Clues That The Scorebook Is Cooked

For HS, I think the scoring of PB and WP are the best cooked book indicators for pitchers and catchers.

DD is a catcher turned pitcher. When she was a catcher she was a deeply, devout follower of the Jack The Ripper school of catching (she never blocked, just stabbed everything). So, in my attempt to highlight the need to block, I scored every ball that got passed her as a PB.

Currently, as a pitcher, she pitches a lot of drop balls. In an attempt to help prepare her for college I've changed scoring to "if it hits the dirt, it's a WP". Yep, I'm that dad and no I'm not the official scorekeeper.

To make it even more fun, her HS catcher is also a devout member of the aforementioned JTR school of catching. Ahhh, Karma

Elk Grove Hurricane said:

Last fall someone clued me in to the NCAA rule on this, and reagansdaddy above correctly stated it. If it is in the dirt, it's a wild pitch. My views before were always focused on whether the cactcher could have blocked it with ordinary effort, because so many of these balls in the younger ages will be in the dirt arguably on purpose (e.g., change or drop that dives). My views are still evolving on it but now I try to apply the NCAA rule as it really is the only one that I can find that addresses the issue for softball.

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Actually that’s not quite true about any pitch that hits the ground is wild. The NCAA is generally any pitch on the ground is wild. NFHS defines it as is any pitch that hits the ground in front of home plate. The last time I looked this up ASA/USA and I think USSSA had their own caveats as well. Basically we're back at if it's the pitcher or catcher's Dad scoring.

NFHS
ART. 1 . . . A wild pitch (F.P.) shall be charged to the pitcher when a ball legally delivered to the batter is so high, or so low (including any pitch which touches the ground in front of home base), or so far away from home base that the catcher does not stop or control it with ordinary effort and the batter-runner advances to first base or any runner advances a base.

NCAA
SECTION 21. A pitcher shall be charged with a wild pitch when a legal pitch is such that a catcher cannot catch or control it with ordinary effort, so that the batter reaches first base or any runner advances one or more bases.
Note—Generally, a pitch that hits the ground before touching the catcher’s glove is scored as a wild pitch.

10U rec ball, I used the "broil" setting on my book. If a kid got on base after putting the ball in play, it was a hit. At the end of the season, we still had one kid with a .000 avg.

Eric F said:

10U rec ball, I used the "broil" setting on my book. If a kid got on base after putting the ball in play, it was a hit. At the end of the season, we still had one kid with a .000 avg.

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Lol @ broil.. I filtered my stats like that (ball in play = hit) for last year with our 12U team - even with the padded stats I had a 5th year player with a .125 avg... And mom complaining to all the other parents at every tournament about playing time...

How do you cook the books when you have twins and they are the starting P and C.

We attended this guys presentation at the coaches convention at Mohegan sun earlier this year. He is great and his philosophy is that batting avg. (and stats ) are a trap to be avoided- and I think he's right. I am a "recovering" stats guy, so this is new territory for me, but I strongly recommend checking this out.
https://qualityatbats.com

HS coach definitely edits the scorebook after the game and inflates stats of his favorite personalities at awards time. I'm glad DD is not playing this year. Done with the drama and looking forward to college.

FP26 said:

Interesting topic. As the dad of a high school pitcher, I can tell you that it is painful sometimes to see some of the plays she is faced with. In a matter of two games, there were six bunt attempts that would have been routine outs for her travel team. But the high school 3b refuses to charge the ball. Based on my understanding of "ordinary effort", I would be charging them all as errors. But the official scorer has marked all of them as hits.

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Defensive indifference! It is painful but most lack of effort plays are hits.

Twintrouble said:

How do you cook the books when you have twins and they are the starting P and C.

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In my house it depends on which one is on my good side that day! ;-)

let it be fun said:

Defensive indifference! It is painful but most lack of effort plays are hits.

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I watched a local D3 game last weekend and saw an outfielder give up several runs by taking bad angles and getting really late jumps on balls. At least two RBI base-hits and a two-run triple should have been routine outs.

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let it be fun said:

Defensive indifference! It is painful but most lack of effort plays are hits.

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Yep... That's what happens when the varsity team has 17 players, but only 1 of them plays travel ball...