Batting Averages

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Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
Parent last week, scored our DD, ROE when she actually beat out a slow grounder to SS. Also, didn't give her 3 stolen bases in the game, instead, calling them errors. They weren't. All beat the throws. Whatever, Coach knows what's what.

It's annoying.

I approached the coach before the season even started and volunteered for Game Changer duty just to avoid that. Plus it's fun ensuring my daughter has the best stats on the team.
 
Jun 22, 2019
258
43
Scoring is terrible in TB and HS for the most part. Some have good score keepers and some are just flat awful.

batting average only matters with a big sample size and when compared to a team playing consistent competition.

OPS when your team is playing the best teams/pitchers is a much better stat...if you’re trying to use it to judge overall hitting ability.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I only read the first page of this thread, so excuse me if this has been mentioned...

It's 2020. Shouldn't the discussion be OPS, and not batting average?

Hey, I want to use wRC+, but wouldn't you know it, none of the other high school coaches want to keep a meticulous book and then send me detailed stats for all their players so I can figure out a league average.
 
Mar 22, 2016
505
63
Southern California
You're playing 4D chess, CoachJD! My whole point was, even in just basic stats at this point in time, you HAVE to look beyond simple batting average. On base plus Slugging doesn't require analytics.

But I do get your point -one is limited on the data presented to them.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
@RADcatcher, very interesting post on page 1. I’m always interested in the history of anything from people who were actually there.

I think the pitching distance is huge. To this day, moving from 10u to 12u distance causes some pretty interesting adjustments. I would also think changes in balls and bats would have had a great impact.

There is another thing that looms large- the rise of hitting instructors, hitting analysis and widespread use of video.

My story for today: my niece played sb in the early/mid-90’s. She was a slightly undersized LH power hitter. She got a lot of accolades as being a good player.

Fast forward 10-12 years. Her mom did not understand why we didn’t just make a video of our two dd’s and send it to Arizona etc. to get them recruited. She said that when her dd was getting recruited, they got a response from every coach they sent video to. We played along politely, and said “yeah it really doesn’t work like that now”.

One day she shows up at the house with a DVD. It has not only video of her dd, but video of of some of the top players in the area of those days. One ended up pitching for a midmajor D1 in Florida and one in particular played for a P5 and a coach that was easily the biggest deal in the Midwest. These were scholarship players that got serious playing time in college.

Here is what I noticed right away: their swings. Oh boy..... The swings were not bad but DANG. It was not what I expected. I’m seriously not sure they would be middle of the pack in even the local Tb scene today.

Whats the difference? Video analysis. Hitting coaches and hitting practice. There was one hitting coach in the area then. Now there are countless options. Top players aren’t hitting 300 balls a week to get better, they are hitting 2x that. Female players work hard. They are constantly training. The effort and training expertise dwarfs what boys get here.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
@RADcatcher, very interesting post on page 1. I’m always interested in the history of anything from people who were actually there.

I think the pitching distance is huge. To this day, moving from 10u to 12u distance causes some pretty interesting adjustments. I would also think changes in balls and bats would have had a great impact.

There is another thing that looms large- the rise of hitting instructors, hitting analysis and widespread use of video.

My story for today: my niece played sb in the early/mid-90’s. She was a slightly undersized LH power hitter. She got a lot of accolades as being a good player.

Fast forward 10-12 years. Her mom did not understand why we didn’t just make a video of our two dd’s and send it to Arizona etc. to get them recruited. She said that when her dd was getting recruited, they got a response from every coach they sent video to. We played along politely, and said “yeah it really doesn’t work like that now”.

One day she shows up at the house with a DVD. It has not only video of her dd, but video of of some of the top players in the area of those days. One ended up pitching for a midmajor D1 in Florida and one in particular played for a P5 and a coach that was easily the biggest deal in the Midwest. These were scholarship players that got serious playing time in college.

Here is what I noticed right away: their swings. Oh boy..... The swings were not bad but DANG. It was not what I expected. I’m seriously not sure they would be middle of the pack in even the local Tb scene today.

Whats the difference? Video analysis. Hitting coaches and hitting practice. There was one hitting coach in the area then. Now there are countless options. Top players aren’t hitting 300 balls a week to get better, they are hitting 2x that. Female players work hard. They are constantly training. The effort and training expertise dwarfs what boys get here.

