THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION

| 2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS

2,384 MLB PLAYERS | 15,801 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS

Create Account

General | General | 9/30/2022

Wolforth Thrower Mentorship: Article 24

Jerry Ford

Ron Wolforth

Photo: Johnny Tergo/Truth Baseball

Ron Wolforth probably knows more about the throwing arm and arm care than anyone we know. Many of you may have heard about the famous Texas Baseball Ranch that Ron has been running for many years. We have built a great relationship with Ron and his wife Jill over the years.

It all started a few years back when Ron sent his son Garrett to a Perfect Game event. His son was a catcher/infielder and set some all-time PG records for pop times (1.75) and velocity (89 mph) at the time. He also threw mid-90s across the infield. He is now playing professionally. Being an average-sized kid, this really drew our interest. Once we realized who his father was, it became clear.

Since then we have followed the Texas Baseball Ranch closely. Ron is a very humble man, which is a reason so many speak highly of him. We have never run across a single person that shows any disrespect for him or the Ranch. So we decided to ask him to help our millions of followers.

Over the years he has helped thousands of pitchers, including many that became Major League All-Stars. Yes, he teaches velocity gains, better control and command, and everything a pitchers needs to be successful. However, unlike many others, he is an absolute stickler when it comes to doing it safely. His interest doesn't just involve velocity gains and other improvements, all of which are very important. He wants his students to understand arm care and how to throw and stay healthy. He does this without a cookie cutter program. He understands that all players are different individuals.

Perfect Game's interest in prospects, arm care and keeping young kids healthy is the major reason we have decided to work with Ron Wolforth.

Below is the 24th of an ongoing column he will be doing on our Perfect Game website. This information will be gold for any player interested in improving their throwing ability and staying healthy. Make sure you read every column he contributes and feel free to comment on them.

If you want to attend one of his camps and improve your throwing ability, here is the link to the website:
https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/

Jerry Ford
President
Perfect Game

^{. . .}
Article 1: Where the Sidewalk Terminates
Article 2: The Exact Location of Your Arm Pain is Incredibly Valuable Information
Article 3: No Pain, No Problem...Right? Not Quite So Fast.
Article 4: The Secret to Accelerated Skill Development: Hyper-Personalization
Article 5: The Case Against Weighted Balls?
Article 6: The Truth About Pitch Counts, Workloads, and Overuse
Article 7: Velocity Appraisal: How 'Hard' Is 'Hard Enough'?
Article 8: Command Appraisal: How 'Accurate' Is 'Accurate Enough'?
Article 9: Swing & Miss Appraisal: How 'Nasty' Is 'Nasty Enough'?
Article 10: 5 Common Mistakes Baseball Players Make In Their Training
Article 11: The Truth About Curveballs, Sliders, and Cutters
Article 12: What is Involved in Deep, Deliberate Practice vs. Traditional Practice
Article 13: The Truth About Long Toss?
Article 14: The Truth About Conditioning of Pitchers?
Article 15: Simple and Effective Post Throwing Strategies for Pitchers
Article 16: 12 Common (Yet Often Dangerous) Narratives For Pitchers, Part 1
Article 17: 12 Common (Yet Often Dangerous) Narratives For Pitchers, Part 2
Article 18: 12 Common (Yet Often Dangerous) Narratives For Pitchers, Part 3
Article 19: Things To Consider When Embarking On A Velocity Enhancement Program This Year
Article 20: Is Your Pitcher Headed Straight Toward An Injury?
Article 21: The Season Has Started And You're Struggling With Command: Here's How To Turn It Around Quickly
Article 22: The Challenges & Dangers of an In-Season Velocity Program
Article 23: One Very Critical Question Every Pitcher Should Ask Heading Into The Offseason

Almost every single week, it seems I’m visiting with absolutely wonderful people who love to tell me about their son the pitcher. They proudly proclaim that he never exceeds a specifically prescribed pitch count and only recently was he even allowed to throw a curveball. Their inference, of course, is that they have really taken care of his arm and he is therefore, in a matter of speaking, inoculated from an arm injury.

