[Ring'Em Up]

anyone see this game???? wow. ANOTHER walk off HR wins World title for Georgia, for their 2nd yr in a row. Great GREAT games over past 2 weeks in this series. All the big hits, defense, and PITCHING was outstanding from MANY kids.

ONLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY dissapointing thing for me about it, is that "is it really needed pitch limit???" i mean, it affected a couple games this week, plus the thing that really turned me against it was the look on Texas pitcher Garrett Williams' face today in the consy game when he realized he was ONE pitch over the limit to get the 18th out of the game and to complete a NO HITTER against a very very good hitting Curacao team. kid struck out 42 of 56 batters, allowed 5 hits, no run in the tourney, and has be removed with one out remaining in 3rd place game??!!! i have felt that if a coach doesnt have the sense to know when he is pushing a kid too far, then he doesnt need to be in the dugout to begin with. He had DOMINATED all batters the whole tourney, unlike I had EVER seen in LLWS, and the last thing i now remember about him is that dissapointed look and drop of his head when the timeout was called to take him off the mound.

Anyway, GREAT great tourney again. by the way, did anyone check out the series website? they had some cool new things this year, player profiles from each team and such.
ahh well, its jus about 12 months till, in my opinion, one of the top 3 sporting events in the world starts all over.

[GRIZZ]

Texas had the best gun slingers in the tourney stat wise. They had a kid in 15 innings of work that fanned 41 or 42 batters. If they had their top two pitchers instead of throwing a kid that hadn't pitched since the sectionals the title may have been heading back to Lubbock. I think its amazing that the past two titles were won by teams 90 miles apart being Columbus and Warner Robbins GA. Its been a great year for the US in international competition, first the hot dog title comes home and now the Little League World Series. Congrats to all those young kids.

[phs1986]

Watched the games daily..... Kids never cease to amaze me!! Excellent ballplaying and fun to watch...

I did like the one sign a kid was holding though... it said......"Put me on TV so my mom knows I'm alright"... I thought that was cute too!!! I love the way the include the crowd in the coverage and I have to say that the HR's that were hit in this tourney were amazing!!! Way to go Georgia!!!!

[GRIZZ]

What about the kids surfing down the hill on cardboard boxes? That was something pretty neat, reminds me of the good ole' days.

[phs1986]

You can tell that they have a BLAST!!! I LOVE baseball!!!!

[OffTheHook]

anyone see this game???? wow. ANOTHER walk off HR wins World title for Georgia, for their 2nd yr in a row. Great GREAT games over past 2 weeks in this series. All the big hits, defense, and PITCHING was outstanding from MANY kids.

ONLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY dissapointing thing for me about it, is that "is it really needed pitch limit???" i mean, it affected a couple games this week, plus the thing that really turned me against it was the look on Texas pitcher Garrett Williams' face today in the consy game when he realized he was ONE pitch over the limit to get the 18th out of the game and to complete a NO HITTER against a very very good hitting Curacao team. kid struck out 42 of 56 batters, allowed 5 hits, no run in the tourney, and has be removed with one out remaining in 3rd place game??!!! i have felt that if a coach doesnt have the sense to know when he is pushing a kid too far, then he doesnt need to be in the dugout to begin with. He had DOMINATED all batters the whole tourney, unlike I had EVER seen in LLWS, and the last thing i now remember about him is that dissapointed look and drop of his head when the timeout was called to take him off the mound.

Anyway, GREAT great tourney again. by the way, did anyone check out the series website? they had some cool new things this year, player profiles from each team and such.
ahh well, its jus about 12 months till, in my opinion, one of the top 3 sporting events in the world starts all over.

YES, the pitch count is needed. The kids health is the most important thing. NOT all coaches think straight when these type of games are played. The kid may have looked disappointed, but, at least he wasn't in pain and will be able to pitch again tomorrow. Not, all coaches think straight in the heat of a game. I watched a local High School coach (Not in blue) this summer, during a Summer League Game @ Paintsville (WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING), allow his 15 year old Freshman, to throw 149 pitches.

As far as the games...They were awesome. My favorite time of the year when LLWS is on TV.
Also, moving the fences back was a good move also. Added more fundamentals to the game, such as the use of the cut-off-man.

[Ring'Em Up]

i see how some people like the idea of the limit, but at least set it at sumthing a lil higher, maybe 95 or 100. i mean, the math of 85 pitches/6 innings leaves ya at 14 per inning. i dont recall but maybe 3-4 games with the kid getting to throw all 6 innings this year.
i sure, tho, the likes of Mussina and the other shot callers at Little League have done TONS more research on this than I, but i jus hate seeing a kid throwing an outstanding game, then having be pulled for the final out over, in today's case for Texas, 1 foul ball on the 84th pitch.
i was reading the interview with the Texas manager today, and he actually said he would like to see it even lower with the idea of developing more pitchers. but, i believe there would have been a backlash by him and MANy others, had the last batter for Curacao came thru with another walk off HR or sumthing off his reliever.

but, yeah, ANYONE would agree 149 is jus ridiculous and irresponsible coaching. hope it wasnt from someone nearby!!! hahaha but i do have an idea of maybe who the pitcher could have been, if in fact it was a local team.

these days, 115 or so is a benchmark for MLB.

dang, all this typing in these posts, ya can tell which sport i miss the most!!!

