UC Irvine economist, former youth baseball and softball coach, and lifelong fan of the game Michael McBride has released his third book in a series on applying sabermetrics to youth baseball and softball. His latest installment, Coaching Youth Baseball and Softball with Sabermetrics: Create Customized and Youth-centric Stats to Measure Success and Motivate Your Players, focuses on creating youth-centric stats that offer a more accurate and motivating way to measure success, going beyond traditional methods not captured with popular apps like GameChanger. Below, McBride shares what inspires his work, examples of new metrics, and practical advice for coaches looking to better evaluate and develop young players.

Q: This book is your third in a series about applying sabermetrics to youth baseball and softball. Can you give us a quick recap on what's inspired the series?

A: Definitely! This series was born at the intersection of three areas of my life that had been largely separate before. First is my profession as an economist who asks questions and uses quantitative methods to answer those questions. Second is my lifelong connection to baseball that initially formed as a child who played the sport but that evolved over time into an interest in the statistical analysis of the sport. Last is my time spent coaching my own children and others in local youth baseball and softball leagues. This book series exists at the nexus of these parts of my life, and this has made writing the book uniquely enjoyable.

Q: Your work introduces new, youth-centric statistics. Can you share an example of one and explain how it provides a better picture of a player's performance compared to traditional stats?

A: In the opening of the book I mention the very first youth-centric stat that I created called On-Base Percentage with Errors. The idea for it came when my daughter was eight years old. It was clear to me that fielding errors played a big role in her softball games, but no existing stat really appreciated that fact. I created the stat and, with a little bit of analysis, found that it was more statistically predictive of scoring than the standard stat as I suspected. Even more, I discovered that two players on my daughter’s team rated as among the best on the team at getting on base by my stat but rated among the worst on the team by the other stat. It was kind of an aha moment because I thought, “These girls are underappreciated. All of the coaches need to know this!” So, the stat wasn’t just better conceptually and better statistically, it was also something that could really help a coach better appreciate their players’ skills.

Q: GameChanger is the go-to app for many youth teams, but you argue that it doesn’t tell the whole story. What’s the biggest gap in the stats it provides, and how can coaches fill it?

A: GameChanger is a fantastic tool, and I cannot recommend it strongly enough to coaches of youth baseball and softball teams. However, all of its most popular stats were designed for professional players not youth players, and there are key differences between youth and professional levels that reduce the accuracy and reliability of those stats for youth players. Data samples are smaller, scorekeeping skill is more variable, fielding errors are common, and more. Once a coach recognizes how these issues affect the quality of their stats, they can see the gap between what they have and what they really should have. And, hopefully, they then take action, like following some of my recommendations in the book.

Q: Some of the stats in this book require extra effort from a scorekeeper. What advice do you have for teams that don’t have a dedicated stat-tracker but still want to implement your ideas?

A: I thought about this a lot when writing the book because coaches are busy and need to find out what is really worth their while. So one of the things I did was create a spreadsheet that automatically calculates a majority of the stats recommended in the book and posted it free of charge online (https://sites.google.com/view/youthsabermetrics). All they have to do is copy and paste their GameChanger data into the spreadsheet, which gives a wealth of new information about their players with just a couple minutes of effort. Coaches who want more can enlist the help of a parent or ask their scorekeeper to do some added data collection. Going this extra mile won’t be worthwhile for all coaches, but it becomes more valuable the older the players and the more competitive the league.

Q: This is the third book in your series. How does this one build on your previous work, and what do you hope youth coaches take away from it? Are there areas of youth coaching or player development you’re thinking about exploring in future work?

A: The first book explains how to get the most out of GameChanger’s preexisting stats to assess youth baseball and softball players’ skills. Basically, it teaches coaches how to use a tool they already have but in a more informed way. The second book is about in-game strategy. It introduces coaches to ideas that developed and spread at higher levels but have not trickled down to youth levels. This third book pushes the series in a new direction by introducing coaches to stats that GameChanger does not provide, some that are known by insiders but not provided by the app for an unknown reason, but some others that I created specifically for youth levels and am introducing for the first time in the book. These new stats are the results of some original and creative research.

Yes, I have too many ideas to explore in the future! One of them is how to run effective practice sessions. For example, elements of good pedagogy in the classroom apply equally to the practice field, but this is not something that is talked about much among coaches at the youth level. I think even some small changes in how coaches coach can have significant positive impacts on the field. In the end, I want to help coaches learn what I have learned, with the young players being the ultimate beneficiaries.