HS League Stats

[TonyK]

My son's HS league reported stats on-line from winning team's scorebooks. The nine-team league plays a 16-game schedule and is rated A in a AA, A, B, C and D class level based on enrollment. Players do get scouted and noticed, but not as much as the AA level players do.

In 69 league games, the overall league batting average was .296 and league OBP was .368 with game averages for both teams of 13 runs scored, 17 hits made, 6.5 walks, 3 doubles and 1 HR. That's not far off of ML averages. The best hitter had a .500 average and 8 other hitters were above .400. A 10th grader and a senior each had 6 HR's, and a player led the league with 21 runs scored and 24 hits.

The best ERA was 1.31 and only three P's were below 2.00. The best pitchers were right around a 1.00 WHIP average. Most pitchers had 10 unearned runs scored off of them. Our team's sophmore LHP had 22 K's in 22 2/3's innings pitched and a 4.01 ERA. That bodes well for the next two seasons. Our team gave up 62 unearned runs in 14 games so defense was not a strength this year. I'm not surprised since I've watched some of these kids play for years.

Because of the poor weather the season was condensed into four weeks instead of six weeks. Who knows if that affected these stats? I thought you might find some of this interesting and compare it to your own HS leagues.

[TG Coach]

My son's HS league reported stats on-line from winning team's scorebooks. The nine-team league plays a 16-game schedule and is rated A in a AA, A, B, C and D class level based on enrollment. Players do get scouted and noticed, but not as much as the AA level players do.

In 69 league games, the overall league batting average was .296 and league OBP was .368 with game averages for both teams of 13 runs scored, 17 hits made, 6.5 walks, 3 doubles and 1 HR. That's not far off of ML averages. The best hitter had a .500 average and 8 other hitters were above .400. A 10th grader and a senior each had 6 HR's, and a player led the league with 21 runs scored and 24 hits.

The best ERA was 1.31 and only three P's were below 2.00. The best pitchers were right around a 1.00 WHIP average. Most pitchers had 10 unearned runs scored off of them. Our team's sophmore LHP had 22 K's in 22 2/3's innings pitched and a 4.01 ERA. That bodes well for the next two seasons. Our team gave up 62 unearned runs in 14 games so defense was not a strength this year. I'm not surprised since I've watched some of these kids play for years.

Because of the poor weather the season was condensed into four weeks instead of six weeks. Who knows if that affected these stats? I thought you might find some of this interesting and compare it to your own HS leagues.

My experience with high school stats is they are bias and exagerated. However, if you want to check against other high schools maxpreps.com is becoming the place where high school stats are starting to be placed.

[MCBaseball13]

A senior on my HS team in NC this year hit .667, which set the NC record.

[TonyK]

A senior on my HS team in NC this year hit .667, which set the NC record.

He must be a terrific hitter. Getting a lotta walks and being pitched around can't make it easy for him. Some other leaders in NY according to MazPreps were hitting in the .500's. Mostly teams from around NYC and Long Island.

[TonyK]

My experience with high school stats is they are bias and exagerated. However, if you want to check against other high schools maxpreps.com is becoming the place where high school stats are starting to be placed.

Do you mean the home team is credited with hits that should be errors?

I sorted out all non-league games since some were played down South, or against lower level teams in other leagues. I was interested in how everyone did against common opponents.

The paper that tracks our Section's baseball stats does a good job. The boxscore is placed on-line just 2 or 3 hours after the game ends. If anyone disputes a boxscore, volunteers contact the school to decide whether or not to correct it. Are there a few mistakes? Sure. But my guess is stats like HR's, walks, K's, or EBH's are accurate.

[J-MAC]

Does american HS Leagues use wood bats or aluminum. Here in canada my travel team uses wood in a HS league that is based in the US. We played a double header and both teams used wood for the first game and we won 8-0 then the next game we both used aluminum and they won 12-10. I know you have to take pitching into the effect but still. I Find it alot easier to hit with aluminum then wood.

[TonyK]

Does american HS Leagues use wood bats or aluminum. Here in canada my travel team uses wood in a HS league that is based in the US. We played a double header and both teams used wood for the first game and we won 8-0 then the next game we both used aluminum and they won 12-10. I know you have to take pitching into the effect but still. I Find it alot easier to hit with aluminum then wood.

