Pitch count and rest days calculator
Enter a young pitcher's recent outings and see the rest required and the next day they may pitch.
Youth arm health. This page applies published pitch-count rules for planning and is not a substitute for your league's current rule book, an umpire's or scorekeeper's count, or advice from a doctor or athletic trainer. A pitcher with arm pain should stop and be seen. How we check our calculators.
For Little League use the player's league age (6 to 16). Pitch Smart covers 7 to 18.
Dates before today are filled in as an example. Add every game or practice outing from the last week; pitches on the same date are added together.
Pitch-count rules turn a hard-to-see risk, an arm that is tired before it hurts, into numbers a coach can check: a maximum for each game and a number of rest days that grows with the pitches thrown. The numbers below are the published limits for the 2026 season, taken from the Little League rule book and the Pitch Smart table.
How many pitches can a 12-year-old throw in a day?
85 in Little League baseball, where the limits are 50 for ages 6 to 8, 75 for 9 to 10, 85 for 11 to 12 and 95 for 13 to 16. MLB's Pitch Smart guidelines give the same 85 for ages 11 to 12. Both are daily maximums for a game; the rest days after a start depend on how many pitches were thrown.
How many days of rest after 50 pitches?
It depends on the age group. Little League baseball for ages 14 and under requires 2 days of rest after 36 to 50 pitches. For ages 15 and 16 the bands are shifted up, and 50 pitches falls in the 46 to 60 band, 2 days of rest. MLB Pitch Smart uses the same 36 to 50 pitch band for 9 to 14 year olds. Use the calculator for the exact age and rule set.
What counts as a rest day?
Little League's text says calendar days of rest must be observed. We read that as full calendar days without pitching, counted from the day after the outing, and Little League's own example agrees: a 12-year-old who throws 70 pitches in a game on Monday (4 rest days) is not eligible on Thursday and is eligible on Saturday. A pitcher who throws 55 pitches on Monday, April 6 (a 3-day band) rests on the following 3 days and may pitch again on Friday, April 10. If your league counts differently, follow your league.
Can a Little League pitcher throw three days in a row?
No. Little League says that under no circumstance shall a player pitch on three consecutive days. A 10-year-old who throws 12 pitches on May 1 and 12 on May 2 needs no rest days by the pitch bands, but still cannot pitch on May 3; the calculator returns Monday, May 4 as the next day. The Pitch Smart table we read does not include this rule, so the calculator applies it only to Little League.
What happens when a pitcher reaches the limit in the middle of a batter?
In Little League the pitcher may continue to pitch to that batter until the batter reaches base, is retired, the third out ends the half-inning or the game, or the pitcher is removed before the batter finishes the at-bat. A new batter cannot be started once the limit has been met. For the rest-day bands Little League says the count is determined by the first pitch thrown to a batter, so enter the total your league's scorekeeper records. The calculator flags any total over the daily maximum, so you can check whether it was a finishing-the-batter case.
Do pitching and catching limits connect?
Yes, in Little League. A player who has caught four or more innings cannot pitch that day, and a pitcher who delivers 41 or more pitches generally may not play catcher for the rest of the day, with a finishing-the-batter exception at 40. This calculator does not track catching; check the full Regulation VI before using a player in both roles.
Do these limits apply to my league?
Only if your league follows them. Little League sets the limits for its own divisions, Pitch Smart is a set of guidelines from MLB and USA Baseball that leagues can adopt, and high school, travel and other youth associations publish their own numbers. Local leagues may make theirs stricter. Pick the rule set that matches your league and always confirm against its current rule book.
Worked example
A 12-year-old in Little League throws 55 pitches on Monday, April 6. The daily maximum for ages 11 to 12 is 85, so the outing is within the limit. The 51 to 65 pitch band calls for 3 days of rest: the next 3 calendar days are rest days and the pitcher is eligible on Friday, April 10. Under Pitch Smart a 17-year-old who throws 80 pitches needs 3 rest days, and one who throws 81 needs 4, because the third band of that age group ends at 80.
Little League baseball limits
| League age | Daily max | Rest days by pitches thrown |
|---|---|---|
| 6–8 | 50 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66+: 4 |
| 9–10 | 75 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66+: 4 |
| 11–12 | 85 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66+: 4 |
| 13–14 | 95 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66+: 4 |
| 15–16 | 95 | 1–30: 0; 31–45: 1; 46–60: 2; 61–75: 3; 76+: 4 |
Rest days run from 0 to 4 in the order shown. Ages 14 and under share one set of bands; ages 15 and 16 have another. The Little League baseball regular-season page does not list a limit for ages 17 and 18; the division for players 17 and older with disabilities, Challenger, uses 105.
MLB Pitch Smart limits
| Age | Daily max | Rest days by pitches thrown |
|---|---|---|
| 7–8 | 50 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2 |
| 9–10 | 75 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66–75: 4 |
| 11–12 | 85 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66–85: 4 |
| 13–14 | 95 | 1–20: 0; 21–35: 1; 36–50: 2; 51–65: 3; 66–95: 4 |
| 15–16 | 95 | 1–30: 0; 31–45: 1; 46–60: 2; 61–75: 3; 76–95: 4 |
| 17–18 | 105 | 1–30: 0; 31–45: 1; 46–60: 2; 61–80: 3; 81–105: 4 |
Pitch Smart's table is titled "Required Rest Recommendations" and also lists ages 19 to 22 with a maximum of 120; we left that row out because its bands stop at 105. For ages 7 and 8, the table has no 3 or 4 day bands because the daily maximum is 50.
Common mistakes and limits
Counting only one game. Little League counts pitches thrown in games, and pitches in a tie game or a suspended game are charged against eligibility too; bullpen sessions and other leagues' games are not in this tool, so add them if your league counts them. Using the player's birthday age. Little League uses league age, which this tool does not compute. Treating the table as a guarantee of safety. The limits are cut-offs, not a measure of a particular arm. Mixing up rule sets. The two tables are close but not identical; a 17-year-old is covered by Pitch Smart only. Calendar-day counting. We count rest days as full days after the outing; some leagues are stricter about the day itself.
Related: baseball stats calculator for ERA and WHIP, pace calculator and date calculator.
Not medical advice and not a rules ruling. Sources, both opened on October 28, 2026: Little League International, “Regular Season Pitching Rules,” Regulation VI (littleleague.org/playing-rules/pitch-count/), which covers baseball for league ages 6 to 16; and MLB with USA Baseball, Pitch Smart, “Pitching Guidelines” (mlb.com/pitch-smart/pitching-guidelines/), table “Pitch Count Limits and Required Rest Recommendations.” Both organizations revise their rules; re-check them each season. How we check our calculators.