Pitch Count / Strikeouts

Pitcher should be about 75% or higher  strikes.  If he had his choice, I guarantee he would want ground balls and popups.  I don't know how you fix it other than just throw more strikes even if they hit it.  72 pitches in 4 innings is way too many but the Ks is good.  Part of it.  You can't have both low pitch count and high strikeouts.

Generally getting outs is better than not getting outs but you can't forget that a varsity coach doesn't have a reliever throwing  97 on the bench but maybe a kid throwing 77.

Pitching to contact means throwing it in a spot that the hitter can put in play but not do damage on. Classic location for this is down and away.

In mlb that doesn't work as good anymore as hitters are now able to  crush those pitches but in HS that still might be effective especially against the weaker hitters.

A hybrid strategy he could use would be pitching to contact against the 7,8,9 hitters and try to strike out the middle of the line-up. That way he wouldn't waste 15 pitches to strike out the weak hitters but still limit the damage against the top guys.

So against weak hitters you throw mostly fastballs down in the zone and against the good ones you throw more Off speed.

Head Varsity Coach sounds like a jerk. Sorry. But I cant stand guys like this. You have a problem with your players performance, you help your player to improve. That's part of your job. If you dont want to do that, time to quit.

JMO

Something I failed to mention, there were four errors (all ground balls) that didn’t help the pitch count. BTW-this isn’t a knock on the team....just a little more background. In fact, the SS made 3 of the 4 but I couldn’t be more proud of the kid. It was his first time in a game in almost two years due to a nasty knee injury.  Also, son has always been the bigger kid and always been able to over power. He knows that’s eventually not going to work and because of that has been working more on off speed...especially his change.

TPM-I absolutely love the HC...full of piss and vinegar. Having said that, he’s young. He’s got two older, former HC helping him. Both of them will quickly tell you, once he learns how to communicate with players and admin better he’s going to be a good one. They both think it may be two or three jobs down the road. I hope not. He’s a huge Corbin guy....they’re buddies. And bc of that he tries to do many things the Vandy way. As the assistants like to say, “he ain’t Corbin and these kids aren’t at Vandy”.

Thanks for the replies. Son hasn’t mentioned it again, so I’m not going to bring it up.

4 errors means at least 4 extra batters....probably more like 7 or 8.  Without those, his pitch count is probably more like 50 instead of 72, which is much more workable.  Was HC at the game to see that the errors happened or did he only see a stat sheet after the game?

He was there.

When I read the first post the pitch count didn't add up. Knowing there were errors makes sense. I will say, I've seen some kids get ahead 0-2 and nibble with 3 balls before putting the kid away. Those are a lot of extra pitches.

Does the HC have kids?  I'm guessing no.  Some people who don't have kids (and some who do, I guess) don't realize that you say something to a 14yo a little differently than you do to an adult.

He does have kids, but they’re really, really young. Having said that, I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing or faulting the coach. Just curious, what son should be doing.

Keep throwing strikes and encouraging the kids making the errors to keep their heads up and make the next play. Huge difference in the pitcher that does this compared to the one that yells at them for making an error.

@cocdawg posted:

Something I failed to mention, there were four errors (all ground balls) that didn’t help the pitch count. BTW-this isn’t a knock on the team....just a little more background. In fact, the SS made 3 sof the 4 but I couldn’t be more proud of the kid. It was his first time in a game in almost two years due to a nasty knee injury.  Also, son has always been the bigger kid and always been able to over power. He knows that’s eventually not going to work and because of that has been working more on off speed...especially his change.

TPM-I absolutely love the HC...full of piss and vinegar. Having said that, he’s young. He’s got two older, former HC helping him. Both of them will quickly tell you, once he learns how to communicate with players and admin better he’s going to be a good one. They both think it may be two or three jobs down the road. I hope not. He’s a huge Corbin guy....they’re buddies. And bc of that he tries to do many things the Vandy way. As the assistants like to say, “he ain’t Corbin and these kids aren’t at Vandy”.

Thanks for the replies. Son hasn’t mentioned it again, so I’m not going to bring it up.

You did leave some things out!

It takes years to learn how to communicate with players and administration and your son should not be afraid to ask questions.

As far as the HC, did he work under Corbin? Do you know Tim Corbin because he isn't full of piss and vinegar.

And keep remembering that your son should be treated as an 8th grader, not a Vandy player.

JMO

TPM-I do not Corbin at all, nor do I know how he runs things. I’ve just been told that HC tries to simulate Vandy practices. To my knowledge he hasn’t worked under Corbin other than summer camps.

As far as son-I agree he should ask questions. He seems fine talking with the jv and asst coaches but not so much the head man. Maybe it’s being in middle school. Idk but feel sure it’ll work itself out one way or another.

Again, thanks for everyone’s time. The topic hasn’t been discussed all day at home and think I’ll let it go.  

Ok I get it. Keep encouraging your son to ask questions from tne other coaches. Dont worry too much about pitch counts, but rather how to become better at his position. Keep in mind, there will always be players that mess up a pitchers stats, just keep working hard.

Pitchers that are comfortable throwing a quality change-up for a strike in any count can make for a really uncomfortable and short AB.