Josh Chapin seemed no worse for the wear.

He already had pitched in five straight playoff games, three of them as a starter. And a few hours after throwing 112 pitches in six innings of a Class D semifinal last June - with a state title at stake - the senior right-hander told his West Canada Valley baseball coach that he would be ready, more than willing and physically able, he was convinced, to pitch again in relief if need be.

“It was always on me,” Chapin said. “If I was good to go, it was up to me. … I could throw 60, 70 pitches on a day’s rest, no problem.”

That was then, back when a pitch count for an all-state high school ace like Chapin was, in his words, “nothing set in stone.”

That changed Friday, when the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) approved a proposal that - beginning this spring - sets pitch-count limits and the rest a pitcher must take between games based on the number of pitches thrown at the varsity, junior varsity, freshmen and modified level.

Varsity players will be limited to 105 pitches during the regular season and 125 in post-season games, and if a pitcher throws between 96-105 in the regular season and 103-125 in the playoffs, four nights of rest are required. Throw between 1-30 pitches and you can’t pitch the next day.

The decision by the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations to require every state to implement pitch-count limits before the start of the 2017 season was based largely on the growing number of injuries - many requiring surgery - to young, overused arms.

Area coaches share those concerns, but many are not convinced a pitch-count limit - as well-intended as it is - will be the answer.

“I agree, the safety of kids is most important, but I don’t need somebody to tell me what that number is for a Josh Chapin,” West Canada Valley coach and former Notre Dame High School pitcher Greg Jones said. “Somebody got hurt, somebody threatened a lawsuit, so now we’re doing it. I don’t need a number. I know what my guys can and can’t handle. I know what rest is the proper amount of rest.

“I know kids are always going to tell you, ‘Yes, I’m good.’ But you as a coach should be able to tell if he’s sore or hurt, and you should know when they’re lying to you.”

Before Friday’s announcement, there was an innings limit in New York – pitchers were limited to 12 innings in one day and no more than 18 innings in a six-day period.

Chapin, now at Mohawk Valley Community College, pitched three times – two starts and a relief appearance – and threw 17 innings in six days. After throwing 101 pitches in a complete-game victory on a Thursday, he came back two days later and threw 48 pitches in relief. Three days after that, he threw 103 pitches in the Section III final.

Under the new guidelines for pitch-count and rest, that would have never happened.

Limiting innings, not pitches, gave pitchers and coaches the leeway to throw a heavier workload. Not anymore.

“I can throw a lot more than that,” Rome Free Academy senior Tyler Schoff said of the 105-pitch regular-season cap now in place. “I’m prepared to throw more pitches than that. If my arm starts to hurt, I’m not going to hide anything, and both my (high school and American Legion) coaches know me well enough.

“I understand where this is coming from. You’re trying to limit injuries. But every kid is different.”

Schoff, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound right-hander with a fastball pushing 90 mph, was the Tri Valley League Pitcher of the Year as a junior. A Division I recruit who has signed with Bryant University, Schoff believes staying injury-free is more about mechanics and “how you prepare yourself.”

So does New Hartford junior Dean Langman, whose 6-0 record last season included a playoff win over top-seeded Vernon-Verona-Sherrill. He went the distance and threw 112 pitches.

“The pitch count, probably is necessary; there are a lot of injuries,” Langman said. “But I’m not really sure what the perfect number would be. … It’s different, depending on the pitcher, their age, their size.”

Last season, Adirondack Central pitchers Devin Banks and Ethan Wiedmer threw 46 and 44 innings, respectively, but coach Mickey Fauvelle said the amount of rest and number of pitches per outing were handled differently.

“I don’t subscribe to the theory that the new rules are absolutely needed,” Fauvelle said. “I think for the most part, coaches have a pretty good grasp as to what types of workloads their pitchers can manage. … As a manager, you have to know those things.”

“It’s a ‘feel’ thing,” said Dave Guido, about to begin his 30th season as varsity coach at Thomas R. Proctor High School. “I’m old school. Baseball’s been my life. As the coach, the onus should be on me. If I’m ruining a kid, then get rid of me. Every pitcher is different as far as the number of pitches he can throw and the way they throw. …

“I don’t like the way this is set up, but I think we’re just erring on the side of caution.”

Last year, a high school pitcher in Kansas threw 157 pitches in a 10-inning playoff game – at the time, the state limit was nine innings – and he and his coach were suspended.

