A high school pitcher in Rochester, Washington threw 194 pitches in a single day as his baseball coach left him in for 14 innings. That’s way, way too many pitches, and is exactly the kind of treatment of amateur arms that has likely helped lead to the rash of Tommy John surgeries in MLB.
High schooler throws 194 pitches. Should we be mad?
It’s not the kind of situation we’re used to hearing about, and might require further thinking.
However...
People just don't understand. I'm not a ace pitcher, I'm a infielder who pitches every now and then. Not a prospect ruining there career
— Dylan Fosnacht (@DFosnacht5) May 15, 2014 Dylan Fosnacht isn’t a pitcher full-time, and from the looks of his Twitter account, spends “90%” of his time on the field doing things other than pitching. Rochester is designated as a Class 1A school, one of the smallest classifications in the state of Washington, so it’s not as if he’s part of some big program with loads of scouts in attendance at every game, either. It seems like Fosnacht is a kid who wanted his moment in the amateur spotlight because there won’t be any higher levels for him, and now he has a story to tell anyone who will listen about the time he threw 14 innings in a single game, uphill both ways.
Pitching Problems
Maybe he’ll develop an injury from this, but I’m no doctor, so I can’t tell you if it’s the kind of thing that will bother him unless it’s fixed. He might also be totally fine, and it’s a one-time thing that again, resulted in a story he seems thrilled to possess. Pitchers used to throw a million pitches per game (slight exaggeration) for a century before science told them they should chill out, and they didn’t all end up as tortured shadows of their former selves the first time it happened.
We know Fosnacht’s thoughts on the matter, considering he retweeted this:
Dylan Fosnacht is gonna be so mad in 5 years when a doctor tells him his pitching career that ended 4 years and 11 months ago is over.
— Aaron VanTuyl (@ChronAVT) May 15, 2014 I’m torn between this being irresponsible of the coach -- opening up kids to the possibility of injury, regardless of their career intentions, is irresponsible -- and it not being something to get too worked up about considering all of the context built into it. Your opinions may vary, but I’m at least leaning towards irresponsible even if it’s what Fosnacht wanted.
I can’t quite muster the outrage I would have were he a legitimate pitching prospect, though, looking for a career in the sport. I’m not sure what that says about me/all of us.
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