Coaches Corner: Team vs. Me At Bats

Coaches Corner: Team vs. Me At Bats

Date: January 24, 2019
By: Brendan Dougherty

The hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a round ball with a round bat that sometimes is traveling any where from 95-100 MPH. Baseball is an individual sport wrapped into a team game. We are constantly measuring how good a player is by his individual stats. As a coach you are preaching the process and not the results. As a player you are working as hard as you ever have and believing that the process will give you the results. To be prepared as a hitter you always have to be aware of what is going on during the game. You should have a check list of things that you can go over. When you begin BP and move into your game at-bats you should not be focused on anything mechanically. That should be done during the week in the cages or during early BP at practice. Your thoughts should be of what the situation is or could be when you step into the box. How can my process and my at-bat help this team have success?  How can I have a successful team at-bat? We all know and understand that scoring runs is a huge part of having success. You have to be willing to give up some of your individual at-bats and have productive team at-bats that will put your team in the best position to score runs and ultimately win the game. As a coach the number “7” was always a goal. We want to score 7 or more runs a game because research told us that teams that scored 7 or more runs won almost 93% of the time. No team can have that goal with selfish at-bats. You have to be willing to give up yourself for the team to have success. When I say giving up yourself, I do not mean always having to sacrifice bunt. We created a chart and a point system for our teams to use during practice and on game days. The chart and points system were based on the type of team we had. You can change it to fit your specific team or things that you feel may be more important. We felt if we could get to a certain number that would give us the best chance to win.

9 WAYS TO HAVE A POSITIVE TEAM AB

  1. HIT
  2. BB
  3. HBP/ C INT
  4. SAC FLY
  5. SAC BUNT
  6. ADVANCE LEAD RUNNER VIA OUT
  7. ADVANCE LEAD RUNNER VIA ERROR
  8. 8 PITCH AB
  9. Hard Hit Ball

 TEAM GOAL IS 25

GET TO 25!!!