More than once, Tom Giruzzi, a Mohawk Valley umpire for 18 years, has stood behind home plate and wondered, “Why is this kid still out there on the mound?”

When pitch count is left up to a coach’s discretion, that’s going to happen. But how often has he seen a coach abuse that right?

“Very, very infrequently,” Giruzzi said. “Have I seen it? Without question. Consistently? Absolutely not. For the most part, coaches use good judgment. Unfortunately, Major League Baseball magnifies pitch counts, so it’s natural to blame the injuries on that.

“I do think 105 pitches for a seven-inning game is reasonable. But was it necessary? Most coaches use common sense,” said Giruzzi, a former coach at many levels, from Little League to high school and American Legion baseball. “But some kids throw year ‘round, some are throwing curveballs and sliders at 12 years old, and today so many kids are specializing in one sport and when you’re talking baseball and pitching. … I think that’s more of a factor than pitch counts at the high school level.”

Maybe so, but implementing pitch-count regulations nation-wide suggests otherwise.

“The thought has to be that kids are being mishandled by coaches,” New Hartford coach Kevin Green said. “But is that one hundred percent accurate in our current state and direction of youth baseball? I believe there are coaches that do overwork young arms by bringing them back to pitch too soon, etc. But one of our biggest hurdles as high school coaches is that we have kids playing for our teams and then participating for other travel teams simultaneously.”

West Canada Valley’s Jones points to overuse and misuse at a very young age as the primary reasons why “the damage is already done” by the time some players reach the varsity level. After charting a Little League World Series game last summer, he said one starting pitcher threw 82 pitches and 49 were curveballs.

“That’s insane at the age of 12,” Jones said. “That’s where the problems begin.”

Just last year, a study performed by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center found the number of “Tommy John” surgeries to repair a pitching-related elbow injury had tripled in recent years, mainly among adolescents.

Dr. James Andrews, the surgeon known for performing Tommy John surgeries on athletes, and the American Sports Medicine Institute emphasize that “overhead athletes” should take two or three months off from throwing each year, according to Ryan Monaco, a local Certified Athletic Trainer, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.

In many cases, however, “this never happens,” said Monaco, well aware of the new pitch-count rule. “I think it will bring some awareness to the fact that there is a problem. There are many coaches in this area, too many, that abuse their pitchers because they have them for one or two years, want to win, and win at the cost of their arm.”

It is a “cumulative effect” that a pitch-count limit may not address, because the player who reaches the limit and is unable to pitch for four days can still play shortstop, catcher, third base or the outfield.

“Sure, they’re not pitching,” Monaco said. “But they are not getting rest.”

Westmoreland coach Paul Engelhart also believes the new rule may force position players to become a “pitcher on the spot,” making him potentially vulnerable to even more significant arm issues.

“In general, it should be a good thing. … to ensure kids aren’t overthrowing in high school,” Engelhart said. “But there is a lot more to getting injured than just a pitch count. It’s about mechanics. It’s about the way a pitcher trains.

“It isn’t all about pitch count.”

Like most, “for safety reasons,” Jones is in favor of it. “I’m just not sure it was well thought out,” he said. “I’m just not sure all of the questions were answered.”



MORE LOCAL REACTION



Here is some more local reaction to the new pitch-count limits for high school baseball:



MICKEY FAUVELLE (Adirondack Central baseball coach):



I think the crux of the problem is more prevalent in the summer and off-season. Pitchers are not only playing for their local summer teams, they're also playing for their baseball academy (travel) teams as well. So some pitchers may throw during the week with their local team and then are used on the weekends as well. Playing on two or three different teams makes it hard to monitor how much a pitcher has pitched. I know many (American Legion) managers have headaches from their kids competing on not only their team, but a travel team as well. You can also factor in that more and more kids are focusing on one sport, these kids are pitching all-year round, eliminating any type of off-season to rest.





GREG CUTHBERTSON (Poland Central baseball coach and high school principal):



I am not in favor of the new pitch-count proposal. I understand the idea behind this, to protect players, but that should be the coaches' responsibility to use common sense in order to do this and give kids the proper rest they need. For smaller schools with limited players, let alone pitching staffs, it could create a situation where we have to throw kids on the mound that could create a more dangerous situation for the hitters and the defense.



It's sad that we could have a situation where an athlete could be throwing a great game in the 6th inning and now we have to pull him because of the number of pitches he has thrown. Every athlete is different and we all track the number of pitches for the most part, but to me what's more important is 'Is he still strong with mechanics, control and velocity etc...'



