Elbow stress from a cutter?

How old is your son?

A cutter is between a slider and a FB. There are very few pitchers who can throw them effectively, most of them are older and have lost the zip on their FB.

These guys might disagree with you.

Yordano Ventura
Jeff Samardzija
Alfredo Simon
Shelby Miller
Bud Norris
Corey Kluber
David Price
Johnny Cueto
Brandon McCarthy
James Shields
Jorge de la Rosa
Cole Hamels
Phil Hughes
Jon Lester
Ian Kennedy
Clay Bucholz
Jose Quintana

plus 17 other MLB pitchers with most innings.

34 of 88 MLB pitchers with the most innings (qualified appr 161) in 2014 reg season used a cutter.

5.7% of all pitches during the 2014 reg season (not including today, the last day) were cutters.

I'm sure you already already know this but when you look at the hi-speed footage, as long as he's pronating, not supinating, immediately after releasing the ball he's probably good.  

You might consider posting on the ASMI board, where you may get expert medical opinions on your question.  http://asmiforum.proboards.com/

I taught my HS pitchers to throw the cutter instead of a true slider to save wear and tear on their elbow.  I have to say that I never had one pitcher with a sore arm.  My pitchers could get a lot of run on the ball and some dipping action as well.  Not all of them threw especially hard but I do admit that my pitching staffs were above the HS normal with regards to speed.  Once a pitcher gets the grip right, I have my pitcher, "put a lot of pressure on the middle finger fingernail."  I have them use a FB motion.  For me, it is hard to discuss pitching over the internet.  I'm a guy who is a show em and let em guy as I explain it so I hope that this helps.  I have a decent cutter and threw it in BP every day to save my arm instead of throwing sliders.  Good luck!

There is actually no known scientific svidence that a slider is harder on the elbow than the fastball. In fact, the only studies done so far all point to a conlusion that the fastball puts the most stress on the elbow, followed by the slider, then the curve and that the changeup puts the least. Again, not ONE SINGLE bit of proof to steer you away from the slider.

Now, given I've stated my opinion, here is something I've noticed with many of my pitchers. They'll show up and dad will tell me they throw a cutter (often telling me how they would NEVER be allowed to throw a breaking ball). What I find in 90% of the cases after looking at video is that that "cutter" they throw is actually a slider. here's my educated guess as to what happens. I agree with TPM that very few pitchers throw an effective cutter that is actually a cutter a slider (Rivera being the best example of an effective cutter). I think pitchers start off with the idea of a cutter, but find it doesn't do what they hope. Instinctively, they wil start supinating more and more in order to get the late movement they want and, before long - viola! - they are throwing a slider that they think is a cutter. However, I don't think it's a problem. The old traditional arguments against breaking pitches have been pretty much eradicated even by ASMI (especially by ASMI) although Dr. Andrews confuses the issue by continuing to advise against the curve although his argument has changed. While he used to caution against the curve for youth pitchers because of mechanical damage, his argument has now shifted to the reasoning that young pitchers who throw the curve have more success earlier and that success leads to overuse. Strangely his reasoning, which is effectively "don't be such an effective pitcher that your coach depends on you too much and you'll be less likely to suffer overuse injuries," actually makes some sense in a perverted way.

I understand. I don't think there is anything specifically on the cutter because it's such a rare pitch. I also think anyhting self-reported would be a problem because of the situation I've stated concerning what most pitchers I see actually are doing. Now, theoretically, if you're of the opinion kinesiologically, that pronation at release decreases the chance of injury while supination increases the chances (something I completely dismiss because, while it certainly sounds good in theory even people like Dr. Andrews and Dr. Fleisig who set out specifically to proive that theory had to admit that in actual practice the hypothsis was not proven when they attempted to do so), younwould have to find the cutter to have an increase in injury potential. The cutter, even if thrown as intended cuts the ball off center to the exterior side of the grip which doesn't allow as much pronation as a traditional fastball. Again, that's not my opinion at all but just following the Marshall logic.

Roothog.

Nice post.

I found this article last night remembering I had read it a few years back.  

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs...itch-is-bad-for-you/

As far as the slider, son never had any elbow issues until he was throwing the slider more often, ended up having to have nerve transposition surgery.  that season his pitch to work on was the slider, it was nasty, but obviously may have caused issues. He also throws hard so it is not too easy to really pin point what really caused the issue, as in most pitchers needing some type of surgery.

As the article stats, all pitches are harmful, if you do not want to get hurt, don't pitch!