Chris Volstad is getting to an interesting demarcation line this season when it comes to innings pitched.

So far this season Volstad has pitched 73.1 major innings and 91 minor league league innings for a total of 164.1.

The injury nexus for young pitchers, which Volstad most definitely qualifies, is around 170 innings.  In other words, when a pitcher goes above 170 innings he is at a greater risk of injury.  The prevailing thought is that minor league innings aren't as taxing on a extremely talented pitcher like Volstad, i.e. he doesn't have to work as hard to get minor league hitters out as he does major league hitters.  Then again, throwing is throwing, no matter where you do it.

The most innings Volstad has ever thrown at any professional level is 168.2 and all of them were in the minors in 2007 with the majority being in Jupiter and the rest in Carolina.

I guess what I'm getting at is Volstad has two scheduled starts remaining this season, assuming the Marlins don't find a way to make it into the playoffs, and let's assume they won't for the moment, he should be fine but needs to be watched carefully in his final start of the season.

Volstad is very young and is a diamond on the mound, with some rough edges, but you don't mess with an arm like that since they don't come around all that often.