Driveline Academy Youth Baseball Podcast · Driveline Academy Podcast

Presenting My Universal Pitch Count Concept to MLB & USA Baseball in NYC - Academy Youth Baseball Podcast EP 90 | Driveline Baseball

·1 hr 12 min·5 clips

A 9-year-old threw 180 pitches in a weekend—Devin explains why this is a crisis in youth baseball.

Devin Morgan, Director of Youth Baseball at Driveline, presents a solo episode detailing his recent presentation to MLB and USA Baseball. He advocates for a new universal pitch count and reporting system to address youth pitcher overuse and injury. Morgan explains the current system's limitations, using Pitch Smart as an example of a well-intentioned but fractured guideline. He cites a specific case of a 9U team in Arkansas where three pitchers threw over 100 pitches in a single weekend. The proposed system would use biomechanical data, like that from Driveline's Pulse sensor, to scientifically model workload costs per throw for different age groups. This data would inform pitch count limits designed to control the acute-to-chronic workload ratio, a key injury risk factor. A major problem is the lack of communication between different leagues, like a kid pitching in a Little League game on Friday and a travel tournament on the weekend without either coach knowing. Morgan emphasizes that coach education alone is insufficient without a system that mandates and incentivizes compliance. He expresses deep admiration for collaborators Rob Haney and Taylor McCullough of the ABCA, who helped facilitate the MLB meeting. Morgan shares a personal motivation, feeling a need to scale his positive impact beyond Driveline's direct reach to affect the broader population of 7.6 million consistent youth players. He opened his presentation to MLB with an Archimedes quote about moving the world with a lever, framing the leagues as that necessary leverage. The episode has a conversational, passionate, and detailed tone, blending personal anecdote with technical proposal. Youth coaches, league administrators, and data-inclined parents would find this episode highly relevant. Listeners solely interested in on-field drills or player development tips might find the administrative and policy focus less engaging.

As heard by us

A pitch-count argument about leverage, kids, and who can make the rules stick.

Devin Morgan makes a plain case for something bigger than a roomful of ideas: if a universal pitch-count concept is going to matter, MLB and USA Baseball have to back it.

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Why you'd press play

Why one youth pitch-count idea needs MLB-level leverage.

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