Guys,
Most of you know that I coach a first year kid pitch team. One of the many challenges I have has been getting kids to swing the bat when they know they have roughly a 50/50 chance of getting on base if they just stand there because the pitching is so wild at this age. I am trying to develop aggressive hitters and I came up with this little stat to promote more aggressiveness at the plate.

Its called BPP(Balls Put into Play) and its pretty simple.

The formula is (Plate Appearances)-(Walks+Strikeouts) divided by plate appearances.

We want to win ballgames just like anyone else, but I am more interested in developing hitters, not ball watchers and this little stat has really helped me focus on which kid is struggling. I have a short memory and this stat helps me because it helps me remember which kids are putting the ball in play that may not have a solid BA. OBP is so skewed that it has no value in my opinion at this age, but using BPP has allowed me to put a more aggressive lineup together.

I have 13 kids on my team and 8-9 of them are bunched real tight in OBP and BA, so using BPP has proved to be an extremely valuable tool in determining playing time.

I don't think this stat will have any value past the point of where kids begin to throw strikes consistently and then the other stats have validity, but it helps now.

At 8-9YO, the playing time should be even. Regardless of stats.

Doing otherwise is overemphasizing winning at an inappropriate age.

I used to track a similar stat at the younger ages.

aggressive line up?
they are in first pitch baseball. There should be no stats. My son was afraid of the ball. he used to step out when he first faced pitchers. His minor league coach when he was pulled up at 8 put a board behind his feet so if he stepped out he felt the board. it really helped him. Now as a senior in HS he is so close to the plate they are constantly trying to brust him off.
alot of years to develop. you can keep your own ststa so you can work with the kids who are struggling, but your line up should rotate consistently with all those little guys.

I like the idea of this stat.

What about Hit by pitch? How are you counting that?

I would propose (PA-(BB+SO+HBP))/PA

Texan,
Point taken and agreed with. We decided collectively as parents and coaches to play competitive ball instead of rec league and in hindsight we should have opted for rec league at this age because PT is guaranteed in rec.

Now I have about 50% of the parents that want to see PT earned by performance because we all signed up for competitive and the other half of parents wanting equal PT. As you would guess, the ones that want equal PT are the ones that have a kid having a hard time and vica versa with the parents of the kid's doing well. I have cooked up all kinds of stats to get kids on the field but the BPP stat I conjured actually ended up being useful in helping me pinpoint kids that were really struggling at the plate with confidence, so I thought I would share it.

RonBon,
I just left HBP's out of the equation for no other reason that if they get hit, I don't want it to count against them.

Another couple post came up while I was writing the last one that I want to address. I have only used the BPP stat to put together an "aggressive" lineup one time this season. We got hammered 21-0 by a team earlier so I started the kids that swing the bat consistently the next time we faced them because getting beat like that once can be considered a character builder, but twice would be down right demoralizing.

Very intriguing stat I must say. I coach an 11 yo team and my .143 hitter has a .965 BPP, its almost something that I overlook when trying to "figure him out". I love it, 2 of my 3 worse BA players have the 2 highest BPP !!!

At 9YO, sometimes 10YO, a significant number of players lack the confidence to swing. As they reach 11/12YO, the problem tends to shift more to keeping them from swinging at bad pitches (most often the high ones).