I understand the idea behind this rule change, but I think there could have been a better way to do this. Perhaps adjust the innings per week, which would have been easier to track and follow. It will be interesting when we get rainouts and have to play 4-6 games a week; I think you will see some high-scoring games and in general sloppy baseball games.



High school baseball in New York has worked for a long time as is. Why are we doing this now? If it's the coaches not looking out for the welfare of the athletes, then shame on the coaches, but I have a feeling it's more political than that and someone got beat by a quality pitcher or pitchers and this was a way to circumvent that in the future.





CHAD HODKINSON (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill baseball coach):



I would rather they come out with some "mandatory" arm care program for each pitcher that first prepares them for the season and then what they need to do after each pitching outing (practice or game). Educating them, which should be the job of the coaches, should be done first and "mandated" as much as possible in each school's program. I get it that kids will be kids and do their own thing but we need to let them know that if they don't care of their arm before and after each throwing session they may be letting the team down as far as being able to throw again as soon as possible...as long as common sense rules the decision making. This is where I have a concern, each pitcher's body (arm) is different so how can we just put a number out there and say all pitchers must follow the same numbers? As coaches, I hope we would make the right decision as far as safety is concerned regardless of the score, inning, or type of game it is. The pitch count being what it is, if a kid throws 40 pitches in one inning I would hope that kid doesn't get to the maximum pitch count because he just had a high-intensity, laborious inning. Or, if a pitcher has back-to-back tough innings where he had to work like heck to get out of each inning and is pushing 60-70 pitches it may not be a good idea to push him to the maximum count. I believe that the intensity level at which the pitches are thrown is a bigger issue than the number of pitches thrown in a game.



PAUL ENGELHART (Westmoreland Central and Whitestown Post baseball coach):



While the pitch-count rule for high school baseball is new, we've been aware of the possibility of it being incorporated into the NYSPHSAA handbook for the past few years. ... In my opinion, it's a positive measure and I fully embrace and endorse it. I understand the purpose of it and if coaches are doing things the right way, then there’s really no issue. When I started coaching high school baseball back in the mid-90's, I devised a personal guideline that I've adhered to over the years since then in both high school as well as American Legion baseball. In fact, my numbers are even more conservative then what has been enacted. In addition, I also don't even let my players throw a baseball at all the day after throwing 80 or more pitches in a game, even into early August after most kids have pitched in games since early April. Their gloves stay in their equipment bag for the day. I’ve always put the pitcher and his arm first - always. ... I'm in favor of the rule since I ’d rather err on the side of caution and strive to take care of all of our state high school players.





J.T. LaFOUNTAIN (Accelerate Sports, Director of Baseball):



I think it's always a good idea to have some sort of pitch count for all ages. Overhand throwing is not a natural motion for the human body so having coaches and even parents keeping track of the number of pitches is beneficial for injury prevention. I believe the only con to keeping a pitch count would be dealing with coaches who don't follow it just to win a game. One thing that may be something to look into is counting the number of breaking ball pitches (curveballs and sliders) thrown, since those make that unnatural motion more dangerous. Even watching the Little League World Series you see pitchers throw something like 60 percent breaking balls...That is way too much in my opinion.



Another difficult part to regulating the number of pitches thrown is kids playing on more than 1 or 2 teams in the same season. We see this more and more. ... The tough part with this is the parent will have to relay pitch counts to each coach, which could become difficult. Other than helping young arms stay away from injury I don't think having a pitch count will affect the game play...as long as you have relief pitching in your bullpen.





FRANK MIOSEK (Cooperstown baseball coach):



I have always used a pitch count to prevent arm injury, and based it on the pitcher's age etc. I believe it will make coaching more like a chess game; my concern is who will keep the count? We have used a student but I believe now it should be an adult. ... with limited funds and volunteers, this will be a challenge. I have witnessed many a pitcher on other teams throwing excessive number of pitches as we charted them. I hope it becomes a rule and the adults honor it. Some teams will have a hard time with our spring weather and games getting backed up but it is the right thing today.







GREG JONES (West Canada Valley baseball coach):



I guess in many respects it will save some pitchers from being overused. However, arm issues aren't often the cause of one season of overuse. It's often from prolonged use over several seasons. One other pro is that one team can't have one dominant guy throwing multiple games in a week to get multiple wins. ...



It's another safety rule that isn't needed. If your concern is for your kids, then you should have been monitoring this all along.