I almost always politely change the subject and attempt to move on to the primary reason they called or stopped by to see us. It’s not their fault, they simply do not know what they don’t know.

In this period of what I call, “The Covid Era,” it has become very clear to me that common sense, personal autonomy/responsibility, and rugged individualism are quickly being replaced by a “tyranny of expertise” in which we are told in no uncertain terms of what is safe and appropriate. Unfortunately, even when they are proven wrong by the very “science” they forward as unassailable, often the flawed conclusions remain sacrosanct.

Baseball is certainly not immune to this trend.

Workload, pitch count, and “overuse” have been forwarded for several years by the “experts” as the primary reason for throwing-related injury.

But the facts simply don’t align with the presumption.

The most common months for UCL and labrum tears in professional baseball are March and April; the least common are September and October. So, if workload and accruing pitch count numbers were the bugaboo many experts warn us about, then why are injuries the highest when the season is just beginning and at the lowest when the accumulated workloads would have been at their highest?

The answer: The causes and contributors to injury are obviously far more complex than simply managing pitch count.

In my opinion, in an effort to reduce or eliminate arm injuries, the modern competitive baseball universe has become hypnotized by the thought of a strict limitation to pitch counts as being the solution to the Tommy John and labrum surgeries. They have lost their collective ability to think clearly and to use common sense.

Oh, if only this “pitch count equals injury” were actually true, I would have the opportunity to play so much more golf.

While a very intoxicating notion, the concept of strict pitch count limitation being a fail-safe for reducing and/or eliminating arm problems in pitchers is not only severely flawed and overly simplistic, but also, in my opinion, absurd. In fact, at the end of the day, it is a detrimental and counter-productive concept. Although I’ve been discussing the concept of pitch counts and workloads with coaches and parents since 1995, it occurs to me that many of you may have never had the opportunity to be exposed to what I think is a deeper level of reasoning on this hot-button topic.

Let me begin with finding places where I agree or concur with the sentiment and process itself. Here is what I believe is useable or salvageable from the basic utilization and management of workload for pitchers.

For the record, I’m 100% in favor of recording and monitoring the pitch count for each pitcher throughout the year and throughout his career.

Pitch count is an objective measure of individual workload. That workload can become important to each individual pitcher on their journey. Therefore, I strongly endorse the recording of it on each and every individual.

That is about as far as I can go in regard to agreeing with standard practices, both in amateur and professional baseball, in terms of the philosophy of counting pitches. The rest of the story revolves around the interpretation of that measurement.

Let me give you an example of how incredibly flawed and shortsighted many of the interpretations, and subsequent applications based upon those interpretations, really can be.

Let us use a non-baseball example to help everyone understand my utter disdain for this intellectual laziness and lack of logic and wisdom.

Together, let’s interpret another set of data.

My simple question to you: Is 72 inches considered tall?

Simple question, right? What’s the correct answer?

The answer: It obviously very much depends upon the subgroup of people to whom the question is posed.

If you asked an executive in the NBA, 72 inches would be considered incredibly short. If you are from Sri Lanka or the Island of Timor, at 6-feet tall you would be considered incredibly tall. If your subset was American females, you would, at 72 inches, be considered quite tall. If your subset was American males, you would be considered slightly above average. If your subset was American males at 12 years of age, you again would be considered tall.

The data didn’t change… 72 inches was the same metric for every single group. What changed in our interpretation was the context of the question. In other words, context really, really, really matters.

As human beings, we frequently seek out specific, detailed, explicit, and profound answers to general, universal questions. That rarely goes well, and the downstream effect of such expectations is that our athletes begin to doubt the competence of their teachers, the efficacy of their efforts, and/or the effectiveness of the process.

We ALL lose when this happens.

Every single month at the Ranch, I see young people come to us defeated and beaten down. They are told they will NEVER do X, Y, or Z. Based upon the “data”, they are inferior and incapable.

