He threw 83 pitches and 73 were strikes. His team won 4-2. One of the fans said he was close to throwing to many strikes. Has anyone ever heard this before?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
As a philosophy I would say you can never have too many strikes.
In a practical sense, there are times you don't want to throw the ball in the strike zone. Even in those times though, you are hoping for a strike - just don't throw a pitch that can be hit solidly. I don't like the term "waste" pitch. I prefer "chase" pitch.
Don't know his stat line, but he obviously wasn't responsible for more than 2 runs, so I would say he threw the right amount of strikes.
Yes, in this instance, it appears that he did very well. Obviously, a P who throws a lot of strikes is a huge plus. There is some merit to the comment, though. When we face a P who has a very low BB rate and throws a ton of strikes, we take a more aggressive approach at the plate and usually have a good day hitting. (BTW, this is just one of those things you can pick up from using Maxpreps numbers on your opponents 
- reference to another discussion). Similar to what Rob was pointing out, there is a difference between commanding the zone and just throwing strikes. If he is able to throw quality strikes and get hitters to offer on pitches out of the zone at times, this is optimal. If he just consistently pounds the heart, better teams will pound him back.
That day my son only had 2 strikeouts, but he had lots of ground balls and lazy fly balls. I thought it was truly amazing (pitch count) due to the 4 errors behind him. He pitched around all of those. He gave up 2 runs on a bloop single followed by a homerun ( 0-2 then hung a cure ball).
You prove the point yourself. An 0-2 curveball should be in the dirt or away, not a strike, and just not hittable.
However, fans, umpires and the guys on defense all love a pitcher who works like that. Congrats!
Is you son playing on next year?
Yes, he will be pitching at a NCAA Div II team. I am so proud of him. He was a walk-on in JC due to him having labrum surgery before his Sr year of HS. He never gave up, even after being diagnosed with Type I diabetes following his shoulder surgery. Kid doesn't know what I can't means. He graduated JC Magna Cum Laude with the highest GPA on his team. I pray he gets an opportunity in the minors, but if he doesn't then he will be successful in whatever he does.
Wow, awesome!
First thing that came to my mind when I read your first line is "That's too many strikes" haha. However, it really all depends on who you are pitching against. Sounds like he had a great outing, so it's pretty apparent that the other team was no match for what he was throwing. So, in this case, it probably wasn't a bad thing. Although, as JCG pointed out with the 0-2 hanging curve, if your team only scored one run, you'd be understanding the meaning of "too many strikes".
Congratulations to your son on moving on to the next level. If you don't mind my asking, what D2 school is your son going to? My son played 4 years at a Georgia D2 school, so I'm familiar with many programs around here.
He will be pitching at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.
jmpbama92 posted:He will be pitching at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.
Awesome!! I hadn't known them, but my son's team has played several teams in the SIAC. Looks like they had a REALLY good year this year. Good luck to your son!!
jmpbama92, please take a look at the thread below. You might be able to offer some words of encouragement for Gamecock1. And congratulations on your son's success.
bballman posted:First thing that came to my mind when I read your first line is "That's too many strikes" haha. However, it really all depends on who you are pitching against. Sounds like he had a great outing, so it's pretty apparent that the other team was no match for what he was throwing. So, in this case, it probably wasn't a bad thing. Although, as JCG pointed out with the 0-2 hanging curve, if your team only scored one run, you'd be understanding the meaning of "too many strikes".
Congratulations to your son on moving on to the next level. If you don't mind my asking, what D2 school is your son going to? My son played 4 years at a Georgia D2 school, so I'm familiar with many programs around here.
That's probably what he meant, that your son could've given up a tying or game winning HR. And that's ridiculous.
the one thing we don't know is how many of those strikes were batters swinging at balls outside the strike zone.
congrats to your son on his hard work!
Nice catch MidATL, cool of you to put them in touch
jmpbama92 posted:He threw 83 pitches and 73 were strikes. His team won 4-2. One of the fans said he was close to throwing to many strikes. Has anyone ever heard this before?
Only from opposing teams 
.
Seriously, though, he got the win 4-2. If it took 73 strikes out of 83 pitches, so be it!
Congrats!