Most HS teams in the US use aluminum. Our schools must use a -3 aluminum bat. NY City is going to require HS teams to only use wood bats and NY State may also pass a law requiring them.

[MCBaseball13]

He must be a terrific hitter. Getting a lotta walks and being pitched around can't make it easy for him. Some other leaders in NY according to MazPreps were hitting in the .500's. Mostly teams from around NYC and Long Island.

A senior on my HS team in NC this year hit .667, which set the NC record.

He is going to UNC Wilmington, sorry for somebody that good

[scorekeeper]

A senior on my HS team in NC this year hit .667, which set the NC record.

Now I know what’s wrong with NC. They don’t know how to sharpen pencils like we do out here in the land of fruits and nuts!

That boy would have definitely been in the top 5 out here, but not at the top.

1 - .750
2 - .720
3 - .697
4 - .682
5 - .667

[scorekeeper]

Do you mean the home team is credited with hits that should be errors?

I sorted out all non-league games since some were played down South, or against lower level teams in other leagues. I was interested in how everyone did against common opponents.

The paper that tracks our Section's baseball stats does a good job. The boxscore is placed on-line just 2 or 3 hours after the game ends. If anyone disputes a boxscore, volunteers contact the school to decide whether or not to correct it. Are there a few mistakes? Sure. But my guess is stats like HR's, walks, K's, or EBH's are accurate.

Check with your local paper, and see if it would be to everyone’s benefit to use MaxPreps rather than something done by the paper.

Until just a few years ago, the local paper here maintained the stat databases for all HS sports in the area, but they found they were spending a heck of a lot of money and time on something that was never enough for those who were interested in HS sports, and way too much for those who weren’t.

The logistics of trying to coordinate everything for a large area like a state is way more than any individual news organization really wants to invest in, and when some local guys came up with MaxPreps, the paper was ecstatic!

I know the asst sports editor, and he says it was unbelievable how many resources they saved when they got out of the “stats” business. People still call in scores and they get reported promptly, so nothing is really lost at all.

When CBS bought MaxPreps, they got one heck of a big chunk of money infusion, and are now advertising on all the Fox Sports Channels, and my understanding is, the advertising will soon be coming to ESPN, the NFL channel, the Golf Channel, and the NBA channel.

That’s most of the good news. One of the things I don’t like is, for baseball, ERA, Strike Outs, Winning PCT, BA, HRs, RBIs OBP, SLGP, Runs, SBs, and Fielding are the only things they currently compute. IOW, they only do the stats that people think are the best rather than the best ones.

Another detracting thing about MaxPreps is, its not mandatory that schools participate, and for those that do, its not mandatory that they turn in all the stats, batting,, pitching, fielding, nor that they turn in all the stats within each of those categories, nor that they turn in stats for all games.

That alone means its pretty easy to pull some hanky panky if one wants to, by simply not entering the games where thing went badly. But it gets worse!

Even though there is an OSK at every HS baseball game, the OSK isn’t the one entering the stats for the game! Only a team’s representative can enter stats for his team. Either the home or away team can enter the line score, RHE by inning, but not the team stats.

Talk about open to hanky panky! I was asked to double check all the games we played this season, and I can tell you, there was a pretty big difference in what the opposing team had for hits and errors than what I did, just on the games where I was the OSK, not to mention the ones where I wasn’t. Not that I’m the best SK in the world, but there were “significant” differences.

So what you end up with are some coaches like the one I score for who refuses to allow me to put anything into MaxPreps, because he doesn’t want to tell our opponents anything he doesn’t have to. Then you have some coaches who allow their SK to put in what they scored. Then there are coaches who don’t allow anyone but themselves to put in the numbers because they want to make sure they’re correct, and of course there are the coaches who want to make sure they do everything in their power to help their players look good to whomever’s looking.

And let’s not make any bones about it, most coaches don’t cheat, and not too many worry about helping the other team like mine does. But, there are some who do cheat, and for sure there are plenty of HS SKs who don’t know the difference between a H and an E, an RBI or not, a SB or an C’s indifference, or an earned run or not.

Heck, as hard as I try, this year I screwed up 3 games marking the winning pitcher! It wasn’t hat I don’t know how to do it, but I was scoring some college games for a friend while he was on vacation, and they play 9 inning games where HS only plays 3. that means the WP has to complete 5 innings for a win rather than 4. Ooops! My bad, but I fixed it.

