Pitch Smart Pitch Count Rules by Age (MLB / USA Baseball)

The Pitch Smart table

Source: MLB / USA Baseball Pitch Smart pitching guidelines. Rules change; confirm against the current rulebook for your league or event before game day.

Read each row left to right. A 10-year-old may throw at most 75 pitches in a game. If he throws 1-20 pitches he can pitch again the next day; 21-35 pitches requires one full calendar day off; 36-50 requires two; 51-65 requires three; and 66 or more requires four. The rest thresholds are identical for ages 9-14, so the only thing that changes across those rows is the daily ceiling.

At 15-16 the brackets widen (1-30, 31-45, 46-60, 61-75, 76+) while the daily maximum stays at 95. At 17-18 the ceiling rises to 105 and the top bracket becomes 61-80 / 81+. Pitch Smart also publishes a college-age row (19-22) with a 120-pitch ceiling and a fifth rest day at 106+ pitches; it is included above for completeness but rarely matters for youth coaches.

How rest days actually work

• Rest is counted in calendar days, not games. Two days of rest after a Saturday outing means Sunday and Monday off; the pitcher is eligible Tuesday.
• The count that matters is total pitches in the day. If a pitcher throws 15 in game one and 15 in game two of a doubleheader, that is 30 pitches for rest purposes (1 day at ages 9-14).
• Warm-ups do not count. Only pitches to a batter in the game count.
• The daily max is a hard stop, the rest table is a forecast. Coaches get in trouble not by exceeding the ceiling but by forgetting that the 50-pitch Saturday starter cannot close on Sunday.

What Pitch Smart says beyond the table

The pitch count table gets the attention, but the program's age-group recommendations are just as useful for planning a season. Among the guidance MLB and USA Baseball publish for youth and adolescent pitchers:

• Avoid pitching on consecutive days, and never on three consecutive days.
• Avoid pitching for more than one team at a time; parallel rosters are one of the most common ways a young arm ends up over the limit without anyone noticing.
• Take at least two to three consecutive months off from competitive pitching every year.
• A player who catches should not also pitch heavily the same day; both positions load the arm.
• Focus on fastball command and change-up before breaking balls at younger ages.

These are not enforced by any rulebook, which is exactly why a coach needs a system for tracking them. See the Pitch Smart guidelines for the full age-group text.

Planning a tournament weekend around the table

Assume a 12U team with four pitchers and a Saturday-Sunday event: two pool games Saturday, then bracket play Sunday. The table tells you the weekend before it starts:

• Any pitcher who throws 21 or more pitches Saturday is done for the weekend. That means your Saturday starters are Saturday-only arms.
• A pitcher held to 20 or fewer Saturday is still available Sunday: this is the reason coaches pull a reliever after one clean inning.
• Pitchers who did not throw Saturday carry no restriction into Sunday, so you plan the bracket around them.
• Sunday outings decide the following week's availability. A 66+ pitch Sunday start means no pitching until Friday.

How Pitch Smart compares to league rules

Little League adopts the same rest brackets (1-20 / 21-35 / 36-50 / 51-65 / 66+) and its own daily maximums (50 / 75 / 85 / 95), so if you coach Little League, this table is your rule. USSSA events usually limit innings rather than pitches, so Pitch Smart is a guideline you layer on top of the tournament rule. Travel organizations and high-school federations each set their own; when in doubt, the tournament's posted rules win.

Pitch Smart FAQ