Swing Miss Percentage

[SheThrowsHeat]

As a pitching stat, what is considered a good swing and a miss percentage? College coaches please weigh in and tell whether it is a stat you look at. Thanks.

 

[coachjwb]

Haven't seen that stat used and never used it myself.

 

[FastBat]

Is that a stat found on game changer or other computerized scoring devices?

 

[Practice?]

Never heard of it being used or tracked and not sure why you would.

 

[SheThrowsHeat]

It is a gc stat but never paid attention to it. DD was asked for that number during a recruiting call. No idea what a good number is supposed to be.

 

[cobb_of_fury]

Never heard of it being used or tracked and not sure why you would.

Seems like a very good number to track - A swing and miss is the perfect pitch - It means the batter tried to hit your Pitch but couldn't -

 

[JoeA1010]

i like the stat, but I don't know of any travel teams that keep it. We don't even keep it, but we probably should. We should keep the stat for our hitters as well.

 

[WalkOffHR]

Seems strikeout percentage (for both hitter and pitcher) would be more useful. I could care less I am pitching and I get 2 strikes on a hitter who swings and misses and the next one ends up on I-71.

 

[FastBat]

I'll be honest, that just seems like a major pain to keep track of, even with GC. Sometimes I have to run somewhere or start talking and unless I knew ahead of time that was important, I couldn't say for certain, it would be accurate. I'm sure he's done his own due diligence.

I think better teams/hitters swing more at close pitches, so maybe he's looking at level of competition???

 

[WalkOffHR]

Sorry Jen...I tried to give your comment a thumbs UP but it looks like it registered as a thumbs down.

 

[CARDS]

It would be a good stat to keep if you associated it with a pitch. Most ladies know their money pitch and sometimes that pitch is one that produces contact that results in a ground ball or out.
WHIP and ERA generally tell the pitchers story.

 

[FastBat]

/\/\/\Cards...could a certain pitch be tracked with the "quality at bat" stat? Sorry, I'm just starting to figure all the more advanced stats out, so that might sound impossible.

Sorry Jen...I tried to give your comment a thumbs UP but it looks like it registered as a thumbs down.

Lol! That's ok! I have quite a collection, it won't make a dent!

 

[CARDS]

The QAB stat is one that breaks down the production of the hitter but does not reflect a batters production vs. a typical pitch, location etc to my knowledge. EX: has a hard-hit ball, sees 6 or more pitches, sees 3 pitches after 2 strikes,gets a 2-out RBI, executes a sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly. (I am sure MLB has some sort of tracking though).

The game has changed a lot with technology. The type of data that can be collected today is unbelievable. Now the means in which that data is collected and used by coaches is another area that needs to be taken into consideration.
Most travel and High school teams lack the resources to collect and breakdown data to support some of the advanced stats. (Heck some scorekeepers are lucky to know how to score plays). Coaches and parents can misinterpret or misapply some of the data/stats as well or in some cases causing team,parent,coaching issues.
Another factor is consistency of competition and umpires. While we would all like to "cookie cutter consistency" we all have had games where umpires favor certain locations and I guess in a way that helps keep the strategy/approach of the game fresh.

So, for the youth or amature level of play don't get too wrapped up in stats. Sometimes this fascination with collecting data down to the pitch can be unfair to pitchers and batters especially those young ones that are still working to find their game.

I was lucky to have a solid group of coaches for years and a top notch score keeper for the last 4 years we were playing travel ball.
While we did not use any of these advanced stats if we wanted too we could break down a players OB%,BA,SLG% as well as our pitchers WHIP, ERA, PC by how well our stat man kept the book. This was old school with one of the Ultimate score books that allowed you plenty of area for notes on batters and pitchers.
I would think it is hard to find someone dedicated, fair and consistent enough to be 100% accurate in all of these new areas of statistics though.

 

[Maxx]

Strikeout %, yes........swing and miss %, no.....most college coaches don't pay attention to stats because they are inaccurate or inflated anyway.