Little League Baseball is concerned about protecting the arms of your pitchers. Little League instituted inning limitations on pitchers to prevent coaches from overusing them. While this was obvious to many coaches who realized they were dealing with the fragile joints of young pitchers, Little League made sure pitchers were prevented from abusing their arms with innings limitations on a per week basis. Before the 2007 season, Little League instituted limitations by pitch counts instead of innings.
Step 1
Count innings by the number of innings a pitcher threw at least one pitch. For example, if a pitcher comes into a game with two outs in the third inning and throws one pitch to retire the batter, then pitches the fourth inning and is removed after giving up a hit to the first batter in the fifth inning, he has pitched in three innings for Little League purposes. By standard baseball counts, the pitcher has thrown only 1 1/3 innings. However, when Little League used inning counts, that pitcher would have been charged with pitching three innings.
Step 2
Count the number of pitchers each pitcher throws. Little League Baseball limits the number of pitches an 11- or 12-year-old pitcher may throw to 85 in a game. According to Little League rules, the pitcher must come off the mound after his 85th pitch. However, if the pitcher has thrown 84 pitches when a new batter comes to the plate, he is allowed to pitch to the next batter until the at-bat is over.
Step 3
Determine the days of rest a Little League pitcher must have before taking the mound again. A pitcher who throws the maximum number of pitches in a day must not pitch again for four full days. So if an 11- or 12-year-old pitcher throws 61 pitches or more on Monday, he must rest through Thursday before taking the mound again on Friday. If the pitcher throws between 41 and 60 pitches, he must rest two days before pitching again. If the pitcher throws between 21 and 40 pitches, he must rest one day before pitching again. If he throws 20 pitches or less, he does not have to rest.
Step 4
Plan your pitching rotation carefully. Your goal as a coach is to make sure that all of your pitchers are healthy and none of the pitchers suffer an arm injury because of overuse. As a result, you need to have at least three rested pitchers who are prepared to pitch each game. This may not allow you to win as many games as you would like, but it will give you a better chance of helping your young pitchers avoid a visit to the orthopedist.
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