Why Reliance on Highest Batting Average is not good
A huge difference exists for the highest batting average at the youth levels and the higher levels of baseball. At the professional levels, I am extremely impressed with the highest batting average, but at the youth levels it is irrelevant. Of course, when I relay that idea to parents and players, they look at me as though I am crazy. It takes some convincing.
One of the very first things I hear from successful hitting students or their parents is their batting average. Usually, I am not impressed, especially with inflated numbers, as that is a sure sign of unchallenged players.
Having taught hitting for 26 years now, I have a pretty good feel for good hitters. What I am not good at is observing a team of young players and figuring out which one has the highest batting average. That may seem odd. However, I am very accurate at predicting player that will have the highest batting average when they reach the junior high and high school levels.
At the youth levels of baseball and softball, the highest batting average means very little. So often, youth with the highest batting average do not even play into their high school years. What happens to these apparently accomplished players? Â At the youth levels, players with the highest batting average mean one or all of three things. Those players have very good hand eye coordination, are physically stronger than other players and have fast running speed.
Notice not mentioned was that those players have the best hitting mechanics. Until the competition level rises and kids physically develop, usually around the junior high levels, players often have batting success, even without good hitting fundamentals. However, solid hitting mechanics is crucial for long range success, and a big equalizer when players mature. Successful young hitters often fall by the wayside when efficient hitting fundamentals are mandatory.
Highest Batting Average mean more in the major leagues
At the advanced levels of baseball all players are on an equal footing, skill and strength wise for the most part, so the highest batting average players are worthy of respect. Additionally, the large sample size of at-bats at the professional level signals a great fundamentally-sound hitter. Even at the professional levels now, it means less than in the past with all the advanced statistics like OPS (on base plus slugging) and WAR, (wins against replacement), weighing in as more important than batting average for player evaluations.
This argument is not to say that he highest batting average does not have some advantages at all levels. Good batting averages bring confidence to players, which is very important and builds on the important OPS statistic. Also, as mentioned, with a great enough sample size and high quality play, it may be a sign that players have the necessary hitting fundamentals. 
What is unfortunate is that many good youth players are led to believe they are not good hitters because of low batting averages, even though they have good hitting mechanics and probable future success. They simply lack strength and size or are not fast enough runners to get base hits in that manner. When players with the best mechanics mature, there is a great chance they will have the highest batting average. Hopefully, but all too often, they give up on baseball young because they felt as a failure and do not wait until they grow and develop, physically and mentally.
Parents, players, and coaches should not get caught up with batting average numbers. It often means nothing at the youth levels. Patience, along with focus on continual development of the fundamentals and staying positive, no matter a players’ batting average, pays off in the end.
I’m a youth baseball coach and looking to give my players feedback on something I can measure. I’m looking for something that will measure whether they are batting well that I can observe. I get that using batting average doesn’t make sense. I’m looking more for something that measures effort, smarts, or mechanics rather than results. Any ideas? My first idea was related to pitch selection, in other words, how often they pass up bad pitches and how often they swing at good ones. This is 9-10 year old with kids pitching, so I figured laying off bad pitches and swinging at strikes is pretty crucial. I thought maybe I could make a ratio of good pitches swung at to bad pitches swung at. What do you think? Just totaling good pitches swung at wouldn’t be a good measure because a kid that only swung at three good pitches, but had three hits would have a low total compared to a kid that swung at good pitches and missed. I know this may seem to involved or complex for youth baseball, but I’m looking to try something new this season.
Dear Coach,
Those ideas are fine, but as you mentioned, you have to be careful of making things too complex – kids may begin to think of their goal as being other than just watching the ball at the plate. I like to build incentive in practice. A good way to start would be with this target practice as seen in this post, http://baseballcoaching.tips/baseball-hitting-class-creating-fun-and-incentive-to-practice/ I have kids keep a tally each time they practice with the goal of improving each time of course. I have them keep two scores, one how many times out of ten they hit the score pad and then their total score. As i tell them, getting 10 points may be better than 30 if they get ten ones as opposed to 3 tens but miss the tarp the other seven times. The next step is having games on the field using the batting tee. Move the location of the tee and put the regular defense out there. It takes a good fundamental swing to get hits on the tee. You can then move into some sort of hitting game as outlined here, http://baseballcoaching.tips/365-days-to-better-baseball-good-coaches-have-a-go-to-plan/
once again, i like to build incentive for practicing and use practive time to do it. good luck. JP