Objective Measurements for 2015

Hitters who are result-driven don't last long in this sport. Motivated by fear and lacking self-control, they can kill a rally quicker than you can say "6-4-3."

A hitting coach's job is to motivate and inspire confidence and self-trust within a hitter. A simple way to encourage these seemingly abstract concepts is with basic objective measurements.

At Lee, we measure...

1.) OPS (On base % + slugging %), not the batting average. OPS has value over AVG because it accounts for more attributes of a hitter: contact, patience and power.

2.) QABs (Quality At-Bats). A hitter cannot control when a hit falls in. Often his outs are productive! A hitter can have a consistently quantifiable impact on the game without his batting average...or OPS, for that matter, increasing. The QABs we measure: hard contact, 8 + pitch PA, BB, HBP, 2-strike hit (devastating!), Advancing a runner from 2nd to 3rd w/ 0 outs, any successful bunt, any RBI. 

3.) 567. We grade every ball flight. We track these in BP. 5, 6, 7 refers to the most desired flight of the ball, from a perfect line drive, to a fly ball with ENERGY and JUICE. 

4.) Base running. We have a chart with advanced base running metrics. This helps us evaluate and reinforce the most advanced base runners on our team.