Preseason Workload in Collegiate Baseball Pitchers.
Bennett Tabaracci, Shraddha Sudhir, Matthew Gauthier and 1 others
PMID 39906050WHAT IT FOUND
Collegiate baseball pitchers maintained a high workload for four of six preseason weeks, with acute-to-chronic workload ratios exceeding the 1.27 threshold linked to injury risk.
Only Week 4 showed a significant reduction in workload, indicating a lack of progressive overload.
Key findings
01The acute-to-chronic workload ratio (ACWR) was above the 1.27 threshold during four of the six weeks of preseason.
02Acute workload was significantly lower in Week 4 compared to Weeks 2 and 3, with large effect sizes.
03Pitchers averaged nearly 2,000 throws over the six-week preseason, with weekly totals ranging from 216 to 487 throws.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only nine pitchers from a single college program, limiting generalizability. Participants were not fully adherent to wearing the sensors during all sessions, leading to some missing data. The IMU algorithm missed some throws, though the authors used median velocity to mitigate outlier effects. Rest days were not monitored, which could influence the calculation of acute and chronic workloads. The study did not track actual injuries, so it cannot confirm if the high ACWR values directly led to harm in this specific group. Power was not calculated due to the observational nature of the study.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflict of interests to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high ACWR values as definitive proof that this specific preseason caused injuries, as the study did not track injury outcomes. Additionally, the finding of a significant workload drop in Week 4 may reflect a specific coaching decision rather than a standard physiological requirement for all pitchers.