Quality Start Statistic

[CoachCarl]

Based on the definition for MLB...

A quality start is when a pitcher completes 5 innings or more of a nine inning game with 3 runs for less scored.

We have to manually assign wins and losses (due to runners on base when a reliever comes in), but quality start is a decent statistic for pitchers at all levels.

The duration and runs would need to be adjusted for 6 and 7 inning games, but would be helpful for youth leagues where Wins and Losses don't communicate the effort and improvement of young pitchers.

[Jaskegreen]

It would be a nice stat, but not very practical for youth baseball as many leagues restrict the amount of innings and/or pitches the pitchers can throw. I know for our PONY league, this year we are restricting even more the amount of work a pitcher can do. The most innings a pitcher can throw is 3 at the higher levels, and 2 at the lower along with a pitch limit. Little League, if I remember right, is about the same if not stricter. The reason for all of this is to keep the pitchers safe and to help develop more of them.

I'd be interested in hearing how the stat parameters could be adjusted for youth baseball.

Cheers,
Jason

[CoachCarl]

My idea is to use this stat most for Little League and Pony where the pitch count limits the number of innings to a relatively small number. In Little League it is all pitch count based, so for us a "Quality Start" stat is actually better than win's or even ERA at some levels.

Our starters usually go 3 innings, and if they do with less than 3 runs - then it's a quality start. It's sort of similar to MLB where it is 3 runs in 5 innings, but scaled to the typical lower number of innings we have our pitchers go during the regular season.

In post season we have more pitchers on the team and so we usually let them go till they have exhausted their pitch count limit (85 for 11 - 12).

The other issue we have is that it's hard to give wins to pitchers since they only go 2 - 3 innings for the most part. The "Quality Start" stat is a way of measuring the effectiveness even if they cannot get the win.

[FTMSupport]

We will add "Quality Start" statistics to our enhancement list. The biggest challenge is that it would be defined differently from league to league, so could not even be set at a "device" level if people are scoring games for little league, softball, and/or MLB all on the same device. Would almost need a way to define the quality start rules on a game by game basis. Even within leagues, sometimes you may play a 7 inning game, and sometimes a 9 inning game, so the rules for a quality start may or may not adjust accordingly. It is a bit tough, and somewhat subjective since there is not a well defined rule that applies to all games.

But we will add it to our enhancement list and see what we can come up with and if more poeple start asking about it, that would bump up the priority as well.

Thank you.

[danmcc]

Could the quality start be user defined? I.E. ability to select # of innings and # of runs. So one user could have 3 innnings, 2 runs while another could have 4 innings 3 runs, etc.

[FTMSupport]

That would be the way we would have to do it, but even then, we would need that setting to be on a game by game basis, or a team by team basis, or league by league. There isn't necessarily one place that would be a good place to define it. That is what makes it a bit of a challenge.

[CoachCarl]

Great we're even talking about it - not much play when I first put the idea in the forum.

User defined seems like the best way to go here, though it could be a default like the number of innings per game. input would be:
# of innings
# of quality start innings
# of runs for quality start.

The default would be there, but overridden for all but 9 inning games where the stat is standard at 5 innings and 3 runs.

[FTMSupport]

Does earned or unearned runs matter in this case? To be extreme, could a pitcher still be credited with a quality start if they pitched 4 perfect innings, then in the 5th inning, there were 2 outs, an error occurred on the next batter's ground ball (should have ended the inning), then 20 home runs in a row were hit after that error (ok, maybe bad coaching to not take the pitcher out, but trying to fully understand the request), and finally the 3rd out was made. Pitchers stat line would be 0 earned runs over 5 innings, but 21 runs against him. Or something less blatant... 4 2/3 perfect innings, then 10 errors in a row by fielders cause 10 runs to score.

Trying to figure out if there is any subjectivity in the stat or if it is truly something that has well defined rules.

[danmcc]

I would say game by game. We already have the option of innings for a game, so from that screen input # of allowable runs for quality start.

[CoachCarl]

Ah - I see the ambiguity in the 'rule' as defined.

The MLB rule is:
5 - or more innings
3 runs or less

The simple thing for youth would be to give credit for a quality start if:

1: Pitched x innings or more (x = number of innings set by user)
2: Had x earned runs or less (x = number runs set by user)

The nice thing is that it is merely based on thresholds which can be changed per coach or per league. MLB status set the precedent, but any team can choose where they place their own threshold.

For Minors / Pinto - Mustang level this could be 2 innings with 3 or less runs (6 inning game). For Majors / Pony this could be 3 innings with 3 or less runs (6 inning game), and for higher levels like Juniors these could be 4 innings with 3 or less runs (7 inning game).

Seems fairly straight forward to calculate, but you'd need another two entries on the game settings for number of runs and number of innings for a quality start.