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querying the hive mind
Track little league stats
Did I mention my son is anlytically-minded? Please show me a tool I can use to track my son's little league stats. Ideally it would be an android app where I enter what happens in each at bat and then it calculates all the game stats and overall stats and spits out a spreadsheet with that info. He wants hits by type (single, double etc.) and RBIs and runs, at least.
I googled but my google must be ai-gremlinned because all I get is sites that are more SEO than content.
Bonus points if the app recognizes tee-ball. Like for example doesn't try to calculate walks.
I want to be clear: this is his request. I swear I'm not that mom, despite any impression my questions might create. lol
posted by If only I had a penguin... on May 07, 2024 at 5:22 AM
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You could build this fairly easily using google forms and some basic spreadsheet functions. Set up a form that lets you enter the results from each at bat. That form will deposit each entry into a spreadsheet, and in that spreadsheet, you can create a new tab that runs some basic calculations on the data.
posted by entropone at 5:58 AM
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Have you looked at GameChanger (app)? I'm not sure that you can enter data only for an individual player, you might have to score the whole game, but if you're willing to do that, it does calculate stats and you can track them across seasons in your player's profile. I have a love/hate relationship with it but it's used by pretty much all the teams around here, so if your son sticks with baseball, you'll likely end up there eventually!
posted by hovizette at 6:04 AM
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I say go old-school, pen and a small notebook. Each time he's at bat, mark what he did. Then he can calculate those stats himself. That will be more meaningful for him.
posted by hydra77 at 6:30 AM
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This does exist for softball, my friend coached his daughter through travel at the high school level, and it was to help all players develop (not be That Parent)-maybe add coach to your search terms?
posted by childofTethys at 6:45 AM
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I came here to say what @hydra77 said. If it were me, I'd keep score for the entire game using old school pencil and paper. (Baseball scorekeeping looks intimidating but is easy to learn.) Then I'd let my kid do whatever he wants with the info. Gives him a chance to learn scorekeeping himself, plus it lets him learn lots of other skills at the same time.
I googled but my google must be ai-gremlinned because all I get is sites that are more SEO than content.
First time using Google? This is the reality of search in 2024.
posted by jdroth at 8:06 AM
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I think you just want any random scorekeeping app.
GameChanger seems decent.
Alternatively, just get a baseball scorebook and do it the way it was done for 100 years.
posted by bowbeacon at 10:11 AM
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This is going to come down to a lot of interpretation. In t-ball, if he hits the ball and it goes past the 2nd baseman and into right field and the right fielder misplays it but then throws it to the shortstop who bobbles it all while your son is running around the bases, is that a single and a three base error or a "little league homerun"? Are you going to account for errors? If he hits it softly back to the person playing the pitcher's position who then throws it into the ground halfway between the pitcher and 1st baseman, is that a hit or an error? What about a "fielder's choice"?
I personally would score everything that results in a runner making it at least to 1st without being called out, regardless of the circumstances, a hit, but that is an huge oversimplification of the scoring rules. If he is that analytically bent, maybe he should decide what each at bat results in after the fact. When you go for ice cream after the game, ask him about each time he was at bat and then both of you work through his averages, his on=base percentage, his slugging percentage, etc.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 4:42 PM
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Thanks everyone. I definitely don't want to score the whole game, I just want to know what my kid did. Also, I'm not sure how well whole-game apps would do given that they play "the whole line-up bats every inning" not "three outs ends the inning."
And my son can't do that kind of division yet, so he can't really calculate his own averages but he can do addition and subtraction so sometimes "for fun" he calculates OPS or uses OPS and SLG to calculate OBP for MLB players and then checks to see if he get it against the official stats.
Anyway, I found an excel spreadsheet template for individual player stats. It doesn't allow per-at-bat entry so I adapted it to do that. Now Bob's my uncle. Last night I saved a draft email with the outcome of each PA and then entered it in the spreadsheet when I got home.
This is going to come down to a lot of interpretation. In t-ball, if he hits the ball and it goes past the 2nd baseman and into right field and the right fielder misplays it but then throws it to the shortstop who bobbles it all while your son is running around the bases, is that a single and a three base error or a "little league homerun"? Are you going to account for errors?
So, funny you should mention this. This was something of a point of contention last year, when he was in the instructional league. He reached second base in his at-bat and I said "Amazing! You hit a double!" and he said "That wasn't a double. That was a single with a base on error." He's a stickler, for sure*.
My contention is that it was a double because error scoring is based on the ability of the average player and the average 6 year old is not that great. Bobbling the ball is, in fact, average. Last night on the way home we argued about whether a home run hit by another player should be classified as a home run or an inside-the-park-home run with my position being "it didn't leave the park so it was an inside-the-park home run, but for scoring purposes, there's no difference: it's just a home run." I am completely unclear on his position; I think we may actually have agreed. But he was passionate about it, whatever it was, so I just let it go.
Anyway, yes, I am letting him decide if things were singled/doubles/errors etc. I'm recording the original hit and the outcome (scored, LOB, out running bases, but not specifically how far he got or how he was out running. Last night he was called out running the bases on "Runner Interference" because the ball hit his foot as he was running and it was rolling. I just coded that as "Out running the bases".
*Which is why I can't understand why he's so forgiving of Alek Manoah. Why so hard on himself and so easy on ...argh..grr..don't get me started.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:23 AM
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Are you an Android user? Statrat looks pretty cool.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:16 AM
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