Posted on 05/15/2014 5:43:43 PM PDT by Third Person
A high school baseball player in Washington State threw 194 pitches over 14 innings Tuesday before being removed in the 15th inning of his team's eventual 1-0 victory in its district tournament.
Rochester High School starting pitcher Dylan Fosnacht struck out 17 and was pulled in the top of the 15th after the first two batters reached base. Dustin Wilson, who had been playing catcher, finished the 17-inning win over La Center High School and then pitched all seven innings of Rochester's second game that day, a 5-3 victory over Elma High School.
Fosnacht posted a picture of himself and Wilson on his Twitter account. "I have never seen two guys take the mound and dominate like that for that long," assistant coach Kyle Sprague told MaxPreps.com. "I have both of those guys in class, and they both said that their arms were fine today."
Many states impose innings or pitch limits on high school athletes. However, an official with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association told ESPN.com that the only rule her organization has is that pitchers who throw four or more innings in a day must be given two days off before pitching again.
Fosnacht's eye-catching pitch count is in contrast to the current era of major league baseball, where pitch counts are closely monitored and teams seem to be overprotective of pitchers, removing them as soon as they pass 100 pitches.
It also comes during a year when several MLB pitchers have had to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair elbow ligament tears, with the most recent casualty being Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez, who is expected to have the surgery later this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Its OK if a kid has no plans of hoping to make a career of it but if he does its a whole different issue.
This coach is going to be horribly vilified. I’ve read conflicting opinions on whether a high number of throws is a good or bad thing, but it is generally still frowned upon.
The Espen recently did a story on the increasing amount of Tommy John surgeries the last few years.
Pitching is the 2nd most demanding job in sports, after Quarterbacking.
Damn irresponsible if you ask me.
Teams abuse young pitchers. Arms don’t fully develop until the age of 25.
MLB has a big problem here, they’d better start looking at limiting innings for young pitchers.
Abuse for no reason.
Hell, back when I pitched we didn’t even count ‘em.
True...I knew I wanted to be like Rollie Fingers in High School. I tried to grow a handlebar mustache.
I coached hs baseball for 25 years and can't imagine myself, or any of my friends in the profession allowing a pitcher to throw almost 200 pitches.
Throw in his pregame and between innings and he threw well over 250.
Given that the young man probably threw 50-60 pitches to warm up for the game and 105 warmup pitches during the game between innings (seven per inning x 15), the actual wear on his arm was a lot higher.
Career? Most in HS are just looking for a baseball scholarship.
The kid probably said he felt good, but that’s a lot of wear on a young arm. I’d be concerned. Who’s the coach there anyway?
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