"Balls in Play" and "Hits Safely" Stats

[CSThunderCoach]

Have you considered including a Balls in Play (BIP = AB - SO), BIP% (BIP / AB) and a Hits Safely (HS = HITS / BIP) stat?
We tend to use these numbers with the younger players since strikeouts are more prevalent at those ages. BIP & BIP% lets us know how well they are hitting when they do get the ball into play. A low AVG and a low BIP% means that the player tends to strike out, but when they do make contact it usually results in an out. AVG along does not tell the whole story with the younger players. Just something to think about.

[FTMSupport]

It is hard for us to balance the right mix of stats to include. We get requests from people to remove stats because there are too many, and requests from other folks to add more stats. We will likely create a way in the future that you can choose the stats you want to display from a larger list of stats that we can calculate, and at that time, we can add the stats your are requesting. Thank you.

[jcbeckman]

Remember too, with the export capabilities, you can generate a lot of these stats yourself if you can't wait for FTM to include them. Some you can't (like "first pitch strikes" because the data isn't there), but the two stats requested here should be easy to do.

[CSThunderCoach]

I have scripts to include these stats in the spreadsheets, but that requires the scripts to be executed each time I email myself stats for games. We are talking about 60-80 games/season. Not a lot of work, just trying to get as many stats on the FTM mod list.

[jcbeckman]

Depending on your email program, you may be able to fire off the script automatically just by getting the mail in your inbox. I automatically save off the files (but don't process them because I need to hand enter some data too).

[Bryan D Shepherd]

A good stat that is included would be OBP. It's loosely based on what you are looking for.

OBP=H+BB+HBP/AB+BB+HBP+SAC

H=Hits
BB=Base on Balls
HBP=Hit by pitch
AB=At bats
SAF=Sacrifice Flies (not bunts)

It's not exact, but it should work for your purposes I would think.

[CSThunderCoach]

The problem with OBP (which is included in iScore) is that it includes SO, BB, and does not include errors. At the younger ages we try to filter the SO,BB and ERR stats to get a better indication of how they are hitting. The goal for ages U8 and U10, and to some extent U12 is to track hitting performance not necessarily batting performance.

The biggest problem with AVG, OBP, and SLG is that they all omit errors which is a majority of the cases with these age groups. Having both stats, BIP% and AVG helps us determine an optimal scoring lineup. If we can't get the ball in play, we have no chance of scoring. If a player has a .200 AVG with a similar OBP, you can't tell from those numbers that she is actually putting the ball in play 8 out of 10 times, and maybe she is reaching base 5 of those 8 times (but only 1 of 5 on a legitimate hit - the rest were errors)

Just getting a bat on the ball is enough to score runs, in most cases. Walks play as much of a role in scoring runs as hitting. At the 10U level a walk is as good as a run. At 12s you start to see better pitching but the level of play in the field doesn't start to catch up until 2nd year 12s and 1st year 14s.

Having a stat that shows how often a player makes contact and what happens when she does is more important at the younger ages than some of the more traditional OBP and AVG stats. When the number of errors and walks are reduced those stats provide a more meaningful representation of performance.