Scoring errors

[whiporee]

Funny (to me) thing this weekend. My DD broke her foot so was at the tournament cheering, but I didn't go.

While watching on Game Changer, the feed delayed so I switched and followed the game scored by the other team. Girl on our team hits the ball, and it's scored an E5.

When I go back to the feed from my team's scorer, I see it was ruled a hit.

Kind of made me wonder what really happened.

A) It was totally an error but our scorer was being nice
B) It was totally a hit but the scorer of the other team's daughter wants to play third so he called it an E6
C) One of the scorers wasn't paying attention and just guessed
D) None of the above

My guess is that the scorekeeper for the other team had a relationship with the pitcher. An error doesn't count against the pitcher's stats and keeps her ERA down. Meanwhile,. your scorekeeper wants to reward your hitters with hits whenever they can. So on a close call, they give the error which helps the pitcher and your guys calls it. hit, m which rewards the batter.

That was one of the that prompted the thread from me -- I'm a pitcher's father, and when I scored Rec her stats would get killed because I wouldn't call many things errors. No big deal. But when she started comp and there was internal competition between pitchers, the scorer (the mother of the other pitcher) was very forgiving of our defense when my daughter pitcher and not so forgiving when her daughter pitched. So her daughter's stats looked a lot better than my daughter's. And while those things don't matter, they kinda do sometimes.

Again, it's all stupid, but I want to be fair to everyone. I appreciate the info everyone has given me and the links to the rule books. I had no idea, for example, that if an outfielder falls down going after a fly it's not an error, or if a pitcher misses a comeback. But I didn't know that if a first baseman lifts their foot to make a catch, that could be an error. Just lots of nuance. Mostly it's all judgement -- if a player at this level should -- not could -- have made the play, you can feel all right calling it an error. if not, then don't.

Thanks again for all the insight. I appreciate it.

 

[uncdrew]

I hear ya.

I do most of the scoring. And my DD is a pitcher. I try very, very hard to be right, and score it the same regardless who is playing where. I think I'm doing ok.

... and as you know, we parents and coaches know who the better pitcher is without stats.

 

[grmerrill]

I was told to always go in favor of the player when in doubt.

But that was from a infielders dad. Since the play they didn't make now goes against the pitcher as a hit.

 

[EC22]

there was internal competition between pitchers, the scorer (the mother of the other pitcher) was very forgiving of our defense when my daughter pitcher and not so forgiving when her daughter pitched. So her daughter's stats looked a lot better than my daughter's. And while those things don't matter, they kinda do sometimes.

Good luck with this. Be prepared for her or someone else to say the same thing. Reality or not.

 

[Traps71]

I hear ya.

I do most of the scoring. And my DD is a pitcher. I try very, very hard to be right, and score it the same regardless who is playing where. I think I'm doing ok.

... and as you know, we parents and coaches know who the better pitcher is without stats.

I end up scoring most of our team's games in GameChanger. My DD is one of the pitchers. It's probably hurt her more than helped her to have me doing it because I've always wanted to avoid the charge that the "pitchers dad" was cooking the books and scoring 7 errors a game. If you are going to rely on stats to tell you something about a pitcher, you can use those numbers that don't rely as much or at all on judgments about hits/errors. For example, strike %, first pitch strike %, walks, average pitches per inning, strikeout to walk ratio, etc. FIP is also probably a better measure than ERA (though the two tend to track pretty closely).

Also fully agree that the coaches don't need the stats from GC--or shouldn't--to see what is actually happening out on the field.

 

[whiporee]

Good luck with this. Be prepared for her or someone else to say the same thing. Reality or not.

She and her daughter have moved on, which is too bad. I liked them both. And I don't think she was being unfair, exactly, but I just think we all have our lenses, me included. That's why I was asking, to try to keep them as clear as I can.