Why all the angst?

[SoAZDad]

What I do better than make suggestions about which player might be better or worse at something, is to try to provide the most accurate metrics I can that take in as many factors as I can, and let them speak for themselves.

Me too. But occasionally they ask for my input and I point out, as the bottom line, the objective numbers. And of course, in the past, some Daddy Ball coaches don't dare ask me anything and hate my stats. But the objective numbers are truth! MWAHAHAHAAAA!

 

[Scorekeeper]

Scorekeeper - I believe we are pretty much on the same page. I don't currently keep track of as many metrics, but after reading some of your posts, I am planning to add a few. Several parents on our team refer to me as the "numbers geek", so I may as well live up to it, right?

When you get the time, go to Welcome to the Baseball and look around. On the left side of the page in the blue, you’ll see a pretty comprehensive list of the metrics I produce. You won’t see all of the metrics in the combined stats as you see in the stats for just one season, and vice versa. That’s because some don’t translate very well. But scroll through them, and if you have a question on ANYTHING, let me know and I’ll answer it.

One of the things I do that really helps the whole paradigm is lost in the shuffle. It’s the newsletters I do. (See 2013 Newsletters) I write a newsletter after every game, and I do that for a couple reasons. The main one is so the folks who can’t get to the games get at least a little sense of what took place. But another is that I use that narrative to double check the numbers for that game. When I have to explain what took place in detail, I use the scoresheet and the numbers, and I’ve found a lot of data input typos as well as other mistakes I get the opportunity to correct. So those things act as a way for me to add a layer of validity to the numbers.

They also give me the opportunity to explain some things that people might find confusing. Things like a controversial call that only gets explained to the coaches, or why something was hit and not an error, or why there was only 1 RBI instead of two. Its a way for me to add to the overall experience, and at the same time try to make things as accurate as possible.

 

[FP26]

Let’s say that like many coaches, I come up with some kind of player evaluation form, and on that form someplace there’s a box for “Coachability” and its to be measured by a number from 1 to 5, with a 5 being very coachable and a 1 being very difficult to deal with. If I have the coaches all fill out this form once a week, and enter that number into some kind of database, I’ll be able to easily identify problem players, and watch how they progress.

That is an interesting idea! I wonder if many organizations offer similar forms to rate the coaching staff? And I am not saying that sarcastically. As a coach I want to do what I can in order to help our players improve. We focus on the things that our coaching staff discusses, and we do receive some input from the families. But I get the feeling that there are some "my way or the highway" coaches out there that have no interest in receiving input from the parents. Even as volunteers, we are essentially providing a service. Unfortunately I think some only judge their coaching effectiveness by the amount of turnover they have at the end of the season. And then some won't even realize the impact that they personally had on that turnover.

 

[Scorekeeper]

Me too. But occasionally they ask for my input and I point out, as the bottom line, the objective numbers. And of course, in the past, some Daddy Ball coaches don't dare ask me anything and hate my stats. But the objective numbers are truth! MWAHAHAHAAAA!

I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but we really do appear to be kindred souls.

Every season there’s a new crop of players and of course parents, and its pretty funny to watch the old timers throw some new “know-it-all” parent into the lion’s den. Sooner or later some new parent will be encouraged to wander over to my little table and expound on his/her vast knowledge of baseball statistics, what the numbers REALLY are for our players, or something else like it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a few things from such people over the years, but in general most leave with their eyes glazed over wondering what hit them.

But its all in fun for me, with the hope of making everyone’s experience a bit better.

 

[SoAZDad]

I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but we really do appear to be kindred souls.

Every season there’s a new crop of players and of course parents, and its pretty funny to watch the old timers throw some new “know-it-all” parent into the lion’s den. Sooner or later some new parent will be encouraged to wander over to my little table and expound on his/her vast knowledge of baseball statistics, what the numbers REALLY are for our players, or something else like it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a few things from such people over the years, but in general most leave with their eyes glazed over wondering what hit them.

But its all in fun for me, with the hope of making everyone’s experience a bit better.

Kindred souls indeed. Nice to know I'm not the only metrics die-hard.

