HS stats

Obviously, YMMV, but OUR high school allows the players on the bench to score the game.  Suffice it to say that you need to take the stats with a GIANT grain of salt...sometimes the game "as scored" only vaguely resembles the game being played.

Our HS coach has the game changer settings so you can only see your kid's stats.  Whats funny, is there is a local aggregate site that collects and posts every kid and teams stats as well.  I do know that the teams that keep their GS stats open also keep open each players spray charts etc which doesn't seem too smart.

Like @ILoveBaseball04 said, our team's POs run the game changer.  The scoring is comical to say the least.

Likewise here bench players keep the stars. Coach has it set so everybody can see everything but also it's JV so it doesn't matter anyway. I definitely take it with a grain of salt.

Dadof3, Coach was probably sick of people asking why certain plays were marked they way they were. LOL

I have seen such a mix of Stats from HSs. One school never marked an error, everything was a hit. One thing for sure about HS stats, you can not trust HS Stats. Kind of like the majority of Travel Ball GC run by parents.

There was a local site that took the stats from each team's GC, then MaxPreps which would take from whichever team reported first. It led to some big discrepancies. I preferred the local site because they actually had "reporters" at the games and seemed to have a more accurate reflection of the box score.

In general, posting stats are a red herring.  IMHO, it is mostly a parent's issue.

I remember doing the stats for my son's travel team, note, I'm a hard scorer and it doesn't matter who the player may be.

Anyway, not only do you have players (parents) on the team, but when you have multiple teams within an age group.  Joey on Team 3 (who's batting avg is .900, and playing against average competition, thinks he is better John on the Team 1 (batting .250) against the studs.

I remember a mother constantly ranting at JV games freshman year her son should be the varsity catcher. She thought her son was the leading hitter on the team. If he was it was due to catching half the time against lesser talented opposition.

The kid was held in such high regard by the varsity coach he was also on JV soph year.

I maintained the website and accumulated the stats for varsity. After two games of WTF when accumulating box score data after games I decided to keep score myself. A girl on the bench flirting with bench players was the scorekeeper the first two games. She couldn’t have possibly been paying attention or didn’t know what she was doing . She had my son down for a double on a play that was a two base throwing error.

When I took over the scoring I was approached two or three times each game by parents. They ran over on every questionable call. When the box score was available online I would get at least one call or email every night after games.

It got so annoying I spray painted a “do not enter” circle around me at games. I stopped answering the phone. The same parents started going after the coach for my scoring decisions.

@TxballDad posted:

Dadof3, Coach was probably sick of people asking why certain plays were marked they way they were. LOL

I have seen such a mix of Stats from HSs. One school never marked an error, everything was a hit. One thing for sure about HS stats, you can not trust HS Stats. Kind of like the majority of Travel Ball GC run by parents.

They just did it this year (game changer).

I've found HS stats to be inaccurate for a different reason than just user incompetence.... Level of competition varies drastically from top to bottom. A decent hitter on a bad team is hardly ever going to face the ace of the other team. Plus a lot of the bad teams play very weak schedules. Meanwhile a better player on a top team will likely have lower stats. That's why anybody with sense at the next level could care less about HS stats. If you have the ability (and drive) to play at the next level, your numbers will follow. Don't focus on the kid hitting 500 on 300ft fences against trash pitching. It will not translate to the next level.  jm2c

I will add yet another observation.  I have noticed that some teams in my area do not call their stats in for some time and then, send them in in mass.  In doing this, I have noticed that certain key player's stats are different than what happened in games.  Who would notice since the games were over a week ago?  I have noticed that one coach's child seems to improve from the time the game was played and when the stats are called in.  This was the trend on that coach's last child as well who graduated a couple of years ago. 

@ReluctantO'sFan posted:

I've found HS stats to be inaccurate for a different reason than just user incompetence.... Level of competition varies drastically from top to bottom. A decent hitter on a bad team is hardly ever going to face the ace of the other team. Plus a lot of the bad teams play very weak schedules. Meanwhile a better player on a top team will likely have lower stats. That's why anybody with sense at the next level could care less about HS stats. If you have the ability (and drive) to play at the next level, your numbers will follow. Don't focus on the kid hitting 500 on 300ft fences against trash pitching. It will not translate to the next level.  jm2c

This was my first impression. By mid season his soph year they had gone from perennial doormat to contender in a 6A conference. They won the conference the next two years. From the point it was realized the team was a tough competitor they faced a college bound pitcher almost every game for two and a half years.

Conversely, there was a last place team so bad a couple of JV pitchers would be called up as to not waste varsity pitcher innings.

@CoachB25 and I are in the STL metro area -- and he is 100% correct in his statement regarding how some schools report stats around here. CubsSon pitched against one team with a kid in the top 3 for BA at the time. He didn't get a hit that game. When the stats were finally put in and he magically had a hit!

@CubsFanInSTL posted:

@CoachB25 and I are in the STL metro area -- and he is 100% correct in his statement regarding how some schools report stats around here. CubsSon pitched against one team with a kid in the top 3 for BA at the time. He didn't get a hit that game. When the stats were finally put in and he magically had a hit!

It is unbelievable and what you mentioned is rampant.  My AD demanded of all coaches that they call or send stats in after the game or contest.  That was not debatable.  I had my team play all over the state.  We were up north and I asked the HC from the team putting on a tournament each year to use a computer in their office to get the stats in.  I don't know what is gained when everyone knows what you are doing. 

I guess that is what I was getting at.

@CoachB25 posted:

It is unbelievable and what you mentioned is rampant.  My AD demanded of all coaches that they call or send stats in after the game or contest.  That was not debatable.  I had my team play all over the state.  We were up north and I asked the HC from the team putting on a tournament each year to use a computer in their office to get the stats in.  I don't know what is gained when everyone knows what you are doing.

That's exactly it!  We are in last place.  My buddy was told by a coach we have a very high team BA (he gave a specific number).  My buddy, who has no affiliation with the school looked at him funny and basically thought to himself, "you have that high of a BA but you are in last place?"  Someone he knows has the stats not kept by a coach and the team BA isn't anywhere close to the number the coach mentioned.

Interesting timing for this thread.  A father stopped me this weekend asking if I knew who was running game changer, scoring the games etc because there were a lot of discrepancies in his mind.

I laughed and said, "All the POs run game changer by committee.  Don't take it seriously because I think half of their scoring decisions are done to mess with their friends."  He was NOT pleased and asked me if I thought they would let him score the games.

Bec of everything mentioned here which is consistent with my experience from youth to HS - the question in my mind is "why would anyone want to post HS stats publicly with everyone knowing how unreliable and useless it is".  I roll my eyes at the very few schools in my area who uploads stats to Maxpreps.  When my son started including his hitting stats in his email to college coaches in his jr year, he would come to me to ask what's in the team's GC.  I started downloading each game's box score into my own spreadsheet and adjust his hitting stats with what I remembered in the game and from watching his at bats from the game video - oftentimes making it worse to account for hits that should have been marked as an error.  But at least he has a realistic perspective of his improvement over time.  I also remind him to take certain games with a big grain of salt as it was against really really bad teams that can't find the strike zone and can't field a ball.

I remember this one time where an at bat was scored as a "line drive triple to the catcher".  It was an error to the outfielder who threw it back to the catcher who missed it.  The batter made it all the way to 3rd base.

In addition to the questions of accuracy, I've always thought its just not appropriate to make HS stats visible to the world, especially for sub-varsity.  Don't HS kids have enough pressures in their lives without having their stats scrutinized?

@K9 posted:

In addition to the questions of accuracy, I've always thought its just not appropriate to make HS stats visible to the world, especially for sub-varsity.  Don't HS kids have enough pressures in their lives without having their stats scrutinized?

Good point.  Haven't thought of it from this perspective as I think the kids know how they are doing (and everyone else that matters knows) w/ or w/o the stats being published.  But publishing the stats can add extra pressure and stress, esp when it provides the opportunity (or reason) for adults to get involved and start bashing the kids (in private or online in social media).  I'm seeing this happen right now from fans of a college baseball team.

If you think high school scorekeeping is questionable watch a MLB game. It’s amazing what they call hit a hit sometimes. Sox colorman Kevin Youkilis commented he believes he would have hit ten to twenty points higher with today’s scorekeeping calls.

Where does local media sources get their stats from when listing leaders?

@Master P posted:

He was NOT pleased and asked me if I thought they would let him score the games.

Anyone can set up a team and score games in GameChanger. No permission required.

@auberon posted:

Anyone can set up a team and score games in GameChanger. No permission required.

Gamechanger is just for data entry, the real control would be who is the gatekeeper of  Maxpreps (Coach).

After the game, both coaches should get the game by game play, resolve differences and post to maxpreps.

For many reason, that is not always the case

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

Gamechanger is just for data entry, the real control would be who is the gatekeeper of  Maxpreps (Coach).

After the game, both coaches should get the game by game play, resolve differences and post to maxpreps.

For many reason, that is not always the case

I was the official scorer for my son’s high school team for three years. I gave the benefit of the doubt to the hitters on hit versus error calls. But when it was my son on any questionable call I asked the opponent’s scorekeeper how he scored it. Given they were likely giving benefit of the doubt to their pitchers I probably screed my son out of a few hits. Based on how well he hit who cares.

Strikeouts, walks and home runs are the only data I would look at, for both pitching and batting. The rest is noise.

@dverespey posted:

Strikeouts, walks and home runs are the only data I would look at, for both pitching and batting. The rest is noise.

Home runs are questionable, although Mike Trout's stats are not in Maxpreps, its been stated Millville had a short fence.

Secondly, players pads stats when there is below average pitching.

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

Home runs are questionable, although Mike Trout's stats are not in Maxpreps, its been stated Millville had a short fence.

Secondly, players pads stats when there is below average pitching.

My son came in second in homers junior and senior year. He played on a major league size field. The player who hit the most played on a 310-340-360-340-310 field. My son did hit a homer every time he played there.

I remember at another park while approaching home on a homer he was laughing and said, “No way that’s 360 (gap), I didn’t even get it all.”