The thing is though, I have to edit myself. MaxPreps doesn’t verify what goes in at all! So, If someone wants to give a kid something that’s not even in the book, no one would know. FI, my program checks a couple things like making sure the same number of hits, walks, etc. our batters get, is the same the opponents pitchers give up.

Right now these little things don’t really bother anyone because the HS stats are notoriously poor, but hopefully once there is a common repository, they’ll slowly get better.
You’re prolly correct that HR’s walks, and K’s are accurate, or at least not very much cheated about, but EBH’s are something else again. Trust me on this one, not everyone understands that just because a batter reaches 3rd base, it doesn’t necessarily mean he got a triple.

[TonyK]

Check with your local paper, and see if it would be to everyone’s benefit to use MaxPreps rather than something done by the paper.

Until just a few years ago, the local paper here maintained the stat databases for all HS sports in the area, but they found they were spending a heck of a lot of money and time on something that was never enough for those who were interested in HS sports, and way too much for those who weren’t.

The logistics of trying to coordinate everything for a large area like a state is way more than any individual news organization really wants to invest in, and when some local guys came up with MaxPreps, the paper was ecstatic!

I know the asst sports editor, and he says it was unbelievable how many resources they saved when they got out of the “stats” business. People still call in scores and they get reported promptly, so nothing is really lost at all.

When CBS bought MaxPreps, they got one heck of a big chunk of money infusion, and are now advertising on all the Fox Sports Channels, and my understanding is, the advertising will soon be coming to ESPN, the NFL channel, the Golf Channel, and the NBA channel.

That’s most of the good news. One of the things I don’t like is, for baseball, ERA, Strike Outs, Winning PCT, BA, HRs, RBIs OBP, SLGP, Runs, SBs, and Fielding are the only things they currently compute. IOW, they only do the stats that people think are the best rather than the best ones.

Another detracting thing about MaxPreps is, its not mandatory that schools participate, and for those that do, its not mandatory that they turn in all the stats, batting,, pitching, fielding, nor that they turn in all the stats within each of those categories, nor that they turn in stats for all games.

That alone means its pretty easy to pull some hanky panky if one wants to, by simply not entering the games where thing went badly. But it gets worse!

Even though there is an OSK at every HS baseball game, the OSK isn’t the one entering the stats for the game! Only a team’s representative can enter stats for his team. Either the home or away team can enter the line score, RHE by inning, but not the team stats.

Talk about open to hanky panky! I was asked to double check all the games we played this season, and I can tell you, there was a pretty big difference in what the opposing team had for hits and errors than what I did, just on the games where I was the OSK, not to mention the ones where I wasn’t. Not that I’m the best SK in the world, but there were “significant” differences.

So what you end up with are some coaches like the one I score for who refuses to allow me to put anything into MaxPreps, because he doesn’t want to tell our opponents anything he doesn’t have to. Then you have some coaches who allow their SK to put in what they scored. Then there are coaches who don’t allow anyone but themselves to put in the numbers because they want to make sure they’re correct, and of course there are the coaches who want to make sure they do everything in their power to help their players look good to whomever’s looking.

And let’s not make any bones about it, most coaches don’t cheat, and not too many worry about helping the other team like mine does. But, there are some who do cheat, and for sure there are plenty of HS SKs who don’t know the difference between a H and an E, an RBI or not, a SB or an C’s indifference, or an earned run or not.

Heck, as hard as I try, this year I screwed up 3 games marking the winning pitcher! It wasn’t hat I don’t know how to do it, but I was scoring some college games for a friend while he was on vacation, and they play 9 inning games where HS only plays 3. that means the WP has to complete 5 innings for a win rather than 4. Ooops! My bad, but I fixed it.

The thing is though, I have to edit myself. MaxPreps doesn’t verify what goes in at all! So, If someone wants to give a kid something that’s not even in the book, no one would know. FI, my program checks a couple things like making sure the same number of hits, walks, etc. our batters get, is the same the opponents pitchers give up.

Right now these little things don’t really bother anyone because the HS stats are notoriously poor, but hopefully once there is a common repository, they’ll slowly get better.
You’re prolly correct that HR’s walks, and K’s are accurate, or at least not very much cheated about, but EBH’s are something else again. Trust me on this one, not everyone understands that just because a batter reaches 3rd base, it doesn’t necessarily mean he got a triple.

