Coaching by the numbers...

[obbay]

What are your thoughts about the use of stats informing coaching decisions (U18)?

I usually think stats can be a helpful tool when "guiding the ship through new or uncharted waters". but i think it is only a tool.
One of our coaches this year was a stats fanatic/savant. The problem is/was, I think he put too much faith in his numbers and didn't see how his players actually played.

In looking back at them now, I think there were too many to actually be usefull .

Stats recorded for each player beyond the usual included but are not limited to the following: PA, Pitches seen, Pitches per PA, Balls, Strikes, Swings, Misses, Foul, In Play, miss %, Foul %, In-Play%, total contact %, SLG, OBP, RISP, 2 outs, SB, CS, IF hits, ROE, HBP, Sac Bunt, Sac Fly, RISP Hits, RISP AB, 2out hits, 2 out AB, PH Hits, PH AB, PH AVG, Called Strikes, called strike avg., K's looking.

In the end, i found my gut to be more accurate than the stats, but I'm normally a big stats fan.

I guess I'm trolling for opinions on how others use stats to inform their coaching decisions.

 

[quincy]

DD does not play enough games to make stats meaningful.

If you play enough games I think they start making some sense but only some.

DD is always targeted against the better Teams, while some other pitchers are targeted against weaker Teams. Stats never tell the whole story because of all the different Teams we play.

When everyone is playing the same competition all the time they start making more sense, it just doesn’t happen in our game.

 

[RetiredCoach]

I agree that it is very hard to take stats too seriously for most fastpitch softball leagues. I do look at them but I, too, usually go with my intuition. I know what my players can do and how best to play them even if I don't see any statistics.

 

[YoungBuck]

I can't speak to 18U but I love that my DDs coach is a 'stats guy' for some of the reason posted previously... much easier to explain to DD you didn't hit, you didn't block, you didn't (fill in the blank). On the flip side when you're better statistically and you don't play it's hard to explain !

 

[KCPRK]

For 16Gold ball we play 100 plus games a year. I value the following stats:

Batting
Ks
OBP
BA/RISP

Pitchers
HHB
FPS
BB
HBP

 

[riseball]

Stats are only one of many tools at a coaches disposal. I have an 18U team and we typically rely on stats to validate what we already suspect. They are a historical record and may or may not tell you what will happen today, especially in TB where opposing teams and skills are constantly changing. We rely much more on performance in pregame BP and conversations with the players for lineup decisions. Our players are at the point where they will tell us if they are not seeing the ball particularly well or if it looks like a beach ball. If in doubt we may look at the stats, but not very often. We put 15 runs on a team last weekend after we turned the lineup over to our 2016's. They put all the speed at the top and they all hit at the bottom of the order. They thought it was great when the other team could not understand why our bottom 4 hitters were hammering the ball harder than the top of the order. I think a big part of it was that the players felt they had ownership over what was happening. We will probably go with that next weekend.

 

[CoogansBluff]

What are your thoughts about the use of stats informing coaching decisions (U18)?

I usually think stats can be a helpful tool when "guiding the ship through new or uncharted waters". but i think it is only a tool.
One of our coaches this year was a stats fanatic/savant. The problem is/was, I think he put too much faith in his numbers and didn't see how his players actually played.

Since you say U18, I assume this is a travel team that plays 50-75 games, maybe more.

IMO, if you don't use stats at all over that many games, you're doing yourself and your players a disservice. I don't care what our intuition says, we need to be able to explain why the girl hitting .233 is batting #3 and the girl hitting .402 is batting #8. Yes, stats can lie, but so can our intuition.

Now, to what extent do you use stats? That's hard to say. As you said, they are a helpful tool. You have to rely on many things.

 

[obbay]

If you play enough games I think they start making some sense but only some.

and

it is very hard to take stats too seriously for most fastpitch softball leagues.

I think this probably sums it up - there's really not enough data until the end of the season. and even then i think it comes down to "what are you doing for me lately" or if I feel in my gut that this kid has something special today. What RB says makes a lot of sense. this is a U18 elite, not Gold. and we played maybe 40 games in 7 weekends through the summer.

KC- that sounds realistic.

our guy also did the same with pitching stats which depends heavily on the wide range of umpiring we saw. crediting a pitchers stats based on what we have for a blue that day doesn't seem to tell a true story- on more than one occasion we had PU's that would see a ball come straight over the plate, catchers mitt doesn't move, and they would call it for a ball. one was even heard complaining that he got "stuck" doing softball which is a "stupid sport". make bad calls and then make up fictitious rules for the call, make the out call before the throw reached the base and then on appeal have the other ump say " something happened there, but I don't really know what..."
sorry, I got off track!

 

[KCPRK]

and


I think this probably sums it up - there's really not enough data until the end of the season. and even then i think it comes down to "what are you doing for me lately" or if I feel in my gut that this kid has something special today. What RB says makes a lot of sense. this is a U18 elite, not Gold. and we played maybe 40 games in 7 weekends through the summer.

KC- that sounds realistic.

our guy also did the same with pitching stats which depends heavily on the wide range of umpiring we saw. crediting a pitchers stats based on what we have for a blue that day doesn't seem to tell a true story- on more than one occasion we had PU's that would see a ball come straight over the plate, catchers mitt doesn't move, and they would call it for a ball. one was even heard complaining that he got "stuck" doing softball which is a "stupid sport". make bad calls and then make up fictitious rules for the call, make the out call before the throw reached the base and then on appeal have the other ump say " something happened there, but I don't really know what..."
sorry, I got off track!

Ive seen those types of officials before. If an outside source seriously corrupts the data/game Ill delete it or a piece of the game as needed.

So any data that is corrupted needs to be removed from the equation.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

I love coaching against coaches that continue to use their gut or instinct. Please continue to bat your fast lefty slappers at the top of the lineup (with low OBP). Please continue to bunt with a runner on first with no outs.

You just make my job so much easier.