Overpitching

Have your son talk to his coach---that is way to many innings/pitches this early in the season in Indiana or any other cold weather state

sure have him keep pitching and schedule your Tommy John surgery. Real simple tell the HS coach off and rest your kids arm now. The parents are just as responsible because they are letting a brain dead hs coach abuse your kids arm.

TR and Dibble are right. Way too many!

TR - welcome back! You were missed. Hope you enjoyed some "time off".

If your lucky he will only need Tommy John. What about his shoulder, back etc etc etc. Good advice here way too much pitching period. Talk to the coach right away.

marksmenbaseball,

Your profile mentions that your son will be going to Indiana State.

I would call the Indiana State coach and tell him what is going on. You should talk to the AD or Principal at the High School and tell them what is going on. If they don't know any better, ask them to contact any good baseball coach and ask.

Bottom line... Your son is in a dangerous situation (if all you say is true). You should first protect him and you should protect future players from this coach. He has no business being in charge of a baseball program at any level.

marksmenbaseball,

I see that you are a mom, and I was also the parent who researched things like pitch counts and arm exercises to help my son throughout high school baseball. (He is now a freshman pitcher at a D3 college.)

You've gotten good advice from several wise veterans above, but I wanted to add some data about pitch counts. This will vary depending on the pitcher, his mechanics, his conditioning, whether the pitches were evenly spaced over the innings with decent rest time between while his team was hitting, the weather, etc. But anyway, we found some pitch count guidelines listed on asmi.org and repeated in several other credible sources, which seemed to hold true for my son in HS:

On average, for every 1 game pitch your son throws, he needs at least 1 hour of rest before he should pitch in a game again. So after throwing 110 game pitches on Saturday he should not have pitched in a game again for at least 4-1/2 to 5 days, meaning Thursday probably would have been okay if he had NOT pitched the Monday game, which was WAY too soon after the 110 pitches. (By the way, 110 pitches is around the maximum a HS pitcher should ever pitch in one game.)

The fact that your son's arm is starting to hurt means that whether you believe in the guidelines above or not - your son has been pushed beyond what is healthy for him. His arm is hurting because every time he pitches, microscopic damage occurs in the arm, and he is not being given enough time to let that damage heal between appearances. If he keeps being used at this rate, it will lead to long-term damage, decreased effectiveness as a pitcher, and probably eventual surgery.

Good luck to you and your son, and feel free to send me a PM if you wish!

Everyone here has given you correct advice. Do understand, that whatever is happening could put your son's scholarship at risk.
I would do as PG suggests, call the college coach, no coach wants to learn that one of his pitchers for the next 4 years could possibly come with a problem. I wouldn't even go to the HS coach, I would pull my son off the team asap before he has to take the mound again, if he is not given a rest and lessof a work load.

Good news, been rained out for a week and a half, we don't have another game until next Wednesday. Long lay off.

marksmenbaseball

It is good that your son gets the layoff. When he goes back to the mound the high school coach should know what pitch count is reasonable. He is in high school another month. That arm needs to last him the rest of his life.

His coach and other parents will call you every name in the book and who cares. Do what is right by your boy. No one else around him cares. That's the truth. I went down this road a year ago.

I am sick of coaches that care more about a $50 trophy than a kids arm.

100 pitches per game, then 5 days rest. Period. End of story.

Unfortunately, this isn't even close to the worst I've heard this spring. There is a very talented pitcher playing for a nearby school, not ours, where their #1 pitcher has been made to throw 148 pitches in 1-game, over 400 in a week span and twice made to relieve on 1-days rest after throwing approx. 100 pitches two days earlier. This coach is badly abusing the player, and jeaposdizing his college career. He's already commited to a very high quality juco, but may not make it if he doesn't stand up for himself, and soon.

It's not always that easy. My son plays for a very talent-laden HS team and approaching our coach to discuss the amount of innings thrown could get him moved from the rotation and quite possibly out of the line-up all together. They have a "no talk" rule where baseball decisions are concerned with parents. They have two pitchers out right now with back problems and despite having 16 pitchers, my son is the only starter they trust to pitch against the stronger teams. He is also being called on to close some games. All being said, he usually only throws a couple of games a week. Is that too much?

No, it's not easy to stand up to the coach. Doing the right thing is seldom easy. If you talk to the coach privately, voicing your concerns and asking him to follow some simple "common sense" guidelines that orthpedic surgeons recommend, then you have done the right thing.

If he is hurting your kid, why would you leave on the team?