I hear you on EBH's and giving out hits that should be errors. Coaches want to see their best players get every break possible. I noticed a few non-league games seemed designed to give a good hitter 2 or 3 EBH's.

From what I learned from this I would say that it takes at least a .400 BA in our HS league to stand out.

My son's JV coach gave out stats that even included OPS. I can say that my son received no suspect hits, and his pitching stats only had 4 unearned runs and I saw more than that and I even missed two of his starts.

It is not PC to print who made all the errors no matter where you live.

[scorekeeper]

I hear you on EBH's and giving out hits that should be errors. Coaches want to see their best players get every break possible. I noticed a few non-league games seemed designed to give a good hitter 2 or 3 EBH's.

From what I learned from this I would say that it takes at least a .400 BA in our HS league to stand out.

My son's JV coach gave out stats that even included OPS. I can say that my son received no suspect hits, and his pitching stats only had 4 unearned runs and I saw more than that and I even missed two of his starts.

It is not PC to print who made all the errors no matter where you live.

Shame on you Tony! You’re implying that some coaches actually schedule games to beef up their player’s stats.

I’m positive that happens, but I don’t know that it happens a lot. I’m sure there are HS coaches out there who can go into it in depth, but my understanding is, the schedules have to be made out so early, coaches are often happy just to find games.

A .400 BA is prolly just as good a yardstick as any, especially for a league. In our league there’s 6 teams, and a .400+ BA would be in the top 4. However, in our section which is made up of 27 leagues, .424 is #100. Since there’s 9 other sections, I think you can easily guess what kind of a BA would draw much attention on a statewide basis. The pencils get sharper and sharper!

Ya can’t get too mad at the coach if he at least had the stones to hand the stats out. There’s a lot of reasons for incorrect numbers though, and they aren’t all due to conspiracies.

It’s a funny thing about errors, or in reality fielding in general. I’ve learned my lesson to the point where when I do my newsletter after every game, I’ll mention an error, but very seldom who made it. however, when I do the stats, not only do I post the errors and who made them, but I also list the type of error, fielding or throwing.

But I don’t’ stop there. I list the defense by individual and by position, plus the playing time in the field the same way. I don’t do it to show negative things, but rather to give a true picture of what’s happening, albeit through my eyes.

Having those numbers available sure cuts down on the chest thumping for the dad who thinks his kid is the best fielder to every come down the pike. All it is, is a sharp dose of reality.

[Baseball gLove]

Hitting 24 homeruns and setting the California State single season record is no lie. Mike Moustakas did that this year and also touches 97 mph. He and his teammate Matt Dominguez will be first round draftpicks later this week. Their teammate Coyle will probably be picked up by the 5th round.

[Baseball gLove]

What about stats padded against weak opposition? There was a pitcher that was featured on Fox Sports, but this pitcher earned his .326 ERA in CIF Southern Section Division 6. These are small weak schools that would have have major difficulty against division 3 schools.

Another pitcher had a similar ERA of .304 , but he had earned it against some of the best teams in Southern California in the CIF Southern Section DIV 1 Marmonte League. He was not featured on Fox Sports Local Spotlight. TG would recognize some of these Marmonte League Schools as Thousand Oaks, Newberry Park, Westlake, Royal and Westlake, Calabasas and Agoura High Schools. These Div 1 teams out of the Marmonte league are as tough as perennial powerhouse Chatsworth High School of the City Section. California does not have state baseball championships.

[scorekeeper]

Hitting 24 homeruns and setting the California State single season record is no lie. Mike Moustakas did that this year and also touches 97 mph. He and his teammate Matt Dominguez will be first round draftpicks later this week. Their teammate Coyle will probably be picked up by the 5th round.

The coach at that school must be like the one I score for where he doesn’t allow the stats to be posted to MaxPreps. I just don’t understand that.

[scorekeeper]

What about stats padded against weak opposition? There was a pitcher that was featured on Fox Sports, but this pitcher earned his .326 ERA in CIF Southern Section Division 6. These are small weak schools that would have have major difficulty against division 3 schools.

There’s a lot of BS that goes on with HS baseball records and stats, and a lot of it has to do with divisions.

