I can’t help asking why so many of you coaches leaped on the opportunity to get yet another metric, as though there aren’t enough already.
Were you all expecting to get that one magic stat that solved all of your problems? LOL!
Having done this stuff at the HS level for a few years, I can say without reservation that there is no one stat that tells everything, and part of the reason is, at the HS level the SKing is terribly inconsistent, and the record keeping is even worse. But having said that, I certainly believe in coaches making every effort to come up with some kind of objective statistic to help them do their job!
I hope socalhscoach doesn’t get offended, but I want to try to point out some of what I see in his “chart” as potential problems.
Although a name means nothing, A2 is really Total Bases as its used in calculating Slgp.
I’d be real careful about A3. If I understand it correctly, its not whether or not there was an E or a FC any time during or after one PA and before the next, but rather if the 1st player Reached on the Error, or reached on the Fielder’s Choice. IOW, I don’t think a point would be awarded if a player singled and moved to 2nd on a fielding error or on a throw to try to put out a different player.
A4 and A5 are pretty self explanatory, but I have to admit that I’m not sure at how A6 would be credited. In HS, its pretty much illegal for a runner to do a lot to disrupt a DP, and even if there were, how would it be defined so it could be credited?
A7 is another one that to me is difficult to understand. Thinking of it only in the context of the offense, the 1st thing that comes to mind is getting the bunt sign, putting down the bunt with the result of the lead runner moving up. But, hitting the ball behind the runner is executing a fundamental, as are other things. In fact, some people might consider merely hitting the ball as execution.
A8 is also making we wonder what it means. Is it getting an RBI with a runner on 3rd, or is it doing anything that allows that runner to score? FI, with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd, a fly ball dropped in the OF is gonna score that runner. Does the batter get credit for that?
A9 is another one that really seems subjective. Who gets to make that decision whether it was head’s up base running or weak defensive play?
A10’s pretty simple, that is if the SK really understands what an RBI is.
A11 seems strange to me. Why does a 2 out RBI mean more than a no out, or 1 out RBI?
A12 is OK because pretty much everyone understands it, but what about hitting into a DP that allows the winning run to score, or smacking a ball that an error is made on that allows the winning run to score? Seems to me it would be just as important to score the winning run.
I guess A13-A15 depend on the definition of “Sting”. But what about a Sting E or a Sting FC?
As I said, I’m not trying to pick anything apart here, but I’m a big fan of defining what something is. As long as the person who is doing the crediting is the same person who has defined those things and will be the person looking at the result, its all good. But I worry when the person who comes up with something like this up allows someone else to do the tallying, or when people who look at it don’t understand what everything means.
I’d really like to ask about a lot of other things, especially those Negatives, but since we were talking only about offense, I’ll stay away from those other things.
