pro teams don't throw their guys as much aftera full spring training as we do our kids in the first week of the regular season. Worse weather in Ohio than Fla./ Ariz. and less time to prepare. Some changes need to be made. Shorter basketball season, won't need to change number of games. Just play a game or 2 extra for one or 2weeks and that would help. We sometimes play 5 games in 8 to 10 days then will go a week between games and they may only play one game that week and the same the next week. It could be condensed just a little and pick up 2 weeks for spring Baseball practice. Would sure be healthier for pitchers and all players arms.
• THE4RINGZ

  

  Mr. 300 wrote: We'll start our season next week for 7th and 8th graders. Plan on keeping the pitchers to no more than 50 pitches in the early games. These are multi sports kids who don't just play baseball. They need to work into the season and not blow out arms. Last year in our league we had 2 kids go down who just happened to be the aces of their teams. Hmmm, wonder why that happened??? Our team had no arm troubles and won the leaguand tournament titles. Also heard about a 7th grader blowing out his elbow this spring in a scrimmage.
  
  How does this happen??? Coaches with egos bigger than their team.

  
  Let me know when you are playing at those PNC fields in Wooster and I will catch a game.