Is this bad? used in relief 6 games in a row

It's probably too much, relievers train hard for what they are asking your son to do. There are long relievers and short relievers too.
It also depends how he is used, for example if he pitched 4-5 innings today, that's like being a starter, he needs significant rest to follow.

How many days off in between appearances?

JH - it is every other day, games M/W/F practice (bullpens) Sunday.

Only 5 reagular game left, the summer coach is much smarter about this kind of stuff. And today he got a 2nd and 3rd inning chance to get the team back to 5 / 5 .....but now the 'star' pitcher they put in at teh 4th inning just let up 3. Oi vey baseball can break your heart. I am missing anexciting game.


I just hope he rests for the game on Wed.

I wonder where he should fit in band work and working out in a routine like this one, it is hard to figure.

BaseballmomandCEP,

It is hard to say without some kind of metrics. It sounds like he is pitching a lot, but not getting enough recovery time. It also sounds like you have a coach who doesn't know how to manage pitchers if he is constantly pitcvhing your son becasue the starters aren't getting the job done. In addition, he may not know your son's limations. Recovery time for pitchers varies considerably. Starting pitchers in high school are typically pitching once a week, and are expected to pitch 5-7 innings per game depending on pitch count and if they are winning. My oldest son will pitch 80-90 as a freshmen college starter, and my high school sophomore starter will pitch 70-80 on average. Hopefully, that gives you a frame of reference. Relievers pitch a couple innings usually for a couple games that have a couple days apart of recovery time.

To answer your question directly, it kind of sounds like he is pitching too much and that is not good. There are a couple things I would do. First, get some pitch counts and historicals on your son's game appearances so far this season. Second, ice that arm and shoulder when the game is over and take some ibuprofren to help reduce the swelling. In terms of going forward, I would be very diligent about charting (pitch counts and dates) what he does from this point forward. Third, talk to him to see how he feels. He should be able to tell you if things are ok or if something doesn't feel right. If he tells you something doesn't feel right, tell him to stop pitching.

Great advice everyone I really appreciate it. Its probably worth watching but not doing anyhting right now, and really this pitching coach knows what he is doing (he coaches a good AAU inour state) but the head coach has less experience. My son of course just wants to say 'yes coach' every time!!

He is icing now, watching this game from the bench, has ibuprophen in the bat bag which I hope he remembers, and it is an exciting game. I just hope it ends with a W.

If so, would he get a save??? I assume not....pitched 2 / 3rd. Went from down 5 to tied up while he pitched. If the game is a win I guess he gets a pat on the back.


Anyway thakns for the input, mid game, it is distacting me from the fact that I am not there!!

Not sure why he should be taking anything unless he is in pain somewhere.

You are concerned with the amount he has thrown, yet wondering if he will get a save?

He may feel fine now, but what about this summer, it is accumulative?

You have gotten good advice, follow up on it.

Oh the save question was just idle curiosity about how a game like this gets recorded. Never saw one like this, so it was baseball trivia, not loking for stats for my guy don't worry.

I am more concerned / curious about all those relief innings in a row, and wanted some feedback is all.

yes there was some pain but mostly sort of a dead arm yesterday. I'l see how he feels 2nite and appreciate the constructive and supportive comments that come from HSBBW.


The good news is, they eeked out a W, and that's what matters.

Not to sound overly pessimistic, but in this case winning is not the only thing that matters. If your son had a sore arm yesterday and requires ibuprofen to get through a game, he shouldn't even consider pitching. The past workload is rather irrelevant (whether he throws every single day or once every two weeks). If his arm feels that way he shouldn't be throwing.

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
Not to sound overly pessimistic, but in this case winning is not the only thing that matters. If your son had a sore arm yesterday and requires ibuprofen to get through a game, he shouldn't even consider pitching. The past workload is rather irrelevant (whether he throws every single day or once every two weeks). If his arm feels that way he shouldn't be throwing.

Thanks, your are completely correct. I'll have to see where things stand tonight. The pitching coach is very approachable, and my guy sees him in school, so I think my son can handle this conversation. Fortunately the next game on WEd is a team that we probably don't need intense pitching to win (dont want to jinx it!) so that should easily be a day of rest.

BTW, I don't mean to imply that the "W" is all that matters ---- I guess I have to be careful what I say on HSBBW!~ but they really needed a W tonight for team spirit, after 4 or 5 Ls in a row.

Of course his arm is more important -- I was looking for advice 'before' it becomes an issue, which I got. Thanks! All the comments here are very valuable, I won't take this lightly and he can insist on some rest if there are any issues at all with the arm 2night and 2morrow. I was just reading a few other threads on pitch counts etc that are very eye-opening as well.

His arm, and endurance throught the summer, are more important than the HS W/L or his HS stats at this point.

I just really wonder where a kid can fit in band work and building endurance and keeping in shape generally etc when he is being used every game like this. Tough to figure out, and a new situation for us. They are not getting much guidance from the coach on this, so I think he needs to reconnect with his off season strength trainer (a former pitcher) and his summer coach for suggestions.

Thanks everyone!

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
Not to sound overly pessimistic, but in this case winning is not the only thing that matters. If your son had a sore arm yesterday and requires ibuprofen to get through a game, he shouldn't even consider pitching. The past workload is rather irrelevant (whether he throws every single day or once every two weeks). If his arm feels that way he shouldn't be throwing.

