Stats are a big part of baseball. At the major league level the average fan knows a lot more about baseball stats than other major league sports.
At the high school level even if stats are done well the accuracy of tying stats in small numbers to talent is potentially more skewed than any other level. If a kid gets one hundred at bats in a high school league every hit is worth ten points. One four for four game moves a batting average forty points. It could be the difference between .260 and .300. At the college and pro level stats in large numbers tell you how good the player’s season has been.
My soph year of high school I played in New England. We had eighteen games. I got about sixty something plate appearances and about fifty something at bats. I had a five for five game against a weaker team. It moved my average one hundred points. One game moved my average from about .300 to about .400 making me first team all conference. My coach took the .400 number to the awards meeting. I was good for a soph. But I shouldn’t have been first team that year.