Dynamic Pitch Count and Velocity Changes Linked to Arm Injuries in Collegiate Baseball Pitchers

Highlight

• Increased game pitch counts above a pitcher’s personal average correlate with a higher risk of shoulder and elbow injuries.
• Decreases in mean fastball velocity relative to individual baseline also associate with elevated injury risk.
• Nonlinear, parabolic relationships suggest that both excessive increases and reductions in workload and velocity have injury implications.
• Prospective cohort design with 187 collegiate pitchers offers robust data over nearly 10,000 exposure days.

Study Background