Analyzing pitchers who threw the highest percentages of strikes
As I did during the fastpitch softball season, I have composed a spreadsheet looking at the rate of strikes thrown by area baseball pitchers. To complete this, I compiled numbers from teams’ Game Changer box scores.
Only a few teams are missing because they don’t have Game Changer accounts for this season (Cameron, Keota and McCurtain).
The first thing that stood out to me was that most baseball pitchers threw a significantly lower percentage of strikes than those in fast-pitch. Thirteen fast-pitch hurlers threw 63 percent of their pitches as strikes, compared with five baseball pitchers.
I pondered whether it could be something inherent about pitching in the two sports, but settled on the idea that baseball pitchers throw fewer innings. Since the pitch count rule was implemented, baseball pitchers haven’t been able to go deep into games as often as they did more than five years ago.
In addition to protecting young arms, the pitch count rule instills a degree of accountability. If a pitcher throws a high percentage of strikes while doing well (as opposed to having a high rate of strikes that merely make contact with the bat), he can stay on the mound for more innings.
Hence, I also tracked the average number of pitches per inning. A pitcher isn’t allowed to face another batter after reaching 120 pitches. Therefore, he must average 17.2 or fewer pitches per inning or have his team inflict the mercy rule sooner to throw a complete game.
While mandated rest days for pitch count thresholds force decisions on how long someone stays on the mound, especially for teams that play in districts like Spiro, Gannon Shackleford completed four of his 12 games pitched because of his 16.2 pitches per inning.
Another notable aspect of this exercise is that 14 of the top 20 in strike rate are from non-football playing schools.
Kadin Davis counts as being from a non-football school since Whitesboro co-opted with Talihina for baseball this spring. Davis, the most prolific pitcher in LeFlore County this season, and others who play fall baseball get an additional season to work on their pitching in live-game situations (notwithstanding others who may play travel ball).
Also, Gunnar McAlester has compiled more reps on the mound because he spent his first two highschool years at Wister before going to Heavener.
That’s not to imply nonfootball schools are much better at baseball.
Strike rate
1. Kadin Davis (Talihina) 72.8 percent, 2. Chase Pair (Red Oak) 68.6 percent, 3. Gunnar McAlester (Heavener) 65 percent,
4. Gannon Shackleford (Spiro) 63.5 percent, 5. J.T. Grimsley (Pocola) 63.9 percent, 6. Tustin Timms (Panama) 62.6 percent, 7. Brenden Champlin (Buffalo Valley) 61.9 percent
8. Trever Lyons (Red Oak) 61.8 percent and Chase Lloyd (LeFlore) 61.8 percent, 10. Cooper Newman (LeFlore) 61.7 percent, 11. Brex Caldwell (Red Oak) 61.6 percent, 12. (tie) Jace Hunter (BV) and Tyler Sanderson (Bokoshe) 61.4 percent, 14. Hunter Sparks (Spiro) 61 percent, 15. Dakota Perdue (Spiro) 60.6 percent, 16. Connar Hall (Wister) 60.4 percent, 17. Noah Ward (Heavener) 60 percent, 18. Garrett Smith (Howe) 60.4 percent, 19. Landon Donaho (Wister) 60.3 percent, 20. Steven Morris (BV) 60 percent.
Pitches per inning
1. Pair 15.1, 2. Lyons 16.1, 3. Shackleford 16.2, 4. Lloyd 16.2, 5. Davis 16.3, 6. Newman 16.5, 7. (tie) Hunter and McAlester 17.4, 9. Dartyn Meeks (Wister) 17.5, 10. (tie) Smith 17.7 and Caleb Brewer (Panama) 17.7, 12. Timms 17.8, 13. Bryce Morrison (Heavener) 17.9.
Strikeouts per nine innings
1. Davis 2.34 (136 strikeouts in 58 innings),
2. Hunter 2.03 (62 K in 30 IP), 3. Connar Hall 1.91 (71 K in 37.1 IP), 4. Brenden Champlin 1.79 (61 K in 34 IP), 5. Caldwell 1.54 (54 K in 34.1 IP), 6. Donaho 1.51 (65 K in 43 IP),7. Coby Bell (Red Oak) 1.41 (44 K in 31.2 IP), 8. Pair 1.39 (63 K in 45.1 IP), 9. Ky Lynn (Howe) 1.36 (34 K in 25 IP), 10. McAlester 1.34 (51 K in 38.1 IP), 11. Meeks 1.3 (64 K in 47.2 IP).