[quote=“West2East”]I did this for my son (10U this year) and his team last year, and intend on doing it thoughout his school years. Therefore, I knew how many pitches he threw in the spring as well as in the Fall, strike:ball ratio, ground balls, fly balls, walks, innings, hits allowed, etc and established a base line for this year. I can chart his development and see his development. From his 9U to 10U year, he pitched an extra 12 inning while walking 11 fewer for a decrease of 4 pitches per inning. This year’s goal is to reduce his pitches per inning from 17 to 15. Goal for 12U year is 13 pitches per inning! 15 pitches per inning allows for a complete game.
9U Year Stats (Minors & Tourney Ball): 47 innings, 989 pitches, 124 K’s, 54 BBs, 1.33 WHIP
10U Year Stats (Majors & Tourney Ball): 59 innings, 1045 pitches, 124 K’s, 43 BBs, 1.28 WHIP.
Keeping stats has helped him understand his game. Some games he feels horrible as he may give up a couple of walks in a row. Yet, in these games his K:BB ration and pitches per inning come out to be the same as his good games where the walks are more spread out. Looking at the stats he can see objectively how he did. :)[/quote]
Nice job! You have my respect and congratulations. But now you get to answer some questions. 
I don’t know what you used to track the stats, but it doesn’t matter if you where using some complex piece of software or a piece pf paper and a pencil. What I’m interested in, is how much EXTRA time it took you to do that, over and above what you have done for just regular old stats such as the vast majority of coaches use?
Seeing your enthusiasm about PPI, I’d like to just offer a hint from an old warhorse who did what you did at the same time my boy was 9YO. Definitely continue to produce the metrics you already do, but take my advice on this. Go to page 8 of this link. http://www.infosports.com/scorekeeper/images/cpitching.pdf
You’ll notice that I produce all the standard stuff, but also look at things in terms of a few other ways as well. Trust me, its not much more difficult to do that, and it gives many other interesting perspectives.
As for shooting for 13 PPI at 12, that’s a great goal, but to tell the truth, it isn’t very realistic. What you see on the report I referenced, are HSV pitchers on an extremely successful team ranked #420 nationally, out of 15,000+ schools playing baseball. The numbers you see are for all the pitchers from ’07 to ’10, and I think you’ll notice that a 13 PPI for anyone who’s thrown more than a few innings is unheard of.
Now I don’t doubt that somewhere there’s a HS pitcher who’s done it for at least one season, but it would really be freaky good. Now 14 doesn’t sound as good, but I assure you that if he can get into the low 14’s for a decent amount of work, you’re gonna see something pretty darn good.
Like I said, it’s a great goal, but its really not realistic, and if he does take the numbers to heart, it could very well make him feel like a failure, even though it wasn’t even close to being true. Personally, I’d much rather see him set a goal of having a PPI 4 or 5 tenths lower than anyone else on the team, because as he gets older, his peer group is going to be much stronger. So if he stays ahead of them, it would really be something to be proud of.
Here’s something else to keep in mind. If and when someone questions his numbers, and I assure you they will if they haven’t been already, don’t get into battles about the scorer, the competition, or his level. Just ask anyone who questions you, what numbers they have that show what you have is so far away from normal. You’ll find people who do have numbers to the depth that you do, but they’ll be as scarce as hen’s teeth. And chances are, they will very closely match the averages you have, unless one of you doesn’t know to keep score or compute the different metrics.
What are you using as software to do your input, storage, and presentation? This kind of thing always fascinates me when I find someone else a kooky as I am. LOL!