Errors vs hits, little league style

Ya know, when I got into a big BrewHaHa with LL Inc about stats and was told they are not to be kept, I have to admit I did what everyone else does, and thumbed my nose at them! Of course what I did was not "official", but just like every other team, we had our stats too!

But, I did remember what they said, which was the reason they didn't want them kept was the lack of consistency and general poor quality of score keeping. All I did was spend some time learning to do as good a job as possible and then vowed to be as fair as possible, even if it meant people would think I was heartless, which is a mild term compared to some of the things I've been called.

Players on teams I keep score for don't have the big numbers that some do, but when someone has a chance to get a kid is batting .400 from a team I'm doing the books for, opposed to one batting .500 on another team, if they know me, and I do have 3a reputation in this area, our kid will be the one they take.

Something else that happens is, when "my" players move up, the change in the stats is far less than what happens to a lot of players. In fact, sometimes they do better if I'm not doing their books any more.

The funny thing is, it actually easier on me keeping score to just mark 'em as I see 'em according to the rules. When I try to figure out if this kid is really good kid that's had some bad luck and needs a hit to make him feel good, or that kid wouldn't have had a hit if we only had a good 3rd baseman, all that happens is trouble!

When a kid I score for has a .350 BA, an ERA of 1.50. 50 RBI's or 20 stolen bases, you can bet that those numbers are darn close. In the long run, everyone is really better off.

When the kids get to the point where scouts or recruiters will be looking at them, the big numbers may draw them in, but its really easy for those guys to tell if a player is really capable of batting .600. If they get sucked in to take a look and that kid turns out to be just a .350-.400 player, the word gets spread in a big hurry and soon no one will take a look.

But, that same kid might get a 2nd look or even have others take a look if they saw the .350-.400 was a solid number. People who really understand baseball know that's one heck of a good BA, even in HS. Its nothing that will get the Yankees to take a flyer on, but it is a darn good number.