How important are stats?

[_MIA_]

And they are keeping stats for 8u why?

It is bigtime man..

 

[jntadt22]

Any coach specifically looking at stats to make out their lineup or specifically watching with "the eyeball test", are just lazy in my opinion. I'll also state that most parents don't understand all of the thought process that goes into making out a lineup. Practice counts, stats count, and opinion counts. Any and all information should be taken into account, in my opinion.

I look at what's going on with a family as well. I had a girl that was just a train wreck in warm ups, so I sat her down and talked to her for 2 innings before I felt confident in putting her in the game. I talked to her mom the next time we played, and she thanked me for taking her out of the game. She was dealing with some personal issues, and that changed things around for her at home. That's part of the "eyeball test" that matter and stats will never show up. The girl just needed to hear that it was okay to have a bad day. She was our best player as well, so it wasn't easy sitting her on the bench.

 

[julray]

Too much bias, favoritism etc. Stats keep coaches in check, and when player A is spending so much time working so hard, so much time on the field, why should player B get more playing time because their parents are close friends with the coach?? If player A is batting .400 and has been solid in the OF the entire year, why should player B who is batting .200 and never played OF in their life start over Player A in an important game? Why does player B get endless opportunities after an error filled hit less game? Why does the coach refer to stats when it supports player B... but not player A. Sure you can switch teams after the year is over, but it's the same BS, different pile. Kids work hard, they put their time in, and coaches crush their confidence with biased filled decisions.

Coach tells player A it's ok to make mistakes, then after making one mistake gets taken out of the game. While Player B makes mistake after mistake and finds herself always in the line up.

Yeah, just stand there and be a cheerleader.... That's a typical coaches comment right there!

 

[Megobee]

I was talking to a coach last night about playing time and batting order etc and he told me he never looks at stats. He told me you have to go by your eye because stats lie.

I believe stats can be deceptive, if you have a small sample size, but that direct observation or "eyeballing" is subject to all sorts of inaccuracies, biases and prejudices.

What say you?

I’m a stats guy, but I say that may be a smart coach! I am a disciple of Steve Springer in that I believe stats are evil when it comes to the players- can cause them to play scared. As a coach, I use stats as a tool but not the only tool.
To me, Knowing your players is more important than knowing their stats

 

[MNDad]

Mental errors are NOT errors for scoring purposes. It doesn’t matter if she should have or could have made the play with or without ordinary effort. If she got a late jump, misjudged a ball or sat down played with dandelions, these are NOT scored as errors. Three girls converge on a ball and all watch it hit the ground is a hit. CF dashes for the fence and turns around to watch the ball land right on the spot she was just standing also a hit. RF loses ball in the sun, another hit.

It's not that hard. NCAA and NFHS publish their scoring rules. If followed it take most of the judgement out of the scorers hands. All this “In my opinion she should have gotten that so I’m going to score it an error” are exactly why HS and travel stats are totally worthless.

 

[Pitchcaller]

There was a comment earlier about how much you trust the person keeping the stats...more specifically, are they counting fielding errors as hits etc. Poorly kept stats mean nothing. As a coach I let everyone know I am accessible to discuss the game after 24 hours have passed. I am happy to discuss decisions made on the field which are usually tied to the game situation at the moment, the players I have on the field and the observations/behaviors we are seeing at the moment. Good coaches know what their players are capable of and the stats are nice but not that important.

 

[Scottb14580]

I used to compare stats from the same HS games and it amazed me how far off they were from each other. Teams never matched on errors because they were inflating BA's, reducing ERA's or both. What I really got a kick out of was how often strikeouts and walks didn't even match. Some coaches will go to any length to get their kids post season awards. Between that, and scorekeepers not knowing what their doing stats don't mean much. Even if they're accurate if the kid is on a 1A or 4A team the stats will be vastly different.

And we have a winner!
H.S. stats are aweful. I've seen an outfielder drop a fly ball and it was scored a triple! That's only 1 example. Travel ball is usually done by a parent and as Long as their snowflake touches the ball its considered a hit.
Some parents think that college coaches give a rat's butt about travel ball stats.......lol

 

[Scottb14580]

You don't know who your best hitters are without looking at stats?

You can't tell if a hitter is improving or on a hot streak without looking at stats?

Aaaaand we have another winner!
Like like like like......

 

[Cougars]

Its funny how threads morph into completely different things. First post, 10 pages ago, was about a coach saying he never even looks at the stats, and now we're at a point where people are arguing that you can't ONLY look at stats. Even though I don't think anyone has said they do that....

 

[Scottb14580]

Too much bias, favoritism etc. Stats keep coaches in check, and when player A is spending so much time working so hard, so much time on the field, why should player B get more playing time because their parents are close friends with the coach?? If player A is batting .400 and has been solid in the OF the entire year, why should player B who is batting .200 and never played OF in their life start over Player A in an important game? Why does player B get endless opportunities after an error filled hit less game? Why does the coach refer to stats when it supports player B... but not player A. Sure you can switch teams after the year is over, but it's the same BS, different pile. Kids work hard, they put their time in, and coaches crush their confidence with biased filled decisions.

Coach tells player A it's ok to make mistakes, then after making one mistake gets taken out of the game. While Player B makes mistake after mistake and finds herself always in the line up.

Yeah, just stand there and be a cheerleader.... That's a typical coaches comment right there!

Stats only keep coaches in check if they're accurately done.