Since BOF brought up this rarely discussed subject elsewhere, I thought it deserved its own thread.

Last week my son started a game. After an easy first inning, the second droned onto something approaching 50 pitches. He said his arm turned to rubber as he threw hard to get out of it.

I'd never thought about single inning pitch counts but it seems that pitchers should be lifted just on the pitch count basis (even if poor fielding is the main problem).

How do/should coaches deal with such situations?

Our goal is 15 or less pitches per inning.

I think WAAAAYYY too many people worry about wasting a pitch on 0-2 or 1-2. We teach our kids to throw a quality pitch in those situations and not worry about wasting one.

As far as analyzing the effects of a big inning, we look at mechanics and velocity. If both are in tact, we will watch the overall pitch count. Usually, a big inning or two shuts them down very early.

50 pitches in one inning... that pitcher is done.

We always used a chart to show the pitcher where he was. Optimally 15-18 pitches an inning will get a 90 pitch pitcher thru the 5th inning in high school. We'd prefer 75 pitches thru 5 but would accept 90 as the ceiling, being 18 per inning. With 15-18 pitches an inning, the pitcher will have some recovery time on the bench and can come out for another 15-18. 25 or more in the inning will drastically reduce the pitchers ability to recover between innings and will shorten his stint.

From my son's Freshmen team numbers.

Player IP API WHIP BA\Pit %S's
1 33.667 14.76 1.07 0.179 62.6%
2 15.667 20.93 1.73 0.161 53.2%
3 10 15.25 1.10 0.143 59.9%
4 4.3 25.35 2.79 0.279 44.0%
5 10 16.50 1.50 0.250 59.4%
6 1 16.00 2.00 0.000 43.8%
Total 74.591 16.98 1.38 0.186 57.6%

I know the innings pitched are not 100% right.

Guess who gets the innings? Kid who throws strikes. (number 2 had a early season walk fest but has settled in)

To your question I would be worried with pitchers going over 25 per inning very often. "on or out after 4" is a good working number.

BTW anyone figure out how to post excel numbers?