[GRIZZ]

I agree with both Ring Em' Up and Offthehook. I think the pitch count in some ways was needed for the health of the player who's arm isn't fully developed and some of those that are left out there when he can't find the zone or is getting shelled in particular for those managers that want their kids to work through it. But honestly the old rules about 6 or 9 innings of work(not exactly sure) during a week and start over with a fresh set of innings the following week would still be fine today with most people. On the other hand if a kid is having a great game he really shouldn't need 85+ pitches to get the job done. The Little League World Series games go by pretty quick because of how good the teams pitchers and fielders are.

[Panther Thunder]

[quote=OffTheHook]YES, the pitch count is needed. The kids health is the most important thing. NOT all coaches think straight when these type of games are played. The kid may have looked disappointed, but, at least he wasn't in pain and will be able to pitch again tomorrow. Not, all coaches think straight in the heat of a game. I watched a local High School coach (Not in blue) this summer, during a Summer League Game @ Paintsville (WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING), allow his 15 year old Freshman, to throw 149 pitches.

quote]
I think it may be neccessary, but I think higher at about 100-105. It is very hard to throw a complete game in 85 pitches. And it takes away from the pitchers strategy, YOU CAN'T WASTE ANY PITCHES!!!! If I am pitching I want to be able to throw some pitches to try to get batters to chase, with the new rules you are basically throwing one pitch away. On an 0-2 count you shuldn't throw anything hitable but it is always on your mind that you have to keep your pitch count low.
I also think they should be able to finish out the inning. Like if you have a no-no or perfect game going at least go to the end of the inning, because if you are getting pounded in that inning chances are you will be taken out anyway. I remember a night that I was off and threw between 155-165 pitches and walked 11 batters in 5 innings, no way I should hve stayed in, so that is why I think there should be a limit but either 100-105.

[OffTheHook]

I think it may be neccessary, but I think higher at about 100-105. It is very hard to throw a complete game in 85 pitches. And it takes away from the pitchers strategy, YOU CAN'T WASTE ANY PITCHES!!!! If I am pitching I want to be able to throw some pitches to try to get batters to chase, with the new rules you are basically throwing one pitch away. On an 0-2 count you shuldn't throw anything hitable but it is always on your mind that you have to keep your pitch count low.
I also think they should be able to finish out the inning. Like if you have a no-no or perfect game going at least go to the end of the inning, because if you are getting pounded in that inning chances are you will be taken out anyway. I remember a night that I was off and threw between 155-165 pitches and walked 11 batters in 5 innings, no way I should hve stayed in, so that is why I think there should be a limit but either 100-105.

The rule basically has two different reasons.
#1 - The most important is the kids health.
#2 - To develope more kids.

As far as wasting pitches..It averages out to be 14 pitches an inning. So that would allow you 5 extra pitches per inning. If a kid puts the ball in play earlier than 3 pitches then you would have more to waste. I can say this though..Paintsville LL adapted the rule last year and to my knowledge we have seen zero pitching related injuries. Like Ring'em Up said earlier. "these days, 115 or so is a benchmark for MLB".
That being said. I don't think it would hurt for them to up the count by 5 or 10 pitches tops. That would top you Big League out at 125, Senior at 115 and Junior at 105. That would be about right on with the MLB standards.
Something else that would help would be to limit the amount of true breaking balls thrown per game.

[More Cowbell]

YES, the pitch count is needed. The kids health is the most important thing. NOT all coaches think straight when these type of games are played. The kid may have looked disappointed, but, at least he wasn't in pain and will be able to pitch again tomorrow. Not, all coaches think straight in the heat of a game. I watched a local High School coach (Not in blue) this summer, during a Summer League Game @ Paintsville (WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING), allow his 15 year old Freshman, to throw 149 pitches.

OTH, I agree with you completely. When you are dealing with young arms like those found in Little League, you have to protect their health above all else. Winning is nice, but not at the expense of destroying some kid's arm in the process. They can throw more pitches when they get into high school. Keep the pitch count as is.

And I agree about the coaches, too. When a coach wants to win bad enough, the well-being of his young players may not be foremost on his mind. The pitch count removes any possibility of a coach abusing one of his player's arms.

[MVP2]

Its been great the past 2 weeks!....Congrats GA!!!