I hate that perspective with everything in my being. I think it’s one of the greatest scourges in our society… to be judged by some hypothetical data points interpreted by someone who often has an agenda in how this all plays out.

Back to pitch count.

What could possibly be the “context” that we should consider regarding pitch count?

Pull up a chair, there is much we need to discuss.

Example: Pitcher A had a pitch count of 110. Pitcher B had a pitch count of 55. Which one had the heaviest workload?

Many think I’ve actually lost my mind even asking this question. Pitcher A threw exactly twice the number of pitches as Pitcher B.

Most would even respond by saying something along the lines of, “Pitcher A was getting up there and really putting his arm at risk. Pitcher B is probably very safe.”

What is your point, Coach Wolforth?

What if I added this bit of context: Pitcher A’s outing was 110 pitches over 9 innings and Pitcher B threw 55 pitches in 1 1/3 innings?

If most people are honest, they would immediately and intuitively respond, “Oh yea, that does change things.”

Sure it does! Pitch count per inning is simply much more impactful than pitch count per outing.
Don’t see how this matters? Let me help.

I will do 110 push-ups. You will do 55.

I will do 15, then rest for 20 minutes, do 15 again, and repeat the 15 push-ups and 20-minute rest until the 110 are finished.

You will do all 55 in a row.

Let’s see who struggles more.

Again, most people would say, “Yea, that also changes things,” because it definitely does.

In the real world, and if everything else is equal (which is rarely the case), if the pitcher can stay between 12-18 pitches per inning, he will have a far better chance of staying healthy than if he exceeds 30 pitches in any one inning.

Therefore: Pitches per inning is in fact more important and impactful to arm health than pitches per outing.

The second bit of context: 2 pitchers throw 110 pitches. Pitcher A throws 110 pitches in his first start of the season and in temperatures that are in the mid-40s. Pitcher B throws 110 pitches 3 months into the season in temperatures that are in the upper-70s.

Once again, a vast majority of people would say, “Yea, that also changes things.” Again, because it obviously does.

The third example of context: Pitcher A throws 110 pitches in the first start of his rookie season coming back from a UCL strain during spring training. Pitcher B throws 110 pitches in his 15th start of the season, in his 15th year of pitching in professional baseball, and with zero history of arm issues.

Are those 110 pitches equal? Almost assuredly not.

The fourth example of context: Pitcher A throws 110 pitches tonight but 5 nights ago, he threw 127 pitches in 7 innings of work. Pitcher B throws 110 pitches tonight but 5 nights ago, he threw 67 pitches in 6 innings of work.

Again, are those 110 pitches equal?

Probably not.

The fifth example of context: Both of these pitchers threw 110 pitches. In this example, for argument’s sake, let’s intentionally disregard the obvious age difference and focus solely on the position of release.

I believe most people can see the considerable additional valgus force the pitcher on the left creates on his medial elbow and anterior shoulder. In fact, I seriously doubt the young man on the left could last 110 pitches.

Ergo, the 110 pitches were definitely not the same.

Finally, the sixth example of context: (I could easily give you 6 more examples, but I hope my point is made.) Pitcher A threw 110 pitches from 45 feet in batting practice today at 50 mph. Pitcher B threw 110 pitches in a game from 60.5 feet away and averaged 88 mph.

Obviously not the same, right? Yet both threw 110 pitches.

Conclusion: Context matters. A lot.

Takeaways:

• Numbers seem absolute but in fact, they are often very relative.
• Pitch count per inning matters more than pitch count per outing.
• The pitcher’s history and current status of arm health matter a great deal.
• The pitcher’s ramp-up and throwing foundation matter a great deal.
• The pitcher’s mechanical efficiency matters a great deal.
• Even the weather he pitches in matters.

In short, pitch count, in our opinion, shouldn’t ever be viewed as a universal measure. It is best utilized as an individual measurement with all important contexts included.

When we have arbitrarily decided, for example, that everyone who is 72 inches is either tall or short, we at that very moment run the risk of missing the forest for the trees.

