My question after reading this thread and the balance of "velocity at age 10" is why are so many HS age pitchers ending up in the offices of Dr. Andrews, Kerlan-Jobe and sports medicine doctors all over the US with surgery resulting. Who are those players/sons/parents?
Everyone here is advocating all the baseball knowledge you get from a gun, with some getting it from age 10.
Some want to take the Andrews comment about guns and use it literally. However, none of the medical studies to date(sans one for MLB pitchers) equates only velocity with TJ/arm issues.
Rather, what the medical articles are describing for the epidemic of arm issues/surgeries is the environment of youth baseball. It is multi-factorial and the velocity/the gun is one element.
To illustrate a point: PG and other scouting services use past history and baseball ability to scout and rank players. If the player gets an 8, it means something to most everyone with baseball knowledge, is considered reliable, and it is useful. On the other hand everyone knows it is not a predictor, it is not a guarantee. But it is solid baseball information coming from a solid baseball evaluation source. The player does not get the 8 based on one baseball skill, normally. It is multi-factorial from people who know what they are doing. The 8 provides information based on reliable assessment by reliable baseball folks.
If Dr Andrews and those at Kerlan-Jobe do a double blind study of the HS players being seen in their office for arm surgery and compare/contrast with HS players/pitchers not being seen, and they publish the results based on identifiable risk factors(plural), it seems to be interpreted in a completely different or selective way than the 8.
The Andrews and other articles are no guarantee of arm issues or being free from them.
They don't specify one issue for throwing and pitching, except to the extent that many different factors get "lumped" into the concept of overuse.
While I recognize most posting here feel their son is the exception, an ever increasing number of pitchers/players/sons are ending up in in doctor's offices with major career ending conditions.
Even if most posting here do not need the information, perhaps those not posting, but reading, will benefit from knowing there is information from pretty reliable sources to consult.