I agree with JH, if he has a sore arm and it feels dead as well, he shouldn't be pitching.

We tend to blame coaches for overuse, but if you have asked questions and understand the implications of pitching while sore you also become a culprit in this situation. Don't take offense, we all have been guilty of it, at one point or another.

At this point don't worry about doing stuff in between games, his arm is getting enough of a workout, bands can be done in warm up, and nothing beats a good run after pitching.

Got it, thanks!

FYI he also got good feedback from the trainer tonight.

He then had a solid conversation with the coach, who said he was sorry to be throwing him into such ****** situations eery game, but they knew that they could count on him! (Just coach talk to boost the ego maybe, who knows?) Son took that chance to discuss the effect this kind of pitching has had on his arm right now, and they'll shut it down for a few days to start with.

So just running and stretching for a few days, and we'll see how it goes. I am glad he resolved it all on his own.

Appreciate the group wisdom very much.

I know you are concerned as a parent, but one of the things you should do is talk to your son about him being upfront with the coaches about how he is feeling. Sounds like he did that recently, but it should be an always thing. I think the coaches will appreciate his honesty. Most coaches do not want to hurt kids and most will ask how a pitcher is feeling. If the player says "fine" when he is not, the coach will take him at his word and leave him in. So, have your son be up front and honest.

Happened to my son recently. He is the #1 pitcher on his HS Varsity team and in his first playoff game, his shoulder started hurting after the 2nd inning. When he came off the mound, coach asked him how he was feeling. He told the coach that his shoulder was hurting and that was it, he was out. I applaud my son for being honest AND I applaud the coach for listening to him and taking him out. A HS player's long term health is much more important than one game or even one season.

Thank BBall man. Good advice. And I would never run interference for him ...in almost any arena but esp in baseball ....he would dis-own me if I ever tried!!

As it happens, that is exactly what my guy did last night. Coach put him in for the 2nd inning, he did his job, but then came out at the end of the inning and told coach about the arm and he was done.

I think as the low man on the totem pole that can be hard to do but he was completely comfortable doing so. He is also very mindful that summer season will be here soon enough and he needs to protect his arm endurance for the 'real' tournaments. (Sad to say but I don't think our HS team will make any district or state playoffs, which also buys some rest time before summer season starts.)

It's all good for the life lessons -- learning how to advocate for themselves!

Appreciate your comments.

Good for him!! And as a parent, the only thing you should get involved in with your HS player is his health. Kid should approach coach first and do just what your son did. If the coach doesn't listen and makes decisions that will harm your son, there is no question you should step in. However, if it can be handled between the player and the coach, then all should be good.

Good luck to you guys the rest of the HS season and over the summer.

bballman,

How's your son's shoulder doing? I was following some of the games, sorry you guys got knocked out the 1st round.

Just got back from Dr. Looks like it's just tightness in shoulder. Prescribed some anti-inflamatories and PT to stretch and stabilize shoulder. He should be fine. Probably keep him off the mound for a couple of weeks and let him rest up. It's been a long HS season. Played pretty much every inning of every game and pitched right at 58 innings. He needs a little break before he starts summer season.

It was a good opportunity for me to drill into him the importance of conditioning. He was dominant the 1st half of the season, but struggled a little more in the 2nd half. Still pitched OK and had decent velocity, just wasn't as sharp. Thanks for asking.

Every parent, regardless of who they think is looking out for their kid, should keep track of at least a minimum amount of information about the boy’s pitching load. The following is what I keep for the HSV as part of their regular stat package that gets updated after every game. A parent should also include games outside of the “league”, and ot wouldn’t be unwise to also note bullpens.

http://www.infosports.com/scor.../images/pitall10.pdf

At least if you had something like this for your child, you could come to a forum like this, post it, then ask the question, and I guarantee you that the quality of the answer would improve immensely because a lot more info would be there with which to make a judgment.

And think of how valuable it might be to a physician trying to diagnose a spot’s injury!

Thanks, Stats4gnats. I like the format of your report.

I had tracked much of that (or tried to) in the 1st half of the season; then I missed a few games which is where the consecutive games started to build up. I will keep an eye if he pitches during states but I don't think we will go very deep into that this year then in summer we'll be more diligent on the tracking.

Thanks again -

quote:

Originally posted by BaseballmomandCEP:
Thanks, Stats4gnats. I like the format of your report.

I had tracked much of that (or tried to) in the 1st half of the season; then I missed a few games which is where the consecutive games started to build up. I will keep an eye if he pitches during states but I don't think we will go very deep into that this year then in summer we'll be more diligent on the tracking.

Thanks again -

That report is the result of many years of tracking and presenting stats, and changes when new information becomes available.

I know a lot of folks will pooh pooh this idea, but there’s no reason it won’t work, or will somehow label you as a PITA parent.

Contact your boy’s HS coach and explain to him that you’re trying to get a record of his pitching to make sure his summer load doesn’t exceed his HS load. In doing that, all you’d need to do is borrow the scorebook for a day or so to get the games your boy pitched.

Heck, once you have the scoresheets, it shouldn’t take you more than a couple hours to get the date, the number of pitches, number of innings, and number of batters, and any other information you might want.

In fact, if his coach is like most coaches, he probably has that information and can just give it to you.