Review of pitching stats

The first thing I see is that 3 of the 5 guys are averaging close to 20 pitches/inning......ouch!!

I would look at WHIP and strike percentage. I assume this is high school players. After that I would look at strike outs per inning to see how nasty his pitches are. 

You are correct. These are High School players.

One thing I was wondering is if anyone had any opinion on the groundout stats.  player 1 is my son and over his last few years of pitching his stats have been pretty consistent.  It seems he is an extreme ground ball pitcher(not sure if that is a term or not).  Even looking at the overall balls in play he is 80% ground balls.  What does this mean if anything?  Is it good or bad or neither?

OK, now that we know the real question, we'll focus on player 1.  High GB% is a good thing.  He is working the ball low in the zone and/or has good sink movement.  Staying down in the zone and avoiding BB's is a successful formula for most HS P's.  Stats are only one piece of the equation, so without seeing him or knowing more about what his stuff looks like, it's tough to make too many solid conclusions.  Also, this is a very small, early snapshot. 

That said, he has a solid line with very few BB's and lots of GB's.  The only things that stand out as possible negatives are the K rate and opponent BA, particularly as compared to the others listed.  I'm guessing he's not much of a power pitcher and he doesn't have nasty "swing and miss" stuff.  With his good control, he can probably afford to work backwards with more hitters to keep them off balance and reduce their BA.  It may cost him a few walks but, overall, increase his effectiveness???

Edited - sorry for somewhat of a duplicate message... looks like Soylent and I were typing at the same time.

What stands out to me re Player 1 is maybe too high a strike percentage. 71% is probably less effective than mid 60%.  This may be part of the reason behind giving up more H than IP and a .275 opposing BA. Pretty low K total to innings... 1:1 ratio is a good target minimum.  In addition to WHIP, SM (swing and miss pitches) is a good indicator of effectiveness relative to a given level if you have that available. Ultra low BB total is good, but again... Maybe indicates a need to do a little more pitching and a little less strike throwing.  Player 2 numbers look balanced/strong just at a glance. Overall numbers show a lot of pitches thrown per IP. Another thing that is useful to look at, and you might have to crunch by hand to achieve, is what are the numbers facing batters 1-5 only... That's a great way to see what's what.

Edited: Ha... Saw the same thing CD. I usually wait a few hours, copy anything you say and slightly reword it... Makes me look smart.

Thanks for the replies.  I wasn't really going for an evaluation of my son, just honestly trying to interpret what I see.  You are right, he is not a high strikeout pitcher.  I see that as his weakness.  Interesting take on his high strike rate though.  Maybe he is hitting the zone too much.  He is playing D3 next year and hopefully will grow into a more mature pitcher by learning more how to pitch instead of throw strikes. btw Player 2 is our ace. High strikeout guy, slightly more velocity.

Just to add on to what others are saying, high strike percentage is a good thing. Where it can become a negative is when you have two strikes on a hitter and you throw a pitch that is very hittable. Not sure if this is the case but something to discuss with your son. Like SG said, making the evolution to become more of a pitcher and less of a thrower. Especially if the velocity isn't there, guys who throw in the 90's get away with mistake pitches in the zone. 

i would discuss with son having a solid approach that changes pitch to pitch. example, I thrown FB on outside black for strike 1. Next pitch( catcher has to be on same page) FB away but a couple of inches more outside. Then once you get to 2 strikes I am in strikeout mode where I am trying to get hitter to chase my pitch. 

have son work on this progression in bullpen and have catcher on same page. Then he can implement in games. 

Just some ideas for you and your son

Well, just because I had to have something different than Soylent, I took a second look.

His strike rate is 71% but first pitch strikes are just 61%.  There are a whole bunch of HS and college hitters who will take first pitch, particularly first time up against a particular P.  Also, we all know the advantages of working ahead.  If he were to work on flipping those numbers a bit, this could also afford him to make hitters hit "pitchers" pitches later in the count, reducing BA and increasing K's.

Thank you.  I'm sot sure how they work bullpens during the week.  But I will talk to him about that.  You have all been very helpful with your analysis and opinions and I appreciate it.

Thank you

Good points cabbagedad.  Makes sense.  I guess what you are all saying in a nutshell, is he needs to learn the 'pitching' side of pitching and think about what he wants the result of each pitch to be and why.  

Hey TMR - No doubt he's doing things right to have the opportunity to play D3 ball... Great stuff!  Guessing he knows plenty about how to pitch.  Just looking at those #s, definitely looks like a pitch to contact guy with good control.  I think sometimes guys like that are so intent on limiting walks, they are maybe too quick to give in on a given AB.  Would encourage you (and him) to maybe look at his numbers vs 1-4 batters or even 1, 3, & 4 to make it even more extreme.  Numbers might look ugly, but these are probably more representative of the guys he'll be facing moving forward into college... good to look at it and look for ways to maximize effectiveness.  He's not going to see those 7-8-9 HS guys next year.  Just my $0.02.