Question for Those Who Have Pitched

[Dave Borton]

Have the Jays/A's game on. Kikuchi pitched 7.0 complete, 100 pitches.

Toronto radio booth said Kikuchi's off-season training was pitching 200-300 pitch bull pen sessions, all off-season. Today's 100-pitch effort is a cakewalk for him.

Describe a bullpen session for me. How in the heck can his arm take that, playing all year and subjecting it to that kind of wear and tear. TIA, strictly a sandlotter 3rd and 1st baseman. db

[jkcarew]

Oops

[jkcarew]

19 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Hard to say without knowing how he pitches. And how many days between bullpen sessions.

Not common at all in modern game. But, guys that rely totally on deception/location, don’t (in theory) have to come anywhere close to ‘maxing’ or ‘stressing’ their arm on a given pitch.

Starters that paced themselves were the norm, let’s say, prior to the 90’s. This includes guys that could throw hard.  They just left the ‘extra’ in the tank for if/when the game situation demanded it…and regularly threw well over 100 pitches, frequently WAY over 100.
 

Having said that, it’s a good bet that the bullpen sessions are still significantly less intense than live pitching…no matter the style. You can be working on mechanic, balance, lower body strength, etc. And the announcers were probably using a bit of hyperbole, as well. I’d probably call BS on the 300 number.

 

[Dave Borton]

12 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Having said that, it’s a good bet that the bullpen sessions are still significantly less intense than live pitching…no matter the style. You can be working on mechanic, balance, lower body strength...

I ..call BS on 300 number.

This is helpful, thanks.

And I would agree, hyperbole can be employed, particularly when Kicuchi was completing 7 inn, kicking the A's collective butt.

[HokieRif]

On 6/25/2023 at 4:27 PM, jkcarew said:

And the announcers were probably using a bit of hyperbole, as well. I’d probably call BS on the 300 number.

that number does seem inflated.  However, I could see a late spring training session getting close if you include every single warm-up throw taken during the session though.  I'm not actually sure what constitutes a SP warmup session before a game, but 50 throws (to me) sounds about right.  So, maybe double that during the spring to get to 100, then 150ish actual pitches to push for strength and stamina.  But not something you would want to do at all during the season unless its on an extended rehab assignment.