On topics related to pitching, I urge you to always keep common sense at the front of your decision-making process. If it doesn’t sound right or it seems to be overly broad or unusually sweeping, I would trust your instincts. I remind you that since the beginning of man, no group has been more routinely wrong about things than have the “experts.” In 2022, that remains to still be true.

-Coach Wolforth

Coach Wolforth is the founder of the Texas Baseball Ranch® and has written six books on pitching including the Amazon Best Seller, Pitching with Confidence. Since 2003, The Texas Baseball Ranch® has had over 524 pitchers break the 90mph barrier, 186 have topped 94mph or better, and 129 of his students have been drafted in the MLB’s June Amateur Draft. Coach Wolforth has consulted with 13 MLB teams, dozens of NCAA programs and has been referred to as “America’s Go-to-Guy on Pitching” and “The Pitching Coaches Pitching Coach”. Coach Wolforth lives in Montgomery, TX with his wife, Jill. They are intimately familiar with youth select, travel baseball and PG events as their son Garrett (now a catcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization) went through the process. Garrett still holds the PG Underclass All-American Games record for catcher velocity at 89mph which he set in 2014 at the age of 16.

Upcoming Texas Baseball Ranch® Fall/Winter Events

• 3-Day Elite Pitcher’s Boot Camps for pitchers ages 12 & up. Five camps, one per month, between October and February. More information at https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/elite-pitchers-bootcamp/

• The once-a-year “Youth” Pitchers camp for players ages 8-11. This year’s event will be October 15th & 16th. Space is limited. Details at https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/events/youth-elite-pitchers-bootcamp/

• Elite CATCHER’s Boot Camp December 9-11th for catchers ages 14 & up. Learn more at https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/catcher. “Early Bird” $500 savings ends Sept. 30th.

To Learn More About the Texas Baseball Ranch, go to:
www.TexasBaseballRanch.com

PERFECTGAME.TV

Give us your feedback

General | Blog | 12/10/2025

Youth Baseball Exec. DeDonatis III Joins PG

Jim Salisbury

Youth Baseball Executive Don DeDonatis III Joins PG By Jim Salisbury It’s free-agent season in baseball and Perfect Game has landed a big one. Don DeDonatis III joined PG as a consultant in November. The DeDonatis name is synonymous with youth baseball and softball. Along with his dad, Don Jr., DeDonatis helped build USSSA into a big hitter in the game. He brings decades of experience and knowledge to PG. “We all acknowledge that Donny has moved on from USSSA,” PG CEO Rob Ponger said. “This is a new chapter for him and we hope both sides take advantage of it to help youth sports in general. “The DeDonatis name has a legacy attached to it and we’re hoping that Donny is going to help us. PG is a growing brand and he’s on board to help.” DeDonatis was CEO at USSSA from 2018 until his exit from the company two years ago. “I’m...

High School | General | 12/24/2025

2025 Year In Review: High School

Cam McElwaney

IMG Academy Takes Home the National Title Every year IMG Academy comes into the spring with top-to-bottom one of the top rosters in the country and every year have the expectation of winning the national championship. Well in 2025 they did just that after finishing the spring 24-1, winning the High School Showdown, and winning 15 straight games to end their season. Their high end offensive ability was on full display throughout the year and they will once again be one of the most talented teams in the country in ’26 as they look to go back-to-back. Two Top-10 Picks in the MLB Draft Headline National Players of the Year It was another loaded crop that took home the National Players of the Year as both Ethan Holliday, the National Player of the Year, and Seth Hernandez, National Pitcher of the Year, heard their names called within the first-10 picks in the MLB Draft. Another first...

Draft | Rankings | 12/24/2025

Top 2027 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Isaiah Burrows

With the 2025 cycle officially behind us and the calendar nearly flipping over to 2026, it is time to start looking ahead to the future. More importantly, start looking ahead to the next season of college baseball and what that may mean for draft-eligible players with big dreams of continuing their journey. While the 2026 MLB Draft is now on the horizon, we are looking ahead to the future even further – to see which players have already made impacts upon their arrival to college campuses. We have already dropped our 2028 Top 75 collegiate prospects board, but this one is our Top 100 college prospects who will be eligible for the 2027 class. These are the Top 100 players in our eyes for this group, and many of them have already shown up on campus and been impactful in many ways. Whether its our top-ranked player in Oregon State’s Dax Whitney or ninth-ranked William Schmidt...

