How to keep batting stats
This page explains the rationale of how to keep stats. I'm sure there are a million and one anoraks out there who might disagree with some or all of what is here, but guess what.....we don't care! We keep stats for ourselves, not for them, so if this works for us, we're happy.
Obvious ?
Well, it would appear not to be, at least to the majority of the people on our team, hence the perceived need to put it here in writing.
Ok, you are thinking of keeping score.......or wondering...why bother ?
The rationale is purely and simply to have an efficient means of noting how the game was played out. This in turn may be used to analyse how particular players did in particular games, over the course of a season, or even in certain situations. We will concentrate here on batting statistics, as they are more easily understood by those of limited cranial capacity.
Keep it simple, and keep it consistent. Whatever method you choose to use, including one of your own creations, it should obey these two tenets. There is no right or wrong way to score, but the more accessible your system is to everyone, the easier it will be to get others to score in a consistent manner.
For batting, the things you want to record are:
A good system will not give credit to batters for getting on base as a result of fielders errors and should also give credit to batters for hits where an exceptional play, or act of God, etc. prevented them from making a hit.
A score sheet is available for download
Well, basically they all arise out of what the batter does or doesn't do when he is at the plate. The following list gives (hopefully) all the possibilities:
Typically on your score-sheet you will have a diamond shaped box for each batter per innings, with little abbreviations beside it, typically B,S,SAC,BB,HR,3B,2B,RBI. The diamond shape on the scoring chart represents the diamond on the field, so drawing a line from the bottom corner to the 3 O'Clock position indicates that that batter has made first and so on.
The abbreviations indicate Balls, Strikes, Sacrifices, Walk (base on balls), Home Runs, Triples, Doubles and Runs Batted In, respectively. But more of those later.
Additionally, you may want to note where the ball was hit and thrown to.
Well, the easiest way is to use a number to represent each fielding position. The standard number system assigns numbers one to ten based on the following order:
Pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, short-stop, third base, left field, left centre-field, right centre-field and right field.
But how do you know whether the fielder got the out or made an error ?
Well, here we return to the symbols above. Say the batter hits to left field for a single. You would draw the line from the 6 O'Clock to the 3 O'Clock positon on the diamond and mark a 7 down beside (or inside) the diamond. If he flys out to left field you would mark a 7X, the 'X' indicating an out.
Right, consider the following:
So after that inning we have 2 runs scored (Joe and Sue), 2 left on base (Linda and Mark). Add the three outs and you have accounted for all seven batters.
*Some scorers like to credit an RBI here even though technically it was not batted in. In that system the RBI's will always equal the runs scored. In this one, there will be a discrepancy due to runners scoring off fielding errors.
Next inning:
So after the second innings we have 1 more run scored (Mike) from Tims SAC, and one left on base (Joe). Add the three outs and that makes 5 batters.
Third inning:
So this innings saw 4 home (Tom, Sue, Dave & Linda) and 3 outs with no-one left on base giving 7 batters. Here is the filled out scoresheet for this game:
Lets assume that the game ends here and we want to summarise this....well, here is what it would look like:
We note the following about the table:
Well, as they stand, not a lot. Because they are based on a very limited
number of At Bats, in statistical terms they are unrepresentative of the
underlying batting. However, if we compiled such figures over a number
of games so that we had say 30 or so At Bats per batter, then we would
have a reasonable idea of each individuals batting ability. We can summarise
these figures into a smaller number of 'averages' that allow us to compare
different batters. This in turn allows us to select our optimum ten players
from a batting point of view, and also to arrange them in the optimum
batting order.
Well typically we use three 'averages' to rank batters:
So, lets take our table above and augment it with results from other games and produce the three averages listed
Well, for example they tell us that Mick is our most reliable hitter, being able to get a hit 72% of the time. He is also our biggest hitter on average, followed by Tom and Tim. Other interesting things are that Sue obviously knows her strike zone very well, as her OB% is very high compared to her BAT%, which is the lowest at 0.400. Linda also has a pretty good idea of her zone, but she strikes out a lot and her batting average is also low. This would indicate that pitch selection is not a problem for these batters, but their basic technique needs work. On the other hand, Tim, who also has a very poor hitting average, but a very high slugging average, no walks and a few strike-outs, would seem to have a problem with pitch selection. He is obviously able to hit the ball well, but is inconsistent, and probably needs to be more patient at the plate in terms of waiting for the right pitch.
