Proposing A New Stat for Slappers

This is a proposal I think has been a long time coming, and one that is sure to be cheered by every lefty slapper and her parents. It’s a new stat that helps measure the effectiveness of slappers at doing their job – getting on base. The problem slappers have always had with the current […]

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I would like to keep a stat called TOBP (True On Base Percentage). Just like it sounds, it would reflect the percentage of time a batter ends up on base, regardless the reason. I would include errors and fielder's choice (or anything else that results in reaching base except maybe dropped third strike) as they would reflect the fact that the batter did something to put a ball in play and give themselves a chance to reach base. Since most of any given team is facing the same defense at the same time, the stats really shouldn't skew greatly in favor of one batter over another. It drives me crazy to see a slapper bunt twice and slap once in a game, reach base all 3 times, and go 0 for 3 even though she created the situation that put the defense in position to rush and make a bad throw or bobble a ball.

I'm in favor! My lefty doesn't slap, but she is pretty good at hitting balls hard right at people that 50 to 60pct of the time they can't field cleanly enough to get her out.

I am in-between on this. And let me get out of the way that I think that there crazy effective slap hitters. You know it when you see them. There are also average ones, and of course there are ones who struggle.

The reason for me being in-between is because I have seen many average slap hitters with inflated averages, when defenses really don't know how to effectively defend. I get that this in on the opposing coaches, but I have seen some girls who have great speed out of the box, beat defenses over and over simply because the opposition has flaws. I have seen just horrid defensive alignments and also girls who play the left side who can't handle the slapper game. I agree that something should be done..... to effectively gauge how good a slapper truly is.

Not sure what it is, but I like that people are talking about it !

I'm in favor of totally revamping the entire scoring system. It makes no sense that you can't give a team error on a popup that drops between 3 players or that you get stuck with a FC because the runner in front of you takes 6 seconds to go from base to base.

In this case there is already the option of giving the hitter a hit if you felt that the play would not have been made at first.

With the software available out there I would propose a Forces versus Unforced error. While subjective as other areas of scoring it allows you to distinguish between a drop popup from the pitcher versus a ball that while it should be handles doesn't because of location of the hit or how hard the ball was hit. I would put forced errors into OBP as I think it's legit particularly in lower levels.

I know that changing scoring would make old stats someone obsolete, but it makes little sense to keep using an antiquated system that doesn't really provide valid measurements.

Frankly I don't care how a kid gets on base. Some kids just have a knack for it..lucky or not.

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ang2bmd said:

Frankly I don't care how a kid gets on base. Some kids just have a knack for it..lucky or not.

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My kid lead her team in OBP this year. She also lead the team in HBP (as she has done every season she's played). It's not a recommended method, but it seems to work for her.