Comments About “Pitching Behaviors in Youth Baseball: Comparison With the Pitch Smart Guidelines”: Response

Abstract

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate the commentary from Fleisig et al on our article evaluating pitching behaviors in youth baseball. The insight from these authors is highly valued, as their previous work helped to establish the foundation for the Pitch Smart guidelines.

As a point of clarification, the focus of the current study was on teams participating in the tournament setting. All teams that were included in the study participated in events that involved multiple games over a series of consecutive days, as occurs in the tournament setting. In the state of Wisconsin, few tournaments, if any, adhere to any of the Pitch Smart recommendations. Although it is possible for teams included in the current study to additionally participate in leagues in which Pitch Smart limits were enforced, this likely was very infrequent. Moreover, teams that participated only in leagues or organizations that followed Pitch Smart recommendations, and did not participate in any tournaments, were not included in the study.

Therefore, the results of this study should be viewed from the standpoint of tournament teams rather than the teams participating in Pitch Smart–compliant organizations. Although progress has been made with the development and adoption of Pitch Smart guidelines in youth baseball, there are still more hurdles to overcome. It will take a team effort to improve upon the current state of tournament and showcase youth baseball that is putting athletes at risk for injury.

Justin Greiner, MD Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Cameron Trotter, MD Brian E. Walczak, DO Scott Hetzel, MS Geoffrey S. Baer, MD, PhD Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Footnotes

One or more of the authors has declared the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: J.G. has received education payments from Great Lakes Orthopedics. B.E.W. has received hospitality payments from Smith & Nephew and Stryker. G.S.B. has received grant funding from OREF, education payments from Arthrex and Linvatec, consulting fees from ConMed, and other funding from DJO. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto.