Zom,
Its not that I disagree with your description of the paradigm, but I have to say, IMHO, leaning so much toward a good bat at lower levels, and I put all HS ball in the lower level bag, coaches very often hurt their teams more than anyone realizes.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying a HS team with 9 players all batting .400+, blasting XBH’s and HRs with regularity, and with OBP’s all .700+ wouldn’t be a monster, who if their numbers weren’t “fake” wouldn’t at minimum contend for a state title. But in reality, is that the “AVERAGE” HS team, even at the very highest Tx levels?
Things really get murky when you start looking at a team in great detail. I’d be willing to bet every team, even the very best coached by the very best, have at least a couple of players on the field, in a position, or in a spot in the batting order that everyone here would find at least something to “second guess”.
I just hate for anyone to get the idea that one player batting .350 will definitely be put in the lineup over one who hits .325 or even .300. As much as I love the numbers, not even I would say that’s a good thing, although I think it definitely should be a consideration. Those are the kinds of philosophies that push so many people into being “stat hawks”, where they’ll use the stats as a weapon to try to justify their kid playing instead of another.
I would go along with saying if one player was a significantly better hitter than another, he’d very likely be in the lineup someplace, but significantly is a moving target that would depend on all the factors being thrown into the mix.
When talking hitting. I don't think relying on batting avarages tells the whole story. Not by a long shot. It's what you see, how hard and consistently does a player hit. Who are the pitchers he's facing and how successful is he against better pitching.
You could have a weak.350 hitter getting seeing eye singles, balls going thru weak infield teams with no range and weaker pitching while the .280 hitter is hitting line drive outs to CF, hard shots in the hole turning into groundouts because of a SS with great range and arm, and getting these hard hit shots off top pitching.
However, I think when it comes to winning out a position, generally, if you can hit, you will play. While it's certainly not written in stone, it does seem to be the way things typically go.
There's too many variables that stats alone don't take in account. I think a good coach can identify a hitter without looking at a stat sheet.
You could have a weak.350 hitter getting seeing eye singles, balls going thru weak infield teams with no range and weaker pitching while the .280 hitter is hitting line drive outs to CF, hard shots in the hole turning into groundouts because of a SS with great range and arm, and getting these hard hit shots off top pitching.
However, I think when it comes to winning out a position, generally, if you can hit, you will play. While it's certainly not written in stone, it does seem to be the way things typically go.
There's too many variables that stats alone don't take in account. I think a good coach can identify a hitter without looking at a stat sheet.
RightyShortstop is playing collegiate baseball this summer. Just like your kids he started playing summer travel ball at around 14. He always worried about whether he was getting enough work at short because he "knew" his ticket to the best college was at shortstop. Sometimes that effected his enjoyment of the game, which effected my enjoyment of the game, which effected my parenting, which effected his performance.
After all the worrying over positions in travel ball, on the first day of college practice Coach tells him your new name is "rightythirdbaseman." "but....I never played third before." He really struggled, got depressed, worried about the coach. He stuck with it though, and started to improve later in the season.
In college summer ball everything changed. He's played some right field. He's been used as a closer. He's played plenty of short and not a game at third base. Due to a couple of injuries and back to back double headers, he even caught a game on the weekend. He couldn't stop talking about. He is having the time of his life. "The most fun I've ever had playing baseball" He's finally learned to let go and enjoy playing for the adventure and the challenge. I could have made his travel experience as a teenager even better if I had done the same thing.
After all the worrying over positions in travel ball, on the first day of college practice Coach tells him your new name is "rightythirdbaseman." "but....I never played third before." He really struggled, got depressed, worried about the coach. He stuck with it though, and started to improve later in the season.
In college summer ball everything changed. He's played some right field. He's been used as a closer. He's played plenty of short and not a game at third base. Due to a couple of injuries and back to back double headers, he even caught a game on the weekend. He couldn't stop talking about. He is having the time of his life. "The most fun I've ever had playing baseball" He's finally learned to let go and enjoy playing for the adventure and the challenge. I could have made his travel experience as a teenager even better if I had done the same thing.