Looking to prevent injury now and in the forseeable future to its young baseball pitchers, the PSAL, with a nod to a few influential City Councilmen, announced a series of preventative pitch-count measures at a press conference Wednesday afternoon at Long Island City High School in Queens.
The strict regulations are as follows:
* Varsity pitchers will have a cap of 105 total pitches for one game and JV will be able to throw no more than 90.
* Players will be able to pitch the next day if they throw 25 or fewer pitches.
* Varsity pitchers will have to rest a day after throwing 26-53 pitches, two days after throwing 50-70 pitches, three days after throwing 70-90, and four days after throwing more than 90 pitches. JV pitchers will have to rest a day after throwing between 21-40 pitches, two days after throwing 41-60 pitches, three days after throwing 61-79, and four days for anything more than 81 pitches.
“We always want to do what’s right for our kids to be safe and we felt the best way to do that is to take a proactive approach by doing this,” PSAL baseball commissioner Bob Pertsas said.
Coaches will be held accountable for their respective pitchers’ counts and will be subject, PSAL director Donald Douglas said, to a one-game suspension if it’s revealed they are filing inaccurate numbers or fail to comply. Further sanctions, such as forfeits, will be considered for repeat offenders.
One of the first public school leagues in the country to install strict pitch count regulations, the PSAL began the process last season when it requested coaches enter pitch counts on the league’s Web site, an action forced upon the league after councilmen Louis Fidler and Oliver Koppell pushed a bill in the Committee on Youth Services last February asking for pitch-count limits in all baseball leagues across the city.
After reviewing the data with the City’s Office of School Health, several PSAL coaches and physicians from Partners in Youth, a partnership between the PSAL, Bellevue Hospital Center and the NYU Hospital for Join Diseases Department of Orthopedics, the decision was made to install a limit for pitchers.
Koppell said he hopes the Catholic league and the city’s many private school leagues would follow the PSAL, but doesn’t plan to continue with legislation at the time being. CHSAA commissioner Wally Stampfel said his league has no plans to even discuss the matter while Poly Prep athletic director Bill McNally said the Ivy League, the largest of the private school leagues, would talk about it at an upcoming athletic directors meeting.
Many coaches across the city were outraged by the decision they say will adversely change games and limits their maneuverability. Several coaches expect others to play a more patient game to build up pitch counts; some feel very few will post accurate numbers. Douglas said it’s up to each coach to monitor his own pitcher.
“What they are doing is in name only,” one coach said, speaking anonymously. “It’s not gonna be followed. You can’t control it.”
Said Francis Lewis coach Ian Millman: “Schools that aren’t as deep as their front-end arms, it will force coaches to develop more pitchers, force them to decide when they are going to use their best pitching and give other kids opportunities to come through for their teams. What it comes down to is this is a preventative measure to prevent overuse of young arms by poor coaching, or by coaches that want to win at all costs.
“When it comes to coaches who have put winning above all else including the health of young pitchers, this is a great measure. However, when then you have coaches that have an understanding of mechanics and the ability to assess a pitcher’s wear throughout the game, you’re completely hampering them and it’s almost punishing them.”
DeWitt Clinton ace Joaquin DeJesus said the rules will change how he attacks hitters. The southpaw will go for location over velocity, looking to rack up quick outs rather than compile double-digit strikeouts.
“It shouldn’t be on your mind, but it’s going to be in the back of your head,” he said. “It will change the baseball season.”
He added: “I think it’s a good idea. They are just trying to look out for our safety.”
Millman poked holes in the new plan. For one, he said, under the rules, a pitcher can throw every day at 25 pitches or less. Plus, there is nothing noted about re-entry; a coach can start his pitcher, build a lead, then bring him back to close, all while keeping him under a certain count.
“Do you point a finger at the coach or the PSAL when that young man has to sign up for Tommy John surgery because the coach was well within the rules and guidelines that were set forth in the rules?” Millman asked. “They haven’t covered all angles of protecting a young pitcher. There is a gray area here.”
Douglas, the PSAL director, understands the criticism and he understands why there are some coaches adverse to the move. The league will keep a close eye on how the new rules work and could make tweaks for the following season. But he also wholeheartedly feels it is the right thing to do.
“Sometimes people are resistant to change,” he said. “But when change is for the better, people make adustments.”