Pitching With Peterson

Although jobless, Rick Peterson still likes to talk pitching. Former Mets pitching coach, Rick Peterson will be working with fullcountpitch.com twice a month talking about pitching. Yesterday was the first "Pitching Perspectives with Rick Peterson" where they talked about 4 areas of pitching. The most interesting thing to me was the "myth of 'getting ahead"

"One cannot listen to a game without hearing the announcer discuss the importance
of getting ahead in the count. While a pitcher should not make a habit of
falling behind, Coach Peterson points to some startling statistics. “Sure, you
want a pitcher to get ahead, but there is more to it than that. You know what
the batting average against is when the there is a new count (0-0)? .339. At 0
and 1, the batting average is .315. Take a guess at what it is if the pitcher
falls behind 1 and 0. It’s .339. You are statistically no worse off if you fall
behind on the first pitch. It’s really about location.” "

I never realized, or never knew that the batting average against a pitcher with a 0-0 count was the same as 1-0. It's not necessarily about getting that first pitch over as you hear every time on tv anytime a pitcher does it. Although to get to 0-2 where the BAA is below .200 you must start out 0-1, "the important aspect is how a pitcher gets ahead. 'You want to pitch to the bottom of the strike zone. The batting average of all balls put in play on a pitch at the bottom of the strike zone is .220. If you do fall behind, make sure it is at the bottom of the strike zone.' "

You also always hear announcers and analysts talk about keeping the ball down, and how a pitcher is tiring or just ineffective when pitching up in the zone, so I guess not everyone on tv or radio is always wrong. So is a pitch that hits the catchers spot but is called a ball a better pitch than a fastball up that's called a strike? If it's a swing and a miss most likely caused by a dominant fastball then maybe not, but otherwise I'd say yes. Keeping the ball low at 1-0, isn't any worse off than starting from scratch, and it generally would mean you're in control of what you're doing.