This is a quick call for help. As I mentioned in the comments section of a previous entry, I’m going to start keeping track/estimating pitch counts for our starting pitchers across all levels. I’ve developed a spreadsheet to easily calculate these formulas using tangotiger’s equation he developed. Its not 100%, no estimate can be 100%, but its very accurate, and my margin of error is probably 1-3 pitches on either side. What I need from you, my devoted and loyal readers, is help with finding actual pitch counts. As I’ve detailed, minorleaguebaseball.com does not give pitch counts in box scores, so we’ll have to rely on people listening to games, seeing it in newspaper articles, or any other place you can find it. I’m creating a page at the top of the site simply called “Pitch Count Log”. If you are listening to a game, or watching a game, or attending a game and you can get the official pitch count, please post it there as a comment. Just use this format
Date — Pitcher — # of pitches
So for last night, you’d do
6/19/08 — Brummett — 122 pitches
I’m focusing on starters at this point, but I may dig into reliever usage later as well.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I plan on using this data in a number of ways, and I’ll begin to incorporate it into the profile pages this winter.
Phuture Phillies 
On the radio the announcers said Brummet had 98 pitches thrown before the 9th began, I don’t know what his total was though.
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Good idea. I was just thinking today that it is hard to find pitch counts for the minor leagues. The other night Carrasco went out for the 8th inning after Reading took the lead and I wondered what his pitch count was.
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It took Carlos Carrasco (5-6) 101 pitches to navigate through six innings, but he battled the whole way, holding the Eastern League’s hottest-hitting lineup to a run and six hits — no small task. The 21-year-old right-hander pitched out of trouble in each of his last three innings, recording back-to-back punchouts in the fourth and fifth with runners in scoring position, and getting a groundout with runners at the corners in the sixth. He finished with four strikeouts and three walks, turning in his finest outing and recording his first victory since May 25. “From the team’s site”
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I’d be a little skeptical about the accuracy of the pitch count estimator at the minor league level. I would expect it to work pretty well in aggregate (i.e. for an entire league), but at the individual level I think that there would be pretty high margin of error.
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Why do you say that? I’m not saying I disagree, but the model is very accurate in the major leagues going back 80-90 years, why would it not translate to the minors?
Using what Ricky Branch posted, that Carrasco through 101 pitches, the estimator had him at 101.7 pitches. The Brummett game the estimator was off by 2 pitches.
I think a margin of error of 1-3 pitches is certainly realistic, unless there is a compelling reason to think it wouldn’t apply.
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I was just guessing that given the larger talent disparity it might be possible for wider variations in pitch counts. Probably someone has already tested it though.
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I think as long as a caveat accompanies the results, there will be some value here. Laura posted Happ’s PC from tonight, the spread was 7 pitches. If I can get 50-60 games with exact results the rest of the way, the sample will be bigger, and Ill be able to tell how accurate it is.
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happen to see on minorleaguebaseball.com that a pitch count was listed tonight for the pigs game. I checked AA and there was no listing. Not sure if this is a fluke or a daily thing for that level. Didn’t check.
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I check a few box scores. It looks like AAA lists pitch count and has for quite a while. I couldn’t find any lower levels that had pitch count. It’s far more valuable to see the counts in the lower levels than AAA. The guys are fully (mostly) formed by then.
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