I also love the new parents coming over and telling me they know how to keep score and will do it whenever I need a break. Usually before I'm done telling them that I enjoy it and I prefer one person to do it because consistency is more credible (i.e., multiple observers or SKs introduces more levels of bias and inconsistency in the numbers), they say something about all the detail on the scoresheet. We SKs pride ourselves on doing the job - being able to record the game so it can be reconstructed play-by-play at a later date if needed. And I do love it when I meet someone on the same rules page as me, who interprets the rules similarly. But a lot of parents never read the rule book. I must be really boring because I actually enjoy looking stuff up and reading the rules.

 

[Greenmonsters]

LOL - looks like a blossoming DFP bromance.

Here's a question. Hypothetical must-win game, do you start pitcher A or pitcher B? And, more importantly why?

D3 college stats - Team record 32-12

Pitcher A - 14-5 W-L, 100 IP, 138 H, 73 K, 30 BB, 2.85 ERA
Pitcher B - 4-1 W-L, 52 IP, 53 H, 35 K, 15 BB, 2.16 ERA

 

[SoAZDad]

LOL - looks like a blossoming DFP bromance.

Here's a question. Hypothetical must-win game, do you start pitcher A or pitcher B? And, more importantly why?

D3 college stats - Team record 32-12

Pitcher A - 14-5 W-L, 100 IP, 138 H, 73 K, 30 BB, 2.85 ERA
Pitcher B - 4-1 W-L, 52 IP, 53 H, 35 K, 15 BB, 2.16 ERA

I'd start Pitcher B. The metrics are close if you standardize them to equal IP, but Bs ERA is quite a bit lower. What would you do Monsters?

 

[Scorekeeper]

That is an interesting idea! I wonder if many organizations offer similar forms to rate the coaching staff? And I am not saying that sarcastically. As a coach I want to do what I can in order to help our players improve. We focus on the things that our coaching staff discusses, and we do receive some input from the families. But I get the feeling that there are some "my way or the highway" coaches out there that have no interest in receiving input from the parents. Even as volunteers, we are essentially providing a service. Unfortunately I think some only judge their coaching effectiveness by the amount of turnover they have at the end of the season. And then some won't even realize the impact that they personally had on that turnover.

The great thing about the game, is there are very few rigid guidelines about such things. I’ve heard of parents and players being given the opportunity to “grade” the coaching staff many different ways. In general though, I’d say it was seen as causing more trouble than solving problems. Not that it isn’t a good idea, but rather unless there are guidelines about how it would be done and how the information would be used, things could get out of hand very quickly, where a small faction of parents could cause lots of trouble.

You’re correct about there being hard-line coaches who simple want to do what they want to do however they want to do it, and don’t want anyone outside the lines having anything to do with it. I think a lot of coaches would have a problem with being graded, but if it were something that took place on a regular basis and wasn’t complicated so everyone could get used to it, it would soon be nothing more than something else to take care of.

Usually, we humans adapt very well to new circumstances as long as everyone understands the “rules”.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Here's a question. Hypothetical must-win game, do you start pitcher A or pitcher B? And, more importantly why?

D3 college stats - Team record 32-12

Pitcher A - 14-5 W-L, 100 IP, 138 H, 73 K, 30 BB, 2.85 ERA
Pitcher B - 4-1 W-L, 52 IP, 53 H, 35 K, 15 BB, 2.16 ERA

In D-3, I assume the quality of opponents can be very wide-ranging. So my first question is why has Pitcher A throwing twice the innings? Is it because one pitcher is getting the call against the tougher teams? The No. 3 pitcher on our middle school team had the best stats. She pitched 20 percent of the innings. The #1 pitched about 50. The #2 pitched about 30. The #3 faced the three worst teams in the league.

 

[Rocketech1]

LOL - looks like a blossoming DFP bromance.

Here's a question. Hypothetical must-win game, do you start pitcher A or pitcher B? And, more importantly why?

D3 college stats - Team record 32-12

Pitcher A - 14-5 W-L, 100 IP, 138 H, 73 K, 30 BB, 2.85 ERA
Pitcher B - 4-1 W-L, 52 IP, 53 H, 35 K, 15 BB, 2.16 ERA

Knowing nothing else, I go with Pitcher B because 1) she has a better WHIP of 1.30 (vs 1.68 for Pitcher A); 2) a significantly lower ERA of 2.16 (vs 2.85), and 3) Pitcher B's winning % is 80% while Pitcher B's winning % is 73%.

If I could know one thing, it would be how competitive were the teams they faced which is a huge unknown for us? This is why stats alone don't necessarily tell the whole story, and need to be put in context to other factors that contribute to a pitcher's success or failure.