coachKidsSports.com

We have deep depth. Yogi Berra

With the exception of football, baseball becomes a specialized sport earlier than about any other.  In most other sports, at least until at least junior high, it's easier for kids to plug into several positions.  They can move around soccer positions pretty easily — a fast kid is just as valuable defending as striking; except for the exceptionally short or tall kids, any position is open on the basketball court and if you can skate you are valuable anywhere on the ice.

But in baseball, the two or three hardest throwers get slotted in as pitchers fairly early.  But according to USA Today there is a new rule under debate at the Little League Board of Directors.  If it is passed, it will be time to expand the rotation.

Little League's 22-member board of directors will meet Aug. 25 and could vote on new limits that would be based on the number of pitches thrown and could apply in all games, beginning next season.

The obvious implication is you will need more pitchers if you are in a Little League sanctioned league.  However, even if you aren't, you still should groom a couple more kids as pitchers.  If you coach a younger team, now is the perfect time to teach kids proper technique.  While everyone is impressed by speed - Greg Maddux wouldn't have been a second round pick if he could throw 95mph - accuracy is at least as important at the younger levels.

Even if you aren't in a Little League sanctioned league, this rule may be coming your way.  According to Tim Hughes, Little League Board Chairman, the agenda gets set in Williamsport and other leagues follow.

Oftentimes, what Little League baseball does, the other youth baseball leagues in the nation do. They look to us for the leadership role, and we take that very seriously."

Current rules limit a pitcher to six innings per week, regardless of the number of pitches.  The proposal calls for a pitch count limit of 85 per appearance and mandatory four days rest for any pitcher throwing over 61 pitches in an outing.  The USA Today article does not indicate if there are maximum pitch counts per week for a player, but I imagine they wouldn't leave a loophole allowing a kid to pitch as often as possible as long as it was fewer than 60 pitches an outing.

I'm usually hesitant before I jump on a bandwagon like this.  It seems like every month there is a new warning about how something is too dangerous to even think about, let alone allow your child to do.  But in this case I'm convinced lots of innings for most of the year is harmful to young arms.  The issue was first raised when I was talking to a local physical therapist.  He had worked in Tampa for several years and noticed many of his clients were young kids with over use injuries.  When he asked them how many months they played baseball out of the year he was surprised to hear most of the kids played nearly year round.  This rule doesn't mandate an off season, but every kid's arm needs one.  After all, isn't that way Dr. Naismith invented basketball??

But the best reason to endorse this proposal comes out of Birmingham, AL.  If you follow baseball you know the name Dr. James Andrews, and you probably cringe if you read that name in an article about the ace of your staff.  If your ace is in to see Dr. Andrews it usually means he's done for at least the season,  because Dr. Andrews is the leading shoulder and elbow surgeon in the country.  

Research by the Birmingham, Ala.-based American Sports Medicine Institute, run by noted orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, who has treated a who's who of amateur and professional athletes, sparked interest from Little League. Andrews concluded that the sixfold increase he has seen in arm injuries that required surgery had roots in youth baseball.

"The statistics all point to the amount (of pitches) as the No. 1 factor," said Glenn Fleisig, research director at Andrews' institute. "A lot of arm injuries are showing up in teenagers and 20-year-olds. We're seeing the number of overuses per game, per year … add up to injury down the road."

What does it all mean?  If your team is still young you can get ahead of the game by grooming a few more kids as pitchers.  If your team is already in Little League — well, you have the off season…