Well, this is the million dollar question........but here goes. You want to start with someone who is pretty sure of getting on base. You also want to try and space your big hitters throughout the order so that there are people on base when they hit those double, triples and homers.
The top of the order should be stronger than the tail, so that the best batters get up most often, and so that you get a good start. Put your relatively weak hitters behind a bighitter, so that there is a good chance of the force being lifted. This may help the runner to get on base, or force a squeeze play.
A sample order based on the above might be:
Sue, Joe, Dave, Mick, Elaine, Ann, Tom, Mike, Linda, Tim
How to score a game
Obvious ?
Well, it would appear not to be, at least to the majority of the people on our team, hence the perceived need to put it here in writing.
The Rationale
Ok, you are thinking of keeping score.......or wondering...why bother ?
The rationale is purely and simply to have an efficient means of noting how the game was played out. This in turn may be used to analyse how particular players did in particular games, over the course of a season, or even in certain situations. We will concentrate here on batting statistics, as they are more easily understood by those of limited cranial capacity.
The Principles
Keep it simple, and keep it consistent. Whatever method you choose to use, including one of your own creations, it should obey these two tenets. There is no right or wrong way to score, but the more accessible your system is to everyone, the easier it will be to get others to score in a consistent manner.
For batting, the things you want to record are:
- Where the ball went
- Was it a hit or was somebody out?
- How far did all runners get?
- How many people crossed the plate as a result of the hit?
A good system will not give credit to batters for getting on base as a result of fielders errors and should also give credit to batters for hits where an exceptional play, or act of God, etc. prevented them from making a hit.
A score sheet is available for download
What about all those little symbols and abbreviations ?
Well, basically they all arise out of what the batter does or doesn't do when he is at the plate. The following list gives (hopefully) all the possibilities:
- They get a hit
- They hit a double
- They hit a triple
- They hit a homer
- They strike out
- They hit themselves out
- They hit someone else out
- They take a walk
- The hit themselves out, but bring base-runners home in the process
- They bring base-runners home as a result of their hit
- The fielder makes an error allowing the batter to get on base
Typically on your score-sheet you will have a diamond shaped box for each batter per innings, with little abbreviations beside it, typically B,S,SAC,BB,HR,3B,2B,RBI. The diamond shape on the scoring chart represents the diamond on the field, so drawing a line from the bottom corner to the 3 O'Clock position indicates that that batter has made first and so on.
The abbreviations indicate Balls, Strikes, Sacrifices, Walk (base on balls), Home Runs, Triples, Doubles and Runs Batted In, respectively. But more of those later.
Additionally, you may want to note where the ball was hit and thrown to.
Okay, but how do you mark where the ball was hit?
Well, the easiest way is to use a number to represent each fielding position. The standard number system assigns numbers one to ten based on the following order:
Pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, short-stop, third base, left field, left centre-field, right centre-field and right field.
But how do you know whether the fielder got the out or made an error ?
Well, here we return to the symbols above. Say the batter hits to left field for a single. You would draw the line from the 6 O'Clock to the 3 O'Clock positon on the diamond and mark a 7 down beside (or inside) the diamond. If he flys out to left field you would mark a 7X, the 'X' indicating an out.
Ok, but it sounds confusing.....can I have some examples?
