Coaching by the numbers...

[quincy]

We try to please.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

Stats are wonderful because they don't lie.

Stats also paint a very unclear picture and it takes a good knowledge of the game and of the team's history to make the most use out of them.

For example, I judge a slapper much differently than I do a power hitter. For the slapper, I look at OBP, stolen bases and runs scored while with power hitters I look more for BA/RISP, RBI and Ks.

You also have to temper the stats with the level of competition they are accumulated against. If I have a girl who is getting most of her starts against the weaker teams we play on Saturday and another girl who is getting her starts against our rivals and on Sundays, well ...... those two .400 BAs are quite different in my book.

Of course, the parents of the first girl may not see it that way, but I have to.

ADDED: I just noticed this is my 1,000th post. This has been a fun ride.

 

[corlay]

I think stats are a great tool.

With the advent of cloud-based, automated services (like Gamechanger)
it's never been easier to create and crunch stats to help make informed lineup decisions.

One thing I like to do, is categorize games/opponents as low, medium, or high competition.
(for Batting stats you rank the opposing pitching, for Pitching stats rank the opposing batters...)
That way, you can isolate the stats against each, so as not to skew the curve.
Of course, this is highly subjective, and probably makes the most sense at 10U, 12U, 14U where the disparity amongst teams in any tournament is probably greatest.

I'm usually surprised by something when I start to analyze team stats, usually after the second tournament of the season.
I think our impressions of a player's performance can sometimes be skewed by our memory of a few specific plays, and we lose sight of the overall.
Stats usually expose this. OBP is the one I usually am surprised by, for example.

Analyzed stats are also great coach's justification to a parent voicing dissatisfaction over DD's position in the order or field, or playing time in general. ;-)

 

[90210]

Stats are wonderful because they don't lie.

Stats also paint a very unclear picture and it takes a good knowledge of the game and of the team's history to make the most use out of them.

For example, I judge a slapper much differently than I do a power hitter. For the slapper, I look at OBP, stolen bases and runs scored while with power hitters I look more for BA/RISP, RBI and Ks.

You also have to temper the stats with the level of competition they are accumulated against. If I have a girl who is getting most of her starts against the weaker teams we play on Saturday and another girl who is getting her starts against our rivals and on Sundays, well ...... those two .400 BAs are quite different in my book.

Of course, the parents of the first girl may not see it that way, but I have to.

ADDED: I just noticed this is my 1,000th post. This has been a fun ride.

SBs are useless if they aren't stealing efficiently. Runs scored are highly dependant on the performance of the rest of the lineup. BA/RISP is going to take a very long time to converge b/c the situation comes up fairly rarely and for the most part "clutchness" is bullshit. RBI is dependant on people getting on base in front of the batter. Ks aren't particularly relevant, groundouts/popouts are for the most part the same as a K, and that is already included in OBP.

You've picked some crappy stats to look at, I'd recommend wOBA and ISO. Get the high wOBAs the most ABs and tweak/stagger it a bit based on power (ISO).

 

[Rocketech1]

I love stats, especially the ones for pitchers, but they are really only as good as the person keeping the scorebook. I have been part of a few teams where the team mom / scorekeeper padded the stats for her DD big time and others who didn't know the difference between an error and a hit. Garbage in, garbage out. With that said, stats can be an amazing tool for coaches as long as you can trust the scorekeeper and know how to interpret the numbers.

 

[obbay]

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.

I would but my gut wouldn't tell me to do that...

 

[CoogansBluff]

SBs are useless if they aren't stealing efficiently. Runs scored are highly dependant on the performance of the rest of the lineup. BA/RISP is going to take a very long time to converge b/c the situation comes up fairly rarely and for the most part "clutchness" is bullshit. RBI is dependant on people getting on base in front of the batter. Ks aren't particularly relevant, groundouts/popouts are for the most part the same as a K, and that is already included in OBP.

You've picked some crappy stats to look at, I'd recommend wOBA and ISO. Get the high wOBAs the most ABs and tweak/stagger it a bit based on power (ISO).

I like the way you think. I thought I had made a similar post in this thread, but must not have hit the reply button.

I agree -

I don't care much about K's. Sure, it is correlated w/ poor hitting somewhat, but if the hitter can't hit, it will show up in other more significant stats. Mike Trout strikes out a ton. Who cares.

BA/RISP - Not enough data to support it. 'Clutch' is largely a myth. The best clutch hitters are almost always the best hitters, period. People can get a reputation for being a clutch hitter on the basis of two memorable at-bats a season. It lacks logic.

Runs/RBI are batting-order driven.

Hitters have two main skills - get on base, hit for power.

 

[corlay]

One stat I found useful at 12U was to track ROE.

At that level of play, it often times means the batter is hitting the ball pretty hard.
And if they have a lot of at-bats that result in ROE, it can adversely affect more traditional batting stats (like AVG);
which might skew your impression of the player's performance.

I suspect (I hope!) that this stat will be less useful at 14U this upcoming season...

 

[nanotech14]

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.

You know my dd's old team? That line fits perfectly with the team my dd just left. The coaches dd hits 3rd, but her avg. was lower then that, she struck out most of the time.

 

[nanotech14]

K's are extremely relevant. No sense in even batting, just take the out and save time. We are not talking about Mike Trout. Pop ups and ground outs are not the same as k's you guys are confused. If you flyout but move the runner on base up, then it is not just like a K, same with putting the ball on the ground. Clutch is what my dd is. She is a great hitter, avg. about mid to high 400s and only struck out 6 times in the last 2 years at 16u TB, has tied up or won so many games. She is clutch and is not a myth, she just knows what her job is to do.