MARYVILLE, Mo. — The youth baseball season ramping up means more arm injuries for young pitchers.
The primary ailment is a tear in the ulnar collateral ligament, which can lead to UCL reconstruction, or Tommy John Surgery. According to Major League Baseball, there is about a 9% increase in Tommy John surgery each year in players 15-to-19-years-old.
Dr. Pete Dawson, who specializes in sports medicine at Mosaic Life Care, attributes the elbow issues to overuse and a lack of rest between outings.
"A lot of them will start as just kind of nagging medial elbow pain, and then they get worse and worse and it hurts to throw," Dr. Dawson said. "By the time they tell somebody about it and take themselves out it's a long recovery to get back."
Attempting to throw curveballs can play a role, but Dr. Dawson says avoiding breaking pitches isn't enough to prevent injury. Repeated max-effort deliveries wear the arm down, too.
"(Experts) do want you to hold off until you're a certain age to throw breaking balls, but really it's about fastballs. The hardest throwers are the ones that get the injuries."
Dr. Dawson added that Major League Baseball has pitch count guidelines for youth players online.