Draft | Rankings | 12/23/2025

Top 2028 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Vincent Cervino

The college players in the 2028 draft class have yet to step on campus, but they're positioned to make an immediate impact. Several high end talents either turned down significant money last year or honored strong college commitments, resulting in their arrival on campus this fall. The class is currently led by a trio of high-upside arms in Jack Bauer, Angel Cervantes, and Cameron Appenzeller. They are followed by a deep group of bats that rounds out a strong, high end Top-10. Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State 1 Jack Bauer C LHP L-L Mississippi State Frankfort IL 2 Angel Cervantes C RHP R-R UCLA Lynwood CA 3 Cameron Appenzeller C LHP L-L Tennessee Springfield IL 4 Brayden Jaksa C C R-R Oregon Fremont CA 5 JD Stein C SS R-R Wake Forest Carmel IN 6 Mason Ligenza C OF L-L Pittsburgh Brockton PA 7 Ty Peeples C OF L-R Georgia Lavonia GA 8 Lucas Franco C SS L-R TCU Katy TX 9...

Juco | Story | 12/23/2025

2025 Year in Review: JUCO

Blaine Peterson

Looking Back at the 2025 Top 10 Matt Barr (‘25 Niagara, ‘26 Minnesota Twins) Bursting onto the scene last winter, footage of an indoor bullpen rocketed Barr onto the radar of many. Explosive fastball reaches near triple digits with incredible spin numbers across the secondaries. Huge numbers at Niagara earned him the title of the first Juco player drafted in 2025. JC Vanek (‘25 Chipola, ‘26 Kansas City Royals) Just a professional hitter. Vanek for two years at Chipola was an impossible out. While there are questions if the power will ever reach what it takes to play first base at the big league level, the bat and quality defensive skillset at first base may carry. Donovan Becerra (‘25 New Mexico, ‘26 Texas Tech) One of the more high octane arms anywhere in the country last year. Can reach back for upper 90’s and has shown serious swing and...

Draft | Story | 12/22/2025

2025 Year in Review: Draft

Isaiah Burrows

2025 Year in Review: Draft We’ve reached the end of the 2025 calendar year, and while we’ve already jumped in on the 2026 cycle with some of the fall events and post-draft content we’ve had here at Perfect Game, there’s still one more piece on the docket, and that’s the 2025 Year-In-Review piece here from the PG Draft staff. The 2025 MLB Draft took place in July, when many highly talented players heard their names called and continued their journey through the game to the next level. There’s already been some of those names making noise in the minors and guys who are moving up prospect lists and becoming names to know for MLB fans digging deep into the future of their organizations. While we are going to “close the book” on 2025 with this article, these players still have many years ahead of them, and many blank pages to continue...

College | Recruiting | 12/22/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 22

Jheremy Brown

Lucien Saint Cyr, INF, Class of 2026 Commitment: Bucknell Saint Cyr announced his pledge to Bucknell, giving the Bison an interesting blend of present tools and projection. Saint Cyr stands 6-foot-1 and offers room to fill in his medium frame, profiling in the middle infield defensively. The New York product starts wide at the base in the right-handed box, keeping his hands high behind the ear. He works into a subtle outward step load, firing through a compact barrel that showcases bat speed and gap-to-gap impact. For head coach Scott Heather and Bucknell, they land a high-quality Northeast infielder in the ’26 cycle, adding to a class that takes the quality over quantity approach. Patrick Diaz ('26, NY) 102 EV off the bat. Impact to the pull side. #PGNational @PGMidAtlantic @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/NN0L3FRdO9 — PG Showcases (@PGShowcases) July 9, 2025 Patrick Diaz,...

