Sorry can't add. Max should be 120 pitches for a 7 or 9 inning game. As said , teams should have someone they developed that could close. We all would like to have more one pitcher like the Walker player.
Guy Rutledge - 10 years ago
120 pitches. If you look at 15 pitches per inning in a 9 inning game . Roll that to a 7 inning game . Take into account the number of warmup pitches before game, between innings, fielding plays, and pick offs that player from Walker thrrew. A lot more than 181 pitches
TwillDog - 10 years ago
I'd like to think coaches are bright enough to know when enough is enough, but in cases like this obviously they are not. You can't ask the kid or his parent - you are the coach. You have to have integrity, and you need to make a decision in the best interest of this child, his future in the game, and then the future of your team. It's obvious it was all about this one game to this coach. If this kid now has back spasms or an arm failure or fatigue, you've lost him for the year. Maybe something mechanical goes wrong and now he can't play football next year - now you've affected another group of young men. Then what if he'd really had a talent and now you've affected his potential career in sports - now you've taken money out of his pocket. I am a former coach - I understand the heat of battle and the desire not to mess with what's working. And I understand that pitchers are different - the kid with the noodle arm that throws junk isn't as likely to need his count as low as the kid hitting 90 on the gun. But either way, you need to make sure you know when those kids hit notable numbers of pitches - 80, 100, 120. 120 should usually be close to a max in a 7 inning high school game. 126 pitches is a complete game with a pitcher averaging 9 pitches per inning. If a pitcher is averaging 10 pitches per inning, he should likely get lifted somewhere along the way. Don't high schools try to develop closers? I know many teams don't have more than 1 good pitcher, but there has to be a second guy that you can bring in to try and get 3 outs to finish a game. Either way, 181 pitches over 12 innings is 15 pitches per inning - that's fine for about 7-8 innings. After that, the coach has to make a move. Poor coaching is the issue here. We don't necessarily need to legislate the whole based on a few bad eggs; nor do we need to cut off coaches' ability to do what's best for their teams by creating pitch counts that don't fit every person. Most coaches are smarter than this.
Sorry can't add. Max should be 120 pitches for a 7 or 9 inning game. As said , teams should have someone they developed that could close. We all would like to have more one pitcher like the Walker player.
120 pitches. If you look at 15 pitches per inning in a 9 inning game . Roll that to a 7 inning game . Take into account the number of warmup pitches before game, between innings, fielding plays, and pick offs that player from Walker thrrew. A lot more than 181 pitches
I'd like to think coaches are bright enough to know when enough is enough, but in cases like this obviously they are not. You can't ask the kid or his parent - you are the coach. You have to have integrity, and you need to make a decision in the best interest of this child, his future in the game, and then the future of your team. It's obvious it was all about this one game to this coach. If this kid now has back spasms or an arm failure or fatigue, you've lost him for the year. Maybe something mechanical goes wrong and now he can't play football next year - now you've affected another group of young men. Then what if he'd really had a talent and now you've affected his potential career in sports - now you've taken money out of his pocket. I am a former coach - I understand the heat of battle and the desire not to mess with what's working. And I understand that pitchers are different - the kid with the noodle arm that throws junk isn't as likely to need his count as low as the kid hitting 90 on the gun. But either way, you need to make sure you know when those kids hit notable numbers of pitches - 80, 100, 120. 120 should usually be close to a max in a 7 inning high school game. 126 pitches is a complete game with a pitcher averaging 9 pitches per inning. If a pitcher is averaging 10 pitches per inning, he should likely get lifted somewhere along the way. Don't high schools try to develop closers? I know many teams don't have more than 1 good pitcher, but there has to be a second guy that you can bring in to try and get 3 outs to finish a game. Either way, 181 pitches over 12 innings is 15 pitches per inning - that's fine for about 7-8 innings. After that, the coach has to make a move. Poor coaching is the issue here. We don't necessarily need to legislate the whole based on a few bad eggs; nor do we need to cut off coaches' ability to do what's best for their teams by creating pitch counts that don't fit every person. Most coaches are smarter than this.