Right, consider the following:
| Event | Scoring |
|---|---|
| Batter Joe hits a ground ball past 3rd and gets to first | Draw the line to first (3 o clock), and mark 5 (the number for 3rd base) beside the diamond on the score sheet |
| Batter Mick hits a fly ball to 2nd base | Mark 6X |
| Batter Tom hits a double to right-centre and scores Joe | Complete the line for Joe from 6 to 3 to 12 to 9 to 6 o'clock (some scorers like to shade the interior), and mark 9 beside Toms diamond. Also tick 2B for Tom and mark 1 beside his RBI box. |
| Batter Sue takes a walk | Mark a tick beside BB for Sue |
| Batter Dave hits a ground ball to the short stop who makes the out on 3rd | Mark an X on Toms diamond at the 3rd base positon (9 o'clock) and mark Daves line to first and Sues to second. Mark 6x5 (ball to number six who threw to number 5 for the out) beside Daves diamond. |
| Batter Linda hits the ball to the pitcher who fields it but overthrows first, letting Linda to 2nd, Dave to third and Sue home. | Mark 1e3 beside Linda and mark Linda to two, Sue home and Dave to third. Do /not/ mark any RBI's for Linda* |
| Batter Ann strikes out | Mark a K beside Ann. |
So after that inning we have 2 runs scored (Joe and Sue), 2 left on base (Linda and Mark). Add the three outs and you have accounted for all seven batters.
*Some scorers like to credit an RBI here even though technically it was not batted in. In that system the RBI's will always equal the runs scored. In this one, there will be a discrepancy due to runners scoring off fielding errors.
Next inning:
| Event | Scoring |
|---|---|
| Batter Mike hits a ground ball single to left field who misjudges the throw and allows Mike to get 2nd | Draw the line to second, but do not tick the 2B box for Mike. Mark 7 for Mike |
| Batter Elaine hits a single past 1st allowing Mike reach third | Draw mikes line to third and Elaines to first. Mark 3 beside Elaine |
| Batter Tim hits a fly ball to right field and scores Mike, advances Elaine, but is caught out. | Draw Mike home, Elaine to 2nd and mark 0X for Tim. In some scoring systems we would tick the SAC (sacrifice) box for Tim, i.e. he sacrificed an out to score Mike. Here we will credit it as an error to Tim...ie. 0X |
| Joe hits a drive to short-stop who holds Elaine to 2nd | Mark Joe to first. You (the scorer) now have to decide if the fielder should have got the out anyway on first in which case you mark 6e, or, just 6 if you think the SS did the right thing, in which case you will allow Joe the credit for a hit. |
| Mick hits a line drive down the 3rd base line. Third base makes a catch, getting Mick out, and throws back to 2nd getting Elaine out on 2 for not tagging up. | You mark 5XX6 (the two XX's indicate the double play and the 6 is because the SS was covering 2nd). Mark RE (running error) for Elaine, because she should have tagged up. |
So after the second innings we have 1 more run scored (Mike) from Tims SAC, and one left on base (Joe). Add the three outs and that makes 5 batters.
Third inning:
| Event | Scoring |
|---|---|
| Tom hits a triple to right field | Tick toms 3R and mark 9 |
| Sue walks | Tick Sues BB |
| Dave hits a grounder straight to 3rd who gets distracted by Toms feints and fails to make the throw to 1st | Draw Sue to second and Dave to first. It was an error by third so we mark 5e6, ie. 3rd made an error when the play was to second, covered by the SS. |
| Linda hits a home run over left field | Mark Tom, Sue, Dave and Linda home. Tick Lindas HR and credit her with 4 RBI's. Mark 7 beside Linda |
| Ann strikes out | K beside Ann |
| Mike hits a fly ball caught by the catcher | Mark 2X for Mike |
| Elaine hits a dribbler in front of the plate but is thrown out on one by the catcher | Mark 2X3 for Elaine |
So this innings saw 4 home (Tom, Sue, Dave & Linda) and 3 outs with no-one left on base giving 7 batters. Here is the filled out scoresheet for this game:
Lets assume that the game ends here and we want to summarise this....well, here is what it would look like:
| Name | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | SAC | BB | K | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Mick | 2 | |||||||||
| Tom | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Sue | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| Dave | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| Linda | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||
| Ann | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| Mike | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Elaine | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tim | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Totals | 16 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
We note the following about the table:
- Sue is credited with no At Bats, because she took a walk both times. Thus her/batting/average should not include these, as she did not actually bat.