I just looked at the top 20 in SoCal and at least 5 of the top 20 are DII schools, and here in NorCal two of the best teams are DIII’s! The thing is, although those teams are legitimately good teams and prove it by waxing many DI and D2 teams, they are definitely abnormal. And since they play in leagues against other teams in their category, that’s at least half of their games they play against weak sisters.

Its not that I don’t think they’d be successful even if they were put in D1, but there’s no way anyone can look at teams like that and have anything but doubts as to the numbers their players put up.

Between the weak schedules, the poor scorekeeping, and the coaches who want to help their players, its no wonder there are teams that bat over .500 for a HS season! The 24th highest team average in the state was .404, and there was one at .504. C’mon!

The bottom line is, there’s really no fair way to set up divisions or schedules, But what I’d like to see is all of the section winners DI thru DIV play a final tournament after the section titles have all been decided. One more week would decide a lot more than what we have now.

[oaklandman666]

I pitch for my high-school team and keep book when I'm not pitching. I know how you feel. Our team BA was like .326. We finished 2nd in the division. The winner of our division hit .503. But, I threw a 1 Hitter and my buddy Chauncey 4 hit them. And I know they had 12 games where they had 4 hits or less. So i have no idea how they hit .503.

[scorekeeper]

I pitch for my high-school team and keep book when I'm not pitching. I know how you feel. Our team BA was like .326. We finished 2nd in the division. The winner of our division hit .503. But, I threw a 1 Hitter and my buddy Chauncey 4 hit them. And I know they had 12 games where they had 4 hits or less. So i have no idea how they hit .503.

666,

The thing that’s really troubling you is, you DO have an idea how they hit .503.!

It takes some longer than others to realize that although baseball is a great sport and has millions of great people in it, there are those who participate that are, shall we say, less than sticklers for truth, justice, and the American way.

[tommybaseball]

Most HS teams in the US use aluminum. Our schools must use a -3 aluminum bat. NY City is going to require HS teams to only use wood bats and NY State may also pass a law requiring them.

Watch those .500+ batting averages fall into the city sewers along with the stickball spaldeens! The cream will rise to the top.

[Baseball gLove]

I just looked at my son's school team batting avg; it is .341. They finished first in their conference with a 24-6-1 record, falling 1 error and 1 run short of reaching the Div III final at Dodger stadium. They had a few impressive victories including wins against top rated Thousand Oaks and Bishop Amat. They also won the San Luis Obispo Easter Tourney despite sitting 3 starters for off-the-field discipline issues.

[TonyK]

Our HS batted .288 with an OBP of .350. Their weakness was in pitching (only 2 with ERA's below 6.22), and defense.

I overheard that a few of the JV kids requested whichever teammate is keeping the book to erase errors they had made etc. Maybe that explains why another coach kept score for the last few games?

It is interesting that some of our HS teams usually play non-league games every Saturday and Sunday. They must feel the extra games help them and doesn't create a pitching problem for them.

[scorekeeper]

Our HS batted .288 with an OBP of .350. Their weakness was in pitching (only 2 with ERA's below 6.22), and defense.

I overheard that a few of the JV kids requested whichever teammate is keeping the book to erase errors they had made etc. Maybe that explains why another coach kept score for the last few games?

It is interesting that some of our HS teams usually play non-league games every Saturday and Sunday. They must feel the extra games help them and doesn't create a pitching problem for them.

Wow! Our teams must be pretty close to each other battingwise. Our BA was .258 and OPB was .391. But our pitching and defense was our strength. Our team ERA was 2.98 and our worst was 3.69. Are your numbers from JV or V?

That’s why the book should never be kept in the dugout, or by a player. Isn’t here even 1 fan or several who can do it?

I think that what they do on weekends is really up to the individual school. Our JV never played a weekend game, but another school in the league never played a non-conference game during the week! It all depends on the program.

[TonyK]

Wow! Our teams must be pretty close to each other battingwise. Our BA was .258 and OPB was .391. But our pitching and defense was our strength. Our team ERA was 2.98 and our worst was 3.69. Are your numbers from JV or V?

That’s why the book should never be kept in the dugout, or by a player. Isn’t here even 1 fan or several who can do it?

I think that what they do on weekends is really up to the individual school. Our JV never played a weekend game, but another school in the league never played a non-conference game during the week! It all depends on the program.

That was our Varsity's averages. I could have kept score for some home games. Not many parents can get to 4:30 pm away games an hour and a half away.