High School | General | 12/19/2025

Huntington Beach HS World Series Recap

Steve Fiorindo

MVPitcher: Duncan McLeod The uncommitted junior toed the slab in three of the four games for Team Mick, tossing 3 2/3 innings. Zero walks, zero hits and 6 punchouts for the lefty who was used both as a starter in the series clinching game 4 and he closed out game 3 on Friday in quick fashion. McLeod was very efficient as well, needing just 42 pitches over all his outings. In the game 4 start, over two innings he punched out 3, with one strikeout with all of his offerings. The mid 80’s fastball regularly played up, set up with efficient use of the secondaries, with the breaking ball 73/74 and fading change-up 72-74. Owen Bone (2026) at it again... Solo shot in the 5th to tie things up. Back to back days with a home run for Bone. #PGHS pic.twitter.com/2JC9qETI5h — Perfect Game California (@California_PG) December 13, 2025 MV Hitter: ...

Tournaments | Story | 12/19/2025

13u Tourney All-American Team

Jheremy Brown

What a year it was in 2025 on the national landscape at the 13u level as Perfect Game continues to expand its reach around the country, providing an even bigger schedule of events coast-to-coast which has allowed players all over show out and gain their deserved recognition. Whether in Texas for the Houston 1000 or the 13u WWBA in West Palm Beach, we saw huge, eye opening performances from the players placed below, knowing that we could EASILY build a third team and likely a fourth without much effort. As we do every year with this exercise, it's worth pointing out the trickiness of this age group and putting the teams together with the 13u group. While the players are all members of the Class of 2030, some are younger for the grade, which allowed them to play at the 12u level where's it's a smaller field, shorter mound distance and different bats, so we'll separate them out and...

Tournaments | Story | 12/18/2025

14u Tourney All-American Team

Tyler Russo

Player of the Year: Asher Williams It was an incredible year for Williams that was rewarded with a trip to the 14U Select Fest, before some more impressive play in the fall. He came to the plate almost 250 times in PG tournaments throughout 2025 and reached base in well over half of them, hitting to a .500 AVG while slugging a 14U circuit best 12 bombs and driving in 113 runs. The numbers on the surface are ridiculous, but when you look at the high-level events he put them up in, it makes it even more impressive. Pitcher of the Year: Tristan Blalock Blalock earns this honor after a dominant 2025 where he struck out 85 batters in just 48.2 innings of work with a minuscule 1.58 ERA. This included several strong performances at many national level tournaments and showcases where he was able to bully some of the best hitters in the country. It’s hard not to fall in love with...

Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

PG Draft: Gut Feel Guys

Tyler Henninger

While we are nearing the turn of the calendar to the 2026 year, that means we are just inching closer to the beginning of the season for many high school players and college baseball is on the horizon. We are prepping for a reshuffle of the 2026 MLB Draft Board as well here amongst the PG Draft staff. But before we get to that, we sat down and have each picked a couple of players who are in the mix to get selected in a couple of different buckets. We have prospects who could go into the Top 30 picks or so, prospects who could be selected in the Top 5 rounds, and prospects who could go inside of the Top 10 rounds. With the draft quite far down the road and a lot of re-shuffling to be done as these players play themselves into certain spots on the draft board, our scouts picked some players who fit into these “buckets” who are gut-feel guys. These are the guys that our PG...

Loading more articles...

PERFECTGAME.TV

SPEND MORE. SAVE MORE.

Event Types

Special Events

Featured

Baseball Showcases

Player Rankings

DRAFT BOARD

Team Rankings

Travel Team Rankings

College Rankings

Softball Player Rankings

Top Ranked Players

PG Rawlings Preseason All American

Top Ranked Teams

Recruiting Menu

Event Results

PG EVENT CONTENT

HIGH SCHOOL CONTENT

MLB DRAFT CONTENT

COLLEGE CONTENT

RECENT ARTICLES

PG Alumni

NOTABLE MLB PLAYERS

About Perfect Game