Glossary
Pitch Smart guidelines
Pitch Smart is MLB and USA Baseball's set of pitching guidelines for players 7 to 22: a daily pitch limit by age, days of rest by pitches thrown, and limits on innings and months pitched in a year.
- League
- MLB Pitch Smart
- Sport
- Baseball
- Ages
- Ages 7–22, as recommendations; a league or tournament adopts them
- Rule year
- 2026
- Source
- MLB and USA Baseball Pitch Smart: Guidelines for Youth and Adolescent Pitchers
- Last checked
- November 6, 2026
Leagues can set their own limits. Check your league's rules before the season.
Pitch Smart is not a league. It is a set of guidelines MLB and USA Baseball publish for youth and amateur pitchers, and leagues, travel organizations and tournaments adopt it, or write their own pitch count rules from it. Little League's pitch counts follow the same daily limits, which is why the two tables look alike.
The core is the table: a daily maximum by age, and the calendar days of rest each outing needs. A 9- or 10-year-old may throw 75 pitches in a day; one who throws 40 needs two days off before pitching again. Rest steps up with the pitch count, and the bands get wider at 15, when arms can take a bigger load.
The guidelines go past one game. They set a ceiling on innings pitched in any 12 months, which grows with age, and ask every pitcher to take months off from throwing each year, with part of that time in one stretch. They also warn against pitching for more than one team whose seasons overlap, and against catching on the days a player is not pitching, since a catcher throws nearly as much as the pitcher.
The year-round part is the one coaches can't keep for a player alone. A travel team, a rec league and a school team each count their own games, and none of them sees the others' numbers. Pitch Smart puts that on the parents and the player: the guidelines are for the whole year, across every team.
Coaches who keep a pitch count for every game, and write down each pitcher's total afterward, can show any parent or tournament director that a player had the rest the guidelines ask for.
| Age | Daily max | No rest | 1 day | 2 days | 3 days | 4 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7–8 | 50 | 1–20 | 21–35 | 36–50 | — | — |
| 9–10 | 75 | 1–20 | 21–35 | 36–50 | 51–65 | 66+ |
| 11–12 | 85 | 1–20 | 21–35 | 36–50 | 51–65 | 66+ |
| 13–14 | 95 | 1–20 | 21–35 | 36–50 | 51–65 | 66+ |
| 15–16 | 95 | 1–30 | 31–45 | 46–60 | 61–75 | 76+ |
| 17–18 | 105 | 1–30 | 31–45 | 46–60 | 61–80 | 81+ |
| 19–22 | 120 | 1–30 | 31–45 | 46–60 | 61–80 | 81+ |
How it plays out in a game
- A 12-year-old throws 55 pitches on Saturday: three days of rest, so Wednesday is the first day back on the mound.
- A 14-year-old pitches in a Saturday travel game and has a rec league game Sunday: the guidelines count both, so the second team needs the first team's number.
- A 16-year-old throws 30 pitches in relief: no rest is needed, since the first band runs to 30 from age 15.
- A pitcher comes out after 60 pitches and goes behind the plate: the guidelines advise against it.
Put it on a card: Pitching charts.
Set up for this rule
The free pitch count tracker counts each pitcher's pitches against the daily limit and shows the rest they will need. It opens on ages 9–10; pick your age group at the top. To keep the count on paper, a printed pitching chart gives the scorekeeper a row per pitcher.
Open the pitch count trackerFrequently Asked Questions
Is Pitch Smart a rule?
Only where a league or tournament adopts it. On its own it is a set of guidelines from MLB and USA Baseball; many leagues and travel events write it into their rules.
How many pitches can a 13-year-old throw under Pitch Smart?
95 in a day at ages 13–14. Throwing 66 or more needs four days of rest before pitching again.
Is Pitch Smart the same as Little League's pitch count?
The daily limits are the same at every age. Little League's own rules add how the count is kept in a game and how pitching limits catching, so read your league's rulebook as well.
Does Pitch Smart count pitches across different teams?
Yes. The limits are per day and per year for the player, not per team, so a player on two teams needs someone, usually a parent, to add up both.
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