Hitting and Hitters Discussion How to Rate Your Hitting without Using Batting Average

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By: Cindy Bristow

For years, batting average was the gold standard we used to measure a hitter?s worth ? the higher the average the better the hitter, right?! Well, no. Read on to find out why.

There?s no question that hitting is the toughest skill in softball. Never mind trying to decipher your way through all the over-instruction that probably goes on every time you pick up a bat, but what I?m talking about is when you actually stand in there against a pitcher. Trying to hit a ball coming at you as fast as the pitcher can throw it, and putting it on a part of the field where the 7 fielders miraculously aren?t standing is ridiculously hard! And yet, everyone expects you to do it do it, well, and do it often. No doubt your hitting is judged by your Batting Average ? the higher your average the better hitter you are, and the opposite is true as well ? or is it?

A batting average only measures how many times you actually got a basehit (single, double, triple or homerun) compared to how many times you came to bat that game. So, if you happen to have 3 at-bats, hit the ball REALLY hard each time up, but unfortunately managed to face an all-world defense that grabbed your shots out of the air, then your batting average for that game would have been a big, fat ZERO. Even though you hit the ball REALLY well!

That doesn?t seem fair, does it? I agree, and that?s why I think we need to start using a much better method for figuring out whether batters had a productive or unproductive day, a good or a bad day, a successful or an unsuccessful game day at the plate.

Remember, that you can only control how hard you hit a ball (and that?s iffy based on the quality of pitcher), you can?t control whether the defense makes a play on it or not. You can be hitting the ball really well, but unless all those shots fall in for basehits, your batting average won?t show how well you?re doing. But what if we could actually measure how well we were doing things we?re supposed to be doing when we?re up-to-bat, even if that meant we didn?t actually get a base hit?

Fastpitch Softball Hitting Production Chart more accurate than batting average

Well, I?ve come up with such a chart and I call it the Hitting Production Chart, and it measures just how well you do the things you?re trying to do when you?re up-to-bat.

Here?s how it works ? Every time you do something that either helps your team (like moving over a runner) or that you?re supposed to do (like hitting the ball hard) you get a Plus. The following picture shows how simple the chart looks.

The positive, helpful things you?re trying to do up-to-bat would be:
?+ = GOB (Getting On Base). It doesn?t really matter how you do this. Whether it?s by getting a hit, getting a walk, getting Hit By a Pitch, or the defense makes an Error. It doesn?t really matter how you get on base, only that you get on!

?+ = HH (Hard Hit). This means ANY time you hit a fair ball HARD you get a +, whether it was a hit or an out, doesn?t matter. What matters is that you hit the ball hard so give yourself a point each time that happens.

?+ = HR (Home Run). A Home Run definitely counts as a plus point.

?+ = MOR (Move Over Runner or Runners). Even though this might result in you getting out, every time you?re up and you move over one of your teammates you get a + since that?s a productive at-bat.

?NOTE: next to each + on your chart you can list the initials of what you did to earn that point

On the other hand, there are things that you can do with your at-bat that don?t help your team, and for those things you?ll get a Minus. Those things are:
?- = K (Looking). A strikeout looking hurts your team so it?s a minus while a strike out swinging doesn?t, and that?s because you were actually trying to hit by swinging versus standing there and watching your 3rd strike go by.

?- = Popup. While a flyball isn?t harmful, a popup will kill a rally by your team so that?s why it?s a minus point.

One thing that?s cool about this chart is that right away you see there are more positive things you can do up-to-bat than negative. That?s important to remember when you?re hitting. Be aggressive and work to do things each at-bat that help your team!

To use this chart during a game simply put a + down each time you do one of the things in the PLUS POINTS column and a MINUS down if your at-bat resulted in any of these things. When the game?s over add up all your points and you?ll end up with a Total score. In our example above this hitter had 2 + points and 1 ? point (which means she was up 3 times) so she ended up with a +1 Total Score ? even though she actually went 0 for 3! You?ll see next to each + and ? sign I put in ( ) exactly what it was she did to get these scores. So its + (HH ? hard hit), + (MOR ? move over runner) = +2, followed by ? (PU ? popup) for a total game score of +1.

This chart actually helps you see a much clearer picture of your day at the plate instead of relying on your Batting Average, which doesn?t tell a very accurate story at all.

Player

 

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Players should do these for themselves, i think it will help with their confidence at the plate.

 

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This is pretty good. Ron Polk had a similar system in his huge baseball book that I forget the name of right now. I used it with my travel team for a couple of years. I loved it, but I didn't get great buy-in from the girls. Maybe I didn't sell it well enough. But I like this and Polk's system because they give a true evaluation of one's at-bats instead of the batting average, which can involve luck. A hard line drive is always better in the long run than a bloop pop up, even if the line drive resulted in an out and pop up fell in for a single.

