Quality At-Bat Formula

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Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Right ... pick the formula you want to make someone feel better about not having solid OBP/SLG/BA stats.

Everyone needs a participation trophy of some sort.

Lol!! Yeah, gotta love those participation trophies. QAB is not a stat I share with my players. But it can be valuable for me as a coach. Some of the best at bats of this past summer don't show favorably in the stat columns. In fact DDs favorite play was a suicide squeeze that she performed perfectly. She was thrown out at first, but the run scored. She got credit for an RBI, but the at bat was far more important that just one lousy RBI. We also won a 1-0 game earlier in the summer that included an RBI on a weak ground ball to the 2b. That happened in the 2nd or 3rd inning and DD was able to shut down the other team. It wasn't until the game ended that we realized how important that '4-3' actually was towards the outcome of the game. There are ways to be successful without getting a hit. That said, some of the QAB examples are way too loose in my opinion.

Adding another example that DD talks about. During one at bat she roped a line drive directly at 3b. 3b tried to duck and it bounced off her shoulder, directly to the shortstop. Out... Next at bat she hit a little bloop between 2b, ss, and cf that fell in for a hit. She readily admitted that the swing she made on the hit was horrible, but was quite pleased with the swing that knocked the 3b over. Sometimes stats don't tell the entire story, regardless of what stats you choose.
 
Last edited:
Jun 17, 2009
15,037
0
Portland, OR
Lol!! Yeah, gotta love those participation trophies. QAB is not a stat I share with my players. But it can be valuable for me as a coach. Some of the best at bats of this past summer don't show favorably in the stat columns. In fact DDs favorite play was a suicide squeeze that she performed perfectly. She was thrown out at first, but the run scored. She got credit for an RBI, but the at bat was far more important that just one lousy RBI. We also won a 1-0 game earlier in the summer that included an RBI on a weak ground ball to the 2b. That happened in the 2nd or 3rd inning and DD was able to shut down the other team. It wasn't until the game ended that we realized how important that '4-3' actually was towards the outcome of the game. There are ways to be successful without getting a hit. That said, some of the QAB examples are way too loose in my opinion.

Adding another example that DD talks about. During one at bat she roped a line drive directly at 3b. 3b tried to duck and it bounced off her shoulder, directly to the shortstop. Out... Next at bat she hit a little bloop between 2b, ss, and cf that fell in for a hit. She readily admitted that the swing she made on the hit was horrible, but was quite pleased with the swing that knocked the 3b over. Sometimes stats don't tell the entire story, regardless of what stats you choose.

Let's face it ... you aren't going to go far into quality tournaments without a solid defense.

As for 'stats' ... they have a way of working out as the number of at-bats increases. Sure ... there will be some hits that look like gifts, and some solid contacts that aren't rewarded ... but over time, and a large number of at-bats, the stats tend to work out.
 
Last edited:
Jun 11, 2013
2,625
113
Like any stat it can be useful to at least see. I see a value in seeing a lot of pitches, but the 6+ one is ridiculous. You can go up and take 6 pitches and K and get a QAB point. It's even less meaningful if you look at 3 QAB stats. I had to look back at a came that DD played. She had a rope single in the first to score a run a ball that hit the fence on the second and a double that split the OF the 3rd and it gave a 1 of of 3 QAB because she only drove in a run on the first one. The other 2 time she led off the inning.
 
Dec 30, 2018
21
3
Adding another example that DD talks about. During one at bat she roped a line drive directly at 3b. 3b tried to duck and it bounced off her shoulder, directly to the shortstop. Out... Next at bat she hit a little bloop between 2b, ss, and cf that fell in for a hit. She readily admitted that the swing she made on the hit was horrible, but was quite pleased with the swing that knocked the 3b over. Sometimes stats don't tell the entire story, regardless of what stats you choose.

Any single stat can be misleading, in this situation using QAB your DD would have received a QAB for the hard hit out and not the weak bloop single. QAB is a valuable stat to use especially when trying to show a slumping hitter they can't control where the defense is or isn't.
 

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