Comments on: Pitching Perspectives with Rick Peterson

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:10:07 +0000

Come back to oregon and teach Rick this is Rich Ireland Marlins 92-93

By: Welf

Welf — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:15:45 +0000

What i thought was that for those higher pitch counts the batting average would be higher as the pitcher is going thru the lineup for the 3rd and 4th time.
Im sure stamina has something to do with that also but just a thought

By: nate

nate — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:30:43 +0000

“I can fix him in 10 minutes”

By: Mike Silva’s NY Baseball Digest » Blog Archive » Full Count Pitch on NYBD Radio Tonight @7pm

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:00:52 +0000

[...] of covering baseball in a thoughtful, rich, original way. Gary will join us at 7:30 to discuss the contributions of former major league pitching coach Rick Peterson on the site. He will also give his two cents on some of our main topics tonight, which [...]

By: James M.

James M. — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:38:09 +0000

A couple comments on the BAA’s by Count. They are accurate for the most part. But 2-0/2-1 is not .325. 2-0 is .354, 2-1 .339.

The important thing, though, is not the BAA on a particular count but the BAA AFTER a count has been reached. After 1-0 the average hitter bats .278. After 0-1 it’s .237.

But even that 41 point drop doesn’t begin to tell the full story. His OBP drops 111 points (.389 to .278) and his SLG drops 93 (.450 to .357). If Mr. Average was forced to take a strike every time he stepped to the plate he would have a .635 OPS. Of the 145 batters who had 502 PA’s last year, only 2 were worse than that.

By: James M.

James M. — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:52:28 +0000

I’d like Mr. Peterson’s reaction to a long-held opinion of mine (and many others). Yes, pitch counts are important. But you need to track the count by game situation. Pitching with runners on base in a close game is much more taxing than pitching with the bases empty and/or in a blowout. Given that, wouldn’t it make sense to use a weighted pitch count with the Leverage Index used as the weighting factor?

By: Andrew Armida

Andrew Armida — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:16:29 +0000

Very useful and informitive article. As a young aspiring pitcher I can’t wait to hear more from Coach Peterson.

By: Jimmy Scott

Jimmy Scott — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:09:04 +0000

Next time, ask him what he thinks about former Cy Young winner and now Dr. Mike Marshall and his clinic in Florida, where he believes he can eliminate pitching injuries.

By: Greg Andrew

Greg Andrew — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:07:35 +0000

In the mid 90s, the Mets organization decided if they could just train their young hurlers in the minor leagues to throw more pitches in games, those pitchers would be able to pitch deeper into games in the major leagues. The result was not pretty – Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher, and Paul Wilson. Every one blew out their arms within a year of reaching the majors. None ever recovered. Wilson totally lost his fastball and managed to hang around as a soft-tossing starter for a few years. Isringhausen ended up a mediocre closer. And Pulsipher ended up pitching for independent minor league teams. None of them ever was ever able to get anywhere near where they were before they blew their arm out.

I think a move back to 4-man rotations might work, because it’s the stress that pitchers put on their arms when tired that seems to matter most. But no team’s going to dare try it. Though We shouldn’t treat 100 as some kind of magic number for all pitchers just because its round, I think hitting is too good today for pitchers to pace themselves and throw 130-140 pitches. The only way they’ll ever be able to do so again is if baseball decides to go back to pre-1969 rules.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:16:16 +0000

I’d also like to add that tracking batting averages vs. pitch count ranges will be skewed for National League pitchers since they are far more likely to face the opposing pitcher in the batter’s box in the first 50 pitches than they would in late game scenarios where a pinch hitter would be used.