A plea to coaches of 12-15 year old teams …. please implement and teach the standard cutoff/relay system that young players can learn and take into high school baseball with them.  It makes watching high school baseball a lot more fun.  Not sure I can watch another pitcher standing in the middle of the field or a first baseman hanging around first.  Everyone has a job to on every play.  For everyone except catchers, this means sprinting somewhere 90% of the time once the ball is in play.

I forget where I got the attached graphics, probably picked them up from somewhere a decade ago. They are pretty good.  Please share them with your players.  They need to know every position.  It makes watching baseball a lot more fun too.

Here is the link:

Formula for winning in youth baseball that is within the players’ control:

1. Win 3 innings

2. Hold Walks + Errors to less than 5

3. Achieve 15 or more Quality At Bats

Yea…. Gamers 14u is 8-0 in games where we achieve just one of these goals.  Winning is not a random event.

Below is a chart of data of MLB on-base percentage as hitters pass through different counts.  Of course, everyone starts at 0-0, so the MLB OB% average is .324 (note there are some quirks in this data and it is a couple decades old, but conclusions are right).

If the result of pitch 1 is a ball, then the batters on-base % goes to .387.  If the result is strike 1, then the on-base % goes to .256.  That is a HUGE DIFFERENCE and sets up the rest of the rest of the at-bat.  You can see how the results further diverge as the counts play out.

The different between the upper right 1/2 of the box and the lower left 1/2 of the box is the difference between scoring 2 runs a game or 7 runs a game.  Pitchers need to throw strikes early, hitters need to swing at strikes early.  That creates a perfect match-up!

I need to spend some more time on defining a quality at-bat, QAB.

The underlying philosophy is this — as a hitter, you cannot directly control the actual result of your at-bat.  For example, you could do everything right and absolutely smoke a line drive right at the center fielder for an out.  OR, you could do everything wrong, swing at a bad pitch and luckily poke a ball over the infielders head for a hit. Which at-bat is better?  From a scout’s standpoint, it is pretty clear.  It is better to be good, than lucky!

To get to the next level, you need a good approach a the plate.  That means, as a hitter, you need to be in control.  Quality At-Bats are all about things you can control.

You can control the following 4 ways of having a quality at bat:

1. Hit the ball hard, off the sweet spot.  A hard ground ball, line drive, or ball over the outfielders head is hard hit. If you hit the ball hard, it is a quality at bat.  We don’t care if the fielder makes a great play, or the ball is smoked right at him.  We want you to square the ball up.  Any time you do that is a quality at bat.

Note — fly balls are quality at-bats ONLY if they are over the outfielders head.  A fly ball is a waste of time, regardless of the cheers and encouragement you get from the stands.  If you hit fly balls, you will hit .180.  That includes the rare home run.  We want line drives and hard hit ground balls.

2. Execute a sacrifice bunt, hit & run, or move a runner from 2nd to 3rd with no outs or score a runner from 2nd or 2rd with less than 2 outs.

3. Draw a walk or get hit by a pitch.  Taking an 0-2 curve ball off the back is a quality at-bat.  Ducking out of the way is not.

4. Any 6+ pitch at bat, regardless of outcome.  If you make the pitcher use up >6 pitches to get one out, it is a quality at bat.  Even if you strike out, or make an easy out on the 7th pitch.   That is how you get through #1 starters and into the bullpen of teams when you face a good pitcher.  Battle, eat up pitches on every at-bat.

As a team, if our hitters put together 15 QAB, we will score 6-7 runs and win 80% of our games.  Anytime, we don’t achieve this level of execution, the game is left to chance.