 

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In my opinion any time a batter gets on base or advances a runner is a good at bat. Our hitting zone is 9 balls high and 9 wide and we practice hitting in that zone. The only person who has a strike zone is the umpire and we only want them to call safe or out. We feel it is the hitters job to determine what they can hit.

Breaking the swing down and teaching it in small details is what the Talent Code is about. Making mistakes is how we learn and I tell my kids as long as the mistake does not hurt them or me to learn something from it and try to improve. I also point out their mother and father did not teach them how to walk, they only moved the coffee table so they would not fall into it while they were teaching themselves how to walk.

John Wooten was used as an example in the Talent Code. He told the people that were writing about him he taught his team how to put on clean dry socks and how to tie their shoes. They ask why and he said have you ever seen a player with a blister go all out without favoring the foot with the blister? He demanded clean dry socks and to leave their shoes out so they would dry.

During a practice he had them running sprints and then had them go to free throws. They ask why? I want them to be able to practice and improve their skills just like they would in a game.

This is why I always have our hitters throw before hitting using the Kabota hop over a ball that is cut in half with a straw in it before they ever hit a ball. With some of the pitchers I have them stop and pitch 4 or 5 balls and ask them if they flexed their knee to pitch, throw and hit? There is no difference in my opinion.

With our nets marked we know after every swing what to try and improve in their hitting mechanics to make them more successful in a game. When they know what to work on it makes it easier for them to make improvements so when I see them the next time it should be corrected.

The parents could help also. When a coach ask your kid to hit it deep, on the ground, bunt just encourage it verses complaining about your daughters batting average is too low. Versatility by the hitter is what will take them to the next level and how they react to it is what gets them noticed negatively or positively in my opinion. You complaining about the coaches decision all the way home is not what helps your child grow....what are they going to do in college when you are not there?

Howard

 

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Batting average is a discussion that my asst. and I have had many times. He is a big statistics guy and we go through the girls batting/slug avg. to see who we feel would be the most productive. His point of view, which I do agree with, is that we do not have a crystal ball... batting average is the only thing we can reliably use to try to predict how a girl might perform in an upcoming game. Again, I agree with this...but still have other factor I believe need to be looked at.

Cindy hit the nail on the head, girl was smashing the **** out of the ball...but unfortunately there was a stud IF, or OF that made a great out. I also look at how a girl might hit against certain pitchers. Say a player doesn't hit well off of lefty's for some reason...who knows. I believe there needs to be a certain amount of human element (had a great week hitting at practice, was in a slump last tournament, etc.) that needs to be looked at outside of just relying on batting average to help determine where to put that player in the lineup.

There is no right or wrong answer to solving this as I've had it blow up in my face both ways, putting lineup based solely on slug/batting avg. and then on gut feeling...

 

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As alluded to a couple of times already, there are pros and cons of any system. I would argue that over the course of a long season (e.g., MLB) that stats like batting average become more relevant ... the more line drives a player hits, they are eventually going to drop fair. Of course, we are often looking at stats over a much shorter time span to evaluate how a player is doing and/or how we should set a batting order.

Until a batter has had 30 plate appearances or so, any measure should be considered statistically insignificant, and you do have to consider more how the batter is swinging the bat, whether they are making good contact (i.e., hitting the ball hard), if they are swinging at good pitches, etc. At some point though, it's about delivering results, and my favorite stat is a somewhat modified version of on-base percentage where you include getting on by error and exclude sacrifices. Hard hit balls are great, but they are a bit subjective and we all have known batters who make good contact but are always late and grounding out to 1B.

Advancing runners is great too, but advancing a runner from 1B to 2B while you make the second out of an inning isn't great. Similarly, getting on by a walk is generally a good thing, but if my best hitter is up with a runner on 3B and two outs late in the game and we need a run, I'd much prefer they widen their strike zone and try to knock that run in.

I do think Cindy's method has merit especially to help evaluate how a hitter is doing, and my only point is that every system has it's pros and cons.

 

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i also dont think just looking at a player batting average or slugging % is good enough. game changer works really well specifying hard hit or weak hit balls, line drives grounders or pop ups and the spray charts also help seeing the overall production a player has too. (it also has great stats for pithing) I like the chart cindy uses too. put them both together and it seems that would be a great tool for setting up your lineups. of course speed of the player and base running skills would be a tie breaker for 2 players with similar points but this is good stuff. good post!