Originally Posted by PGStaff:
I don't have any actual numbers to go by. It is just the way our teams played back when I coached. I don't need any history in order to know what 50-50 will produce in the long run. Once again, the only question is, what is 50-50. Is it on the black, three inches off the black, or something else? It can change depending on who's calling it. In the end it is all up to the hitter to decide. I love it when a lead off hitter with a full count takes a close ball four. I also like it if he is rung up on that same pitch. The easy thing is to swing at that pitch.
Wouldn’t you like to know what the numbers really are? The reason why I asked the questions I did is because I thought you had access to loads of data from all the games played under your auspices.
Too close to take is fitting for Old School and I can't argue that thinking. Actually I believe in that also most of the time. Except when my lead off hitter has a three ball count. Then IMO it should be "not good enough to swing at" and get myself out. Pitchers love to throw to the too close to take guys.
That’s quite a bit different than the full count you discussed in the OP.
Basically the biggest difference between MLB and AAA hitters and those in the lower levels... The higher the level the more strikes they swing at and the less balls they swing at. I'm pretty sure anyone who has been at those levels would agree.
What you’re saying is ML hitters have a better understanding of the strike zone than those at lower levels, and I wouldn’t argue that because it’s logical. More experience should produce a higher skill level. But I’d think the real difference was in the percentage of balls made contact with compared to the number swung at. Here again, I can only look at the data I have, but you should have vastly more than I. And the players you see should be of a much higher general caliber than what I see, so they should be swinging at a much higher percentage of strikes, just as I’d expect college, MiL and ML players to do.