Any pitcher at any level of competitive baseball has undoubtedly heard the phrase: get ahead in the count. Nothing drives pitching coaches crazy like pitchers who fall behind against hitters and give up walks or extra base hits because of it. The importance of getting ahead in the count is actually measurable in Major League Baseball. In 2016, hitters had a .272/.383/.458 slash line through a 1-0 count, compared to .226/.268/.355 through a 0-1 count.
As a result, a pitcher’s first pitch strike percentage (F-Strike%) is often used to gauge how efficient certain hurlers are.