This is the first in a 3 part article to appear over the next few weeks. In part 1 Ron looks at why conventional pitch-count thinking is flawed. In part 2, he covers a new way to think about pitch limits. Part 3 wraps up with a structured training program to improve pitching intensity.

by Ron Wolforth, Pitching Central & the Texas Baseball Ranch

The challenge with instituting any universal standard for everyone, like pitch count, is that almost no two people are identical in any substantive way. We all are like snowflakes…unique and individual. While that fact of life is indeed the challenge we begin our discussion with today, it is not my major beef with pitch counts. The reality of one size does not fit all, simply underscores the need for reason, logic and common sense to return to the discussion on the implementation on pitch counts. After all, we all can point to at least a dozen things which ‘sounded like a good idea at the time but has since gone awry’ in other areas of our lives. If we are not intelligent here, in my opinion, pitch counts have the potential for that as well.

If we all agreed that pitch counts were merely guidelines and we should utilize them as simply a default reference point to begin our discussion and then personalize the count for each and every pitcher based upon certain agreed upon general criteria ( examples listed below at the very end), then I would embrace pitch counts.

But that is absolutely NOT what happens.

They have become the story. They are viewed in most circles as THE answer…in fact they are viewed as THE savior of injury. Follow pitch counts and young arms will remain healthy. Don’t follow them and injury is assured. But even more nefarious than this oversimplification, pitch counts have become a wedge issue…an issue used to punish, fire, sue, embarrass, reprimand and a stake for moral high ground…and that is unfortunate. Pitch counts used correctly have great promise but we are far from that now and in my opinion heading in the wrong direction.


Pitch counts were not kept in MLB until 1971. So since 1971 what is the record for pitches in a single game?

Answer:

Nolan Ryan in 1971 at 244 pitches in a 15 inning game. In that same game, Luis Tiant threw 189.

If a pitching coach or manager allowed that today, they both would be summarily fired that night. They would be excoriated on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. The next day we would hear about this incredible abuse on Good Morning America, Fox and Friends and all the morning TV shows…and it would almost certainly be the lead sports story for the next 24 hour news cycle. Those two probably would never be able to find a job in baseball again. They would go down in history as bad, selfish guys and their names would be spoken in the same breath as Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay & Jeff Skilling.

But let’s look further shall we!

Nolan Ryan never missed a start that year and continued to pitch 17 more years. Luis Tiant never became the giant Nolan Ryan did but his performance over the remainder of that year didn’t suffer either.

I often joke that the 244 pitch night hurt Nolan so much that had to quit pitching 17 years later.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting that we throw away pitch counts or that everyone could throw 244 pitches without consequences. That would be lunacy. But I think it also lunacy to suggest that we know the appropriate universal pitch count to avoid injury. Obviously these two men were more than able to handle that work load. Certainly most of our pitchers today could not handle that work load and there are very specific reasons for that… and those reasons are a completely different topic for another day.

In fact the only 100% safe pitch count is ZERO.

So what do I view as the appropriate role of pitch counts and what would I believe to be factors which would slide the workload scale up or down for each individual pitching athlete?


First, I am completely convinced pitch count per inning is vastly more important than total pitch count. Not even close.

Nolan Ryan’s 244 pitches occurred over a 15 inning game. That breaks down to 16.2 pitches per inning. Keep that number in mind as we go forward.

You tell me which pitcher had the harder night…104 pitches over 7 innings or 62 pitches over 2 innings?

The fact that I’ve framed this question like I have, few miss that the 62 pitch outing (31 per inning) was a much tougher workload than 104 outing (14.8 per inning).

You see a baseball game is unique. After you get three outs you get to sit down for 10-20 minutes and recover. If I can keep my pitch per inning number down to 15 per inning, I in fact can have a much higher total pitch count without a drop in performance because I throw 15…rest…throw another 15…rest etc. On the other hand if I ever exceed 25 in one inning, pitches 26 through X are obviously much more fatiguing than the first 15 and my departure from the game will come much sooner.

But if I just told you in passing…Pitcher A threw 62 pitches and pitcher B threw 104, and I told you nothing else, you would instinctively NOT worry about the 62 guy and ask instead about the 104 guy. Am I not right? Yet the 62 pitcher is the one who was at far greatest risk in my opinion.

In fact, if I believe my pitcher is well conditioned and physically prepared for the performance, I don’t worry much about total pitch count. Instead I monitor pitch per inning and make my decisions based primarily on pitch per inning. If the athlete stays between 12-18 pitches per inning…and doesn’t show the following 3 observable signs of fatigue…in my opinion he’s got the game as long as he wants it.

Until next time, stay open and curious.
For the second part of this series, click here.