Baseball Stats

[Airhog]

I play in a mens slo-pitch softball league, and I have started keeping track of the stats for our team. I have a few questions though and knew that there are people on here that could explain some things to me.

1. How do errors factor into what a hitter gets? For example, if I hit a ball deep, which is usually a double, and it the fielder misses the ball, and it turns into a home run, how should that be scored? I am leaning to just scoring it as a home-run, but I was curious as to how thats scored in the majors.

2. If you hit a homerun, and the only run that scores is yourself, do you get an RBI for that?

3. Are there any stats that show home many outs a player causes? For example, last night our team hit a lot of singles, sure their batting percentage would be high, but a lot of the singles, caused outs at second base, and I wondered if there was a stat that shows this.

[lynchjm24]

I play in a mens slo-pitch softball league, and I have started keeping track of the stats for our team. I have a few questions though and knew that there are people on here that could explain some things to me.

1. How do errors factor into what a hitter gets? For example, if I hit a ball deep, which is usually a double, and it the fielder misses the ball, and it turns into a home run, how should that be scored? I am leaning to just scoring it as a home-run, but I was curious as to how thats scored in the majors.

2. If you hit a homerun, and the only run that scores is yourself, do you get an RBI for that?

3. Are there any stats that show home many outs a player causes? For example, last night our team hit a lot of singles, sure their batting percentage would be high, but a lot of the singles, caused outs at second base, and I wondered if there was a stat that shows this.

1. This would actually depend on exactly what happened and how it happened. Did the fielder fall down and never get to the ball? That would be a home run. Did it fall out of his glove? Depending on the difficultly of the play it could be scored a number of ways.

2. Yes

3. If it is causes a force out at second base it isn't a single, it's a fielder's choice and counts as an at-bat, but not a hit.

[Airhog]

So basically FC's means he could have thrown out the guy at first, but chose to throw out the guy at second. Okay, that makes sense. But I guess that is something that is left to the scorers discretion, for example a slow baserunner is thrown out at second, even though the guy at first made it there easily for example.

[korme]

Lynch summed them up pretty well.

1. If the fielder come in contact with the ball and doesn't obtain it as he should, it's an error. Usually that is the bench mark. If the ball just bounces past, I'd not mark it an error.

2. RBI, a run batted in. You batted yourself in. That's 1 RBI for you.

3. If there is someone at 1st, and you hit a grounder to short, and they toss the ball to 2nd to get the out, but you're safe at 1st, in the books you are 0-1. This is because it is like saying if that guy wasn't on 1st, surely you'd have grounded out yourself. So if you are batting and cause an out, you get no hit.

[korme]

So basically FC's means he could have thrown out the guy at first, but chose to throw out the guy at second. Okay, that makes sense. But I guess that is something that is left to the scorers discretion, for example a slow baserunner is thrown out at second, even though the guy at first made it there easily for example.

It doesn't matter if Mike Piazza is on 1st and Rickey Henderson is the batter. A fielder's choice is a fielder's choice.

[Celeval]

1 - Depends on what the error was. Was it a double, but the fielder missed it and it turned into a homerun? If so, you're 1-1 with a double and a two-base error. Was it a fly ball that the fielder should have caught for an out, but bounced out of his glove... and usually you'd get a double but this time it was a homerun? Then it's an error all the way and you're 0-1.

3 - Nothing left to the scorer's discretion. There's nothing to do with whether the batter would have made it, it's a fielder's choice and you're 0-1. The exceptions would be if the play was not a force out - conceivably if there was a runner on third with two outs, the runner makes it to first and beats the play at home, but the runner is thrown out coming home; there's an argument for a single. But if it's a force-out at second or something where the runner is being forced to advance and is out, then it's an fielder's choice and the batter does not get credit for a hit.

[Celeval]

FWIW, from the official rules of MLB:
[10.05]
(b) The official scorer shall not credit a base hit when a:
(1) runner is forced out by a batted ball, or would have been forced out except for a fielding error;
(2) batter apparently hits safely and a runner who is forced to advance by reason of the batter becoming a runner fails to touch the first base to which such runner is advancing and is called out on appeal. The official scorer shall charge the batter with a time at bat but no hit;
(3) pitcher, the catcher or any infielder handles a batted ball and puts out a preceding runner who is attempting to advance one base or to return to his original base, or would have put out such runner with ordinary effort except for a fielding error. The official scorer shall charge the batter with a time at bat but no hit;
(4) fielder fails in an attempt to put out a preceding runner and, in the scorer's judgment, the batter-runner could have been put out at first base; or
Rule 10.05(b) Comment: Rule 10.05(b) shall not apply if the fielder merely looks toward or feints toward another base before attempting to make the putout at first base.
(5) runner is called out for interference with a fielder attempting to field a batted ball, unless in the scorer's judgment the batter-runner would have been safe had the interference not occurred.

[MJ4H]

Everytime I see this thread, I think it says Baseball Stars and I get a little surge of excitement. Then I notice it doesn't say that and then this little hope that it is a little typo and is really about Baseball Stars follows. This despite having seen this thread and its contents several times now.

[lynchjm24]

So basically FC's means he could have thrown out the guy at first, but chose to throw out the guy at second. Okay, that makes sense. But I guess that is something that is left to the scorers discretion, for example a slow baserunner is thrown out at second, even though the guy at first made it there easily for example.

That's a fielder's choice. By definition.

[sooner333]

Airhog--are you playing out at Reeves?

[Airhog]

No, we play out at Boomer Sports Complex. I work for Hitachi, and it is a company sponsered team

[cartman]

(4) fielder fails in an attempt to put out a preceding runner and, in the scorer's judgment, the batter-runner could have been put out at first base

And what this states is even if the guy makes it from first to second safely, and you make it to first safely, it is still a fielder's choice and you don't get credit for a hit.

[sooner333]

No, we play out at Boomer Sports Complex. I work for Hitachi, and it is a company sponsered team

Gotcha...just wondering because I've got some friends who have been playing at Reeves for a few years now and head out to watch 'em sometimes...thought I might need to heckle the opposition. ;)

[Airhog]

Lmao, we get enough heckling from the guys rooting for our team.

We did play in a benefit tournament at reeves last year.