Number of Warm-up pitches?

[DG]

Originally posted by officialtony
I don't know if " rationale " would be the correct term, but I liken it to having players throwing baseballs around in the infield during the pregame conference at the plate. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of having baseballs being tossed around by any age group when I or others in the infield are focused on other things - like a pitchers conference or any defensive conference. Since the rule applies during pregame, I like to see it applied all the time - again during conferences, not ALL the time. This is strictly MY opinion. There are no SPECIFIC rules in NFHS to support this officially.

The difference is there is a rule that prohibits players from being on the field during the pregame, much less throwing a ball around. And what about between innings when the 1B man routinely throws grounders to the other infielders. If balls are being thrown around I will be focused on making sure I am standing somewhere where it would be very rare to get hit by a thrown ball (RCF if on bases, on one of the line on plate). I mentioned that I have seen a coach throw a ball to 1B man and he starts playing catch with 2B man. I have also seen the ball thrown into CF and the CF play catch with RF. While this is unusual I see no reason to do anything about it. Lastly, if a coach does this when he first comes off the bench, then has his mound meeting and then calls for the change the new pitcher is likely to get 8-10 more warmup tosses before being called to pitch and if that makes him a better pitcher, or less likely to injure his arm due to only 8 warmups I am all for it.

[Edited by DG on Apr 4th, 2005 at 10:05 PM]