Statistics that Matter

Statistics that Matter


Baseball is a game of stats. But, do stats really matter?

The only stats that really matter in youth baseball are the ones that measure the “process” of playing the game. Important stats should answer the question “am I playing the game the right way”.

For an individual player, what really matters is:

- As a hitter, am I having quality at-bats?
- As a pitcher, am I making quality pitches?
- As a fielder, am I making the right plays?
- As a baserunner, am I running the bases the right way?

Unfortunately, there are no stats that answer these questions. And, clearly traditional stats like batting average, earned run average and win-loss record do not answer these questions.

For a team, what matters is scoring more runs than you allow. So, the only stats that matter are directly related to scoring runs or giving up runs.

Here are some stats that do matter for both individuals and the team and that we will pay attention to for the 14u Diamond team:

For hitting:
- % of at-bats that are quality at-bats (target 67%)
- On-base percentage (target 0.500)
- Runs Created - this is calculated number that will be defined later (target 7.5 per game)
- Walk/Strikeout Ratio (target 50% more walks than strikeouts)

For pitching:
- Pitches per inning (target<15)
- % pitches that are strikes (target 66%)
- % of batters that reach base (target < 33%)
- % of batters that score a run (target < 20%)

For team defense:
- less than 2 errors per game
- Get outs on 85% of routine chances

If we achieve these targets, we can be confident that we are playing the game “right”. The result of this process will be lots of wins. But, the process is more important than just winning games.