I presume that was with regular OPS that favors power. Where'd she rank with the modified OPS (i.e. with 1.8x)?
Are slappers overrated?
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Although I'm not convinced that slappers' defensive value is enough to compensate, I do think their defensive value must be considered. Major-league shortstops hit well below the league average, for example, and there is a good reason for it. Perhaps slappers should not be compared to the league average, but to the average of the positions that they frequent. And I frankly don't know the positions they frequent, except that I assume it is not 1B, C and P.
She would move up a little, to #29. And that might be even higher in the actual 2012. As noted, 2014 might've been a hitters year. Seems more and more HR are flying out.
Here are two of my players:
Slapper 124 PA's, OBP=.402, ROE=17
Leadoff Righty 141 PA's, OBP=.493, ROE=8
This is pretty much the case across seasons and players. Not sure about NCAA scorekeeping, but there have been articles written about this.
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Great topic but one that probably can't be defined. In the 14U age bracket on the east coast I have seen 3 players that slap with success. Obviously I haven't seen every girl play but that's over the last 4 seasons. All of them had the same body type, tall and skinny, They all ran like a deer also.
Base stealing in Softball is all about speed because there is not a pickoff throw like in MLB. The faster a player is in Softball the more value she has. A slapper should be measured by the number of times she reached base, bases stolen and runs scored so H+W+ROE+HBP+SB+R.
Also consider how many steals of 3rd with less than 2 outs, scored on past ball, did any of them advance to 3rd on an overthrow of 2nd on the initial steal?
Bottom line to me. Speed is their value not OBP or AVG, but pure speed. My DD led the team in OBP last year from the 3 hole because she can hit but she wasn't much of a base stealer compared to our leadoff and #2 hitter.
Base stealing in Softball is all about speed because there is not a pickoff throw like in MLB. The faster a player is in Softball the more value she has. A slapper should be measured by the number of times she reached base, bases stolen and runs scored so H+W+ROE+HBP+SB+R.
Also consider how many steals of 3rd with less than 2 outs, scored on past ball, did any of them advance to 3rd on an overthrow of 2nd on the initial steal?
Bottom line to me. Speed is their value not OBP or AVG, but pure speed. My DD led the team in OBP last year from the 3 hole because she can hit but she wasn't much of a base stealer compared to our leadoff and #2 hitter.
I have stolen base stats, but not ROE. My theory would be that the slappers' ROE stats go down as the playing level goes up and that it has minimal value in major D-I college softball. But I don't have the numbers. I'd also say that a single + a stolen base is not as valuable as a double, but it's close enough that I would grant you your point.
A compromise conclusion might be this - Be wary of slappers with high batting averages who don't bring something else to the table. Valuable slappers need to bring additional value with extra-base hits, walks, steals or ROE.
I'll point out that some of those SEC slappers with low OPS don't even have good batting averages. So it's not so much a case of saying ''your .400-hitting slapper is really not that good'' as much as ''Some SEC coaches seem to think they need a slapper in the lineup and are willing to tolerate an unproductive one just for the sake of having a slapper.''
- May 17, 2012
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