Great point Westwind!
Training! Lets say that again
Training!

Often people bring up
What is the numbers pool we are drawing our 'opinions' from.
Out of all the softball players how many are making the cut to top tier? Or rather %

With the many & growing #'s of athletes what % are really ELITE?

So...to the point of training and training tools available...
Is there more ELITE hitters or just MORE players?

That said,
I agree more training should produce more talent.
What is unknown is the percentage of talent for the #'s playing?
( probably see more low level talent ...average and below, than top tier. Part of this is most people see average most of the time
* whats the consensus on this % ? )


Add...For discussion
1. Are there more men great hitters in mlb...? I dont follow bb...asking?

2. Is it due to better strentgh conditioning and understanding of how to be a stronger faster human?
Which stronger faster human also would apply to girls/women?!


From what i have seen over the changes in softball.
Just about everyone can be a power hitter now...
because of the equiptment.

*What has become part of the equation for more women/girls participating in sports now is developing the strength of our bodies!!


Hitting mechanics is still that good'ol debate....for some ;)
Probably that percentage of
The good
The bad
The ugly
#'s have gotten bigger....
So? Maybe a greater possibility for success
But greater possibilty for failure...
Hmmmm?
 
Last edited:
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
@RADcatcher, very interesting post on page 1. I’m always interested in the history of anything from people who were actually there.

I think the pitching distance is huge. To this day, moving from 10u to 12u distance causes some pretty interesting adjustments. I would also think changes in balls and bats would have had a great impact.

There is another thing that looms large- the rise of hitting instructors, hitting analysis and widespread use of video.

My story for today: my niece played sb in the early/mid-90’s. She was a slightly undersized LH power hitter. She got a lot of accolades as being a good player.

Fast forward 10-12 years. Her mom did not understand why we didn’t just make a video of our two dd’s and send it to Arizona etc. to get them recruited. She said that when her dd was getting recruited, they got a response from every coach they sent video to. We played along politely, and said “yeah it really doesn’t work like that now”.

One day she shows up at the house with a DVD. It has not only video of her dd, but video of of some of the top players in the area of those days. One ended up pitching for a midmajor D1 in Florida and one in particular played for a P5 and a coach that was easily the biggest deal in the Midwest. These were scholarship players that got serious playing time in college.

Here is what I noticed right away: their swings. Oh boy..... The swings were not bad but DANG. It was not what I expected. I’m seriously not sure they would be middle of the pack in even the local Tb scene today.

Whats the difference? Video analysis. Hitting coaches and hitting practice. There was one hitting coach in the area then. Now there are countless options. Top players aren’t hitting 300 balls a week to get better, they are hitting 2x that. Female players work hard. They are constantly training. The effort and training expertise dwarfs what boys get here.

Wow.

You know what else? I think simply making the video probably helped back then. Not everybody did that. Not everybody knew how or could figure out where to send it. Nowadays, everybody has a video. It went from being a special thing that helped you get noticed to a requirement for anybody who even dreams of being recruited.

This makes me wonder how many good players in the mid-'90s just never got seen by a college coach. I bet that happened way more often than it does today.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
You know what else? I think simply making the video probably helped back then. Not everybody did that. Not everybody knew how or could figure out where to send it. Nowadays, everybody has a video. It went from being a special thing that helped you get noticed to a requirement for anybody who even dreams of being recruited.

This makes me wonder how many good players in the mid-'90s just never got seen by a college coach. I bet that happened way more often than it does today.

OK, I gotta respond to this right now! Both you and RAD made some thoughtful points but this one really makes me smile!

I just realized who shot the skills videos. The guy that did the videos in the 90's is an employee of a local t.v. news station. He is one of my assistant coaches now and in our upcoming parent meeting I have it on my list to "get in touch with Jerry if you want a skills video shot!"

The guys I coach with are all older guys. This just made me realize how many players these guys have helped over the years. I am truly lucky that they let me hang around them, lol!
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
I graduated HS in the early 90’s. Never had a pitching or hitting lesson in my life. Barely knew travel ball existed (never played). I only had interest in one school (for the academics, not softball) and my guidance counselor called the coach for me my senior year. She then followed newspaper articles about me regarding softball, not even sure if she ever saw me play live. Granted, this was a D3 school but they were a powerhouse back then, and they recruited me.

So yeah, it definitely was much different back then.
 

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