- Even though Dave got on base twice, we do not credit him for his hit in the first innings because it resulted in him getting Tom out at third.
- Even though Linda got to second base in the first innings, bringing in one run (Sue), we do not credit her with the hit or the RBI because it was due to a fielding error by the pitcher. On the other hand, she does get 4 RBI's for her home run in the third!
- Tim is recorded as having had no At Bats. This is because, while he was at the plate once, that time he sacrificed his out to allow a run to score.
Okay, I understand how it works, but what use are these figures ?
Well, as they stand, not a lot. Because they are based on a very limited
number of At Bats, in statistical terms they are unrepresentative of the
underlying batting. However, if we compiled such figures over a number
of games so that we had say 30 or so At Bats per batter, then we would
have a reasonable idea of each individuals batting ability. We can summarise
these figures into a smaller number of 'averages' that allow us to compare
different batters. This in turn allows us to select our optimum ten players
from a batting point of view, and also to arrange them in the optimum
batting order.
Right, that sounds more like it.....show me how..
Well typically we use three 'averages' to rank batters:
- Bat%=(Total number of Hits)/(Total number of At Bats) and represents the percentage of visits to the plate that the batter got a hit
- Slg%=(Hits plus 2B plus (2 times 3B) plus (3 times HR))/(Total Number of At Bats) which represents how big the person hits, ie how many bases do they typically get when they come to bat
- OB%=(Hits plus Walks)/(At Bats plus Walks) which represents how often the person gets on base by any means.
So, lets take our table above and augment it with results from other games and produce the three averages listed
| Name | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | SAC | BB | K | RBI | BAT% | SLG% | OB% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe | 32 | 21 | 19 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 18 | 0.594 | 0.781 | 0.639 | |
| Mick | 29 | 17 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0.724 | 1.690 | 0.733 | |
| Tom | 27 | 18 | 18 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0.667 | 1.630 | 0.689 | |
| Sue | 15 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 0.400 | 0.467 | 0.667 | ||
| Dave | 23 | 11 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 0.565 | 0.739 | 0.583 | ||
| Linda | 26 | 15 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 0.461 | 0.730 | 0.517 |
| Ann | 32 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0.469 | 0.500 | 0.500 | ||
| Mike | 32 | 11 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 0.438 | 0.750 | 0.455 |
| Elaine | 29 | 10 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 0.448 | 0.517 | 0.515 | |||
| Tim | 30 | 14 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 0.433 | 1.167 | 0.433 | |
| Totals | 275 | 134 | 145 | 25 | 23 | 12 | 14 | 34 | 22 | 117 | 0.527 | 0.916 | 0.579 |
Right, so now we have the figures....what do they tell us ?
Well, for example they tell us that Mick is our most reliable hitter, being able to get a hit 72% of the time. He is also our biggest hitter on average, followed by Tom and Tim. Other interesting things are that Sue obviously knows her strike zone very well, as her OB% is very high compared to her BAT%, which is the lowest at 0.400. Linda also has a pretty good idea of her zone, but she strikes out a lot and her batting average is also low. This would indicate that pitch selection is not a problem for these batters, but their basic technique needs work. On the other hand, Tim, who also has a very poor hitting average, but a very high slugging average, no walks and a few strike-outs, would seem to have a problem with pitch selection. He is obviously able to hit the ball well, but is inconsistent, and probably needs to be more patient at the plate in terms of waiting for the right pitch.
Okay....we need to work on some things.......but what do I do now about my batting order ?
Well, this is the million dollar question........but here goes. You want to start with someone who is pretty sure of getting on base. You also want to try and space your big hitters throughout the order so that there are people on base when they hit those double, triples and homers.
The top of the order should be stronger than the tail, so that the best batters get up most often, and so that you get a good start. Put your relatively weak hitters behind a bighitter, so that there is a good chance of the force being lifted. This may help the runner to get on base, or force a squeeze play.
A sample order based on the above might be:
Sue, Joe, Dave, Mick, Elaine, Ann, Tom, Mike, Linda, Tim