Gamechanger Stats

Our team is using gamechanger for our stats. What are the top 5-7+ stats to evaluate players and help to put together a solid batting order? The person running our gamechanger is very good and is a non-parent coach.

OBP, (can't be fudged).
I like OPS, how often do you get on base and how many bases do you get. I don't think the new style stats people love this one.
BB/K,(2+ is goal. Attempted measure of swinging at good pitches)
ROE, maybe a measure of hard hit balls that aren't hits or speed that puts pressure on defense
XBH players that have comparatively high number of extra base hits probably have power and/or speed to go with it

LOB might tell you something about the effficiency of your lineup.

DiamondDad316 said:

Our team is using gamechanger for our stats. What are the top 5-7+ stats to evaluate players and help to put together a solid batting order? The person running our gamechanger is very good and is a non-parent coach.

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It doesn’t matter what stats are available or how valid they are as far as putting together a lineup until whoever is doing that has laid down the guidelines for every batting position. Only then can the numbers be analyzed with any degree of accuracy.

FI, let’s say the most “important” spot is the leadoff spot. What are the most important traits a leadoff hitter should have? Let’s say footspeed, base running prowess, seeing lots of pitches, contact hitter, and reaching base a lot are all very important.

Footspeed is easy. Usually every team will have players run a timed 60 and a home to 1st. either or both combined will give footspeed.

Base running prowess is more difficult because a lot of what makes a good baserunner, like taking an extra base or determining if a hit ball will drop are pretty subjective. One stat that shows a combination of skill and footspeed is SBPct.

Seeing lots of pitches is pretty simple too. Dividing the number of pitches by the number of PAs is the easiest way to do that.

Contact hitter is a bit difficult, but if you know how each batter’s pitches break down you can get a pretty good idea. Dividing the number of pitches put in play by the number swung at will give a very good idea if the guy is a contact hitter.

Reaching base is pretty simple as well, but rather than OBP, I like to use a reached base average(RBA) where Hits, walks, HBPs, and roes are divided by PAs.

Once you’ve done all that, it’s just a matter of finding the player who’s ranked highest in the combination of those things. Once you have that player set, you remove that player from the pool and move on to the next most important BPos and do the same thing.

I'd start with G (games played) and AB (at-bats). Sample size is too often underestimated.

Then, I look at OPS (OBA + SLG).

OBA is more important than SLG, imo, and therefore OPS undervalues the high OBA players, especially at lower levels. But as you get to the highest levels, it evens out, IMO.

Personally not that interested in SO and ROE unless they stick out like sore thumb. Even less concerned with pitches seen.

Another thing to think about with baserunning - The common school of thought is to put speed high in the lineup. Not sure why that is. If you're fast, if you're a threat to steal, or get another base, then you can manufacture runs and don't need as much help from the big guns behind you. I think speed is overrated when making out the lineup. Now if you've got a fast girl who leads the team in OBA, that's different. But too often you see fast girls high because they're fast, like on DD's HS team. Girls who rank #5 and #7 in OBA shouldn't bat 1-2 just because they're allegedly your fastest/best base-runners. It's not that hard to score from 2B on a double.

CoogansBluff said:

Another thing to think about with baserunning - The common school of thought is to put speed high in the lineup. Not sure why that is. If you're fast, if you're a threat to steal, or get another base, then you can manufacture runs and don't need as much help from the big guns behind you. I think speed is overrated when making out the lineup. Now if you've got a fast girl who leads the team in OBA, that's different. But too often you see fast girls high because they're fast, like on DD's HS team. Girls who rank #5 and #7 in OBA shouldn't bat 1-2 just because they're allegedly your fastest/best base-runners. It's not that hard to score from 2B on a double.

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You got that right.

I see too many coaches put players in the 1 and 2 because of speed alone. It's a dumb move to start 2/3 of your games with two outs before you even get to the best part of your lineup. Try to tell a coach who believes in this crap that he's wrong though......

Plus in a non-time limit game you end the game without getting back to your best hitters too often.

Put your best hitters etc up front. Win the first inning.

I wasn't aware of OBA. Like it.

Westwind said:

You got that right.

I see too many coaches put players in the 1 and 2 because of speed alone. It's a dumb move to start 2/3 of your games with two outs before you even get to the best part of your lineup. Try to tell a coach who believes in this crap that he's wrong though......

Plus in a non-time limit game you end the game without getting back to your best hitters too often.

Put your best hitters etc up front. Win the first inning.

I wasn't aware of OBA. Like it.

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As a coach who loves speed I couldn't agree more. If your fast girls aren't on base you don't have speed in your line up. Better to have a girl with a little punch at the top. If she's hitting doubles you don't need speed to steal second.

If you have a weak hitting speedster you can bat her 9th. It's sort of like being the lead off hitter, but she just didn't bat in the first inning.

One thing that drives me crazy is when coaches with speed at the top of the order bat a really slow girl 9th. If #9 gets on then #1 & #2 are only as fast as her.

I would point out that optimizing your lineup will not have an impact on the outcome of the game (unless you are playing hundreds a game in a year with that optimized lineup). You optimized the lineup to score more runs but the difference between an optimized lineup and and a random lineup is very small. Most teams in travel and high school will not play enough games for it to make a meaningful difference.

You really want to focus on making your lineup based on merit so the players understand where they are at in the lineup (and how they can move up and down).

So yes there is a correct way to set your lineup but not for the reasons most of you are mentioning. I set my lineups based on OBP and Slugging and then tweak for DP/Flex optimization.

The girls and parents get it and it's never been an issue.

GC is great in IMO (once you have a good sample size of ABs) to determine where your players general strengths and skills are, but I would suggest simply using those as an insight, and not gospel, to set a lineup. I have always believed that a lineup should be adjusted to who your opponent is, what their tendencies are and what your game plan is to beat them. Where I think GC is equally as valuable is to be able to see opponents tendencies and maximize your lineup to take advantage of those. That said I like OPS, QAB%, BARISP, FC and SAC to help construct lineup. Of course there is always the gut feel factor too. I think the best coaches just know when a player is getting hot/slumping, feels good in order, etc. regardless of their numbers.

Top of the lineup OBP is more important than speed... you want the top of the lineup getting on base for the power hitters to drive them in
SLG is good for 4/5 but you want to ensure there is some C% as well to move runners...
I think QAB% is underrated... Ill take a 10 pitch strikeout over a hard hit out on 1st pitch to short any day....

As others have said: look at every spot on the lineup and determine what you need and use the stats as a "guideline"

Nothing more annoying than seeing a "fast" player bat 1st with a dismal OBP while a high C% bats 9th because their average is .005% less than that third spot .300 hitter that strikes out 2/3 of the times

Using ONE stat to drive your lineup makes for a lame lineup.. but in reality I would say most coaches are LAZY - they set the lineup and will never move it up or down more than 1 spot.. how dare DD move from 4th to 8th.. its just a small slump.. shell get out of it... that 9th batter that is suddenly batting .800... yea Ill move her to 8th.. its temporary anyways.. she wont stay at .800...... most stats will not be used if it contradicts what the manager wants to do but they will pick whichever one confirms and backs up their "lineup" plan...