So, I would think that 1-1 strike that is either pushed out of or into the strike zone is an important pitch!?! Having a kid actually work to develop ALL of his skills--throwing (JW records pop times 7 times a game!), blocking, game execution, and receiving (yep, and before people say it, hitting x10!) has got to be important in improving your team...If all the feedback a kid gets is the number of PB/WP and CS/SB, I am not sure that is the kind of quality feedback a kid needs to work on his game.
I DO hear you about umpiring--believe me, it is a thankless job and talent sure varies in our neck of the woods! I am processing that one. My knee-jerk is that I actually have seen umpires at the JV/youth level who can be more influenced by a good receiver. I had an opposing dad get mad at me last summer because his son struck out three times on borderline pitches that were called strikes when my son was catching. Did that improve my son's team? All three were the 3rd out of the inning. Could another catcher have done that--absolutely. Do you tip your cap to the pitcher who can drop a two-strike pitch on the black- for sure.
I think part of my issue is that I have coached football for 27 years. Football has changed a ton. The things coaches are doing with video as a teaching tool at the high school level is unbelievable. Using analytics is much easier than it used to be in high school football. In baseball, we have a team in our league that has three go-pros set up to record their baseball games. I don't know what they do with the video but I am guessing there is a lot of football'ish film study and grading kids on their play. Could be wrong on that--just an assumption. Maybe some dad has got WAY too much time/money on his hands? If so, maybe we need to connect him with cabbagedad to get his feet back on the ground?!?
Everybody have a great weekend! It is my hope that you can see a high school, college or spring training game in the sun without snow on the ground!