Here are the JV figures: OPS: .864; BA: .353; OBP: .446; SB: 73 out of 84 attempts; BB: 76; SO: 62

JV ERA was 3.53; WHIP: 1.53; IP: 107; H: 105; R: 83; W: 59; K: 111 & Avg Pitches per Inning: 18

The JV's have had two good years in a row so next year's Varsity should do well. All 5 JV losses were on the road and they defeated the 5 teams at home. So winning on the road in HS maybe is a key to a successful season?

[scorekeeper]

The JV's have had two good years in a row so next year's Varsity should do well. All 5 JV losses were on the road and they defeated the 5 teams at home. So winning on the road in HS maybe is a key to a successful season?

I honestly don’t think a JV’ success is any kind of a predictor for V success, at least in the format we work under here. Its not as though the entire JV team were great players and moves up, but none of the other schools makes any improvements to their V too.

Think about why a team would have an advantage playing at home or away. There is only one overwhelming factor I can think of that would cause any advantage to one team or disadvantage to another. The mound!

We’re not talking about pro P’s here and pro mounds that are very close to all being the same, where a quality pitcher can easily make adjustments. We’re talking about P’s who for the most part don’t have great mechanics to start with, or are able to repeat them to a high degree.

Throw in an unfamiliar mound that isn’t just a little bit different, but a heck of a lot different, and you’ve got a huge problem. Although there are a lot of horror stories about how the mounds in the pros are all so different, its much more a matter of “feel” than it is the dimensions are screwed up.

The feel can be and is changed fairly dramatically simply by using different material to build it. But, since the umps go around at least once every year and laser the mounds, it isn’t likely they’ll vary a heck of a lot, at least not like HS mounds will. Remember, only 1” difference in height is 10% off, and I don’t think anyone believes there’s only 1” difference from on HS mound to the next.

The other thing is the slope. I seriously doubt 1 HS mound in 10 has the slope set correctly! A perfect example can be seen the next time someone sees a video of Chuck Shilling throwing with his foot bleeding in that WS game. You’ll see that the dirt is the same height as the rubber for 6” in front, then the slope starts.

Almost all Youth mounds, and HS mounds start the slope right at the rubber. As little difference as that might be, its still a difference. If that hole gets dug in front of the rubber, it could change the height of the dirt where the foot lands by as much as 2 inches. If you don’t think that can mess with a P’s mechanics, you better guess again.

Then there are those mounds that look like volcanoes with a slope like Mt Everest. They can be the correct height, but the landing area might be as much as 4” different than the P is used to. The trouble is, no matter how good a P is, those are the kinds of problems that will make things very difficult, and there’s really nothing that can be done.

The safest thing to do is, put a guy on the bump who has little polish, can throw fairly hard, and is “effectively wild”! Why will he be affected less? Because he’s wild anyway and won’t get frustrated because things aren’t going right and he not realize what’s happening.

[TonyK]

I honestly don’t think a JV’ success is any kind of a predictor for V success, at least in the format we work under here. Its not as though the entire JV team were great players and moves up, but none of the other schools makes any improvements to their V too.

Think about why a team would have an advantage playing at home or away. There is only one overwhelming factor I can think of that would cause any advantage to one team or disadvantage to another. The mound!

We’re not talking about pro P’s here and pro mounds that are very close to all being the same, where a quality pitcher can easily make adjustments. We’re talking about P’s who for the most part don’t have great mechanics to start with, or are able to repeat them to a high degree.

Throw in an unfamiliar mound that isn’t just a little bit different, but a heck of a lot different, and you’ve got a huge problem. Although there are a lot of horror stories about how the mounds in the pros are all so different, its much more a matter of “feel” than it is the dimensions are screwed up.

The feel can be and is changed fairly dramatically simply by using different material to build it. But, since the umps go around at least once every year and laser the mounds, it isn’t likely they’ll vary a heck of a lot, at least not like HS mounds will. Remember, only 1” difference in height is 10% off, and I don’t think anyone believes there’s only 1” difference from on HS mound to the next.

The other thing is the slope. I seriously doubt 1 HS mound in 10 has the slope set correctly! A perfect example can be seen the next time someone sees a video of Chuck Shilling throwing with his foot bleeding in that WS game. You’ll see that the dirt is the same height as the rubber for 6” in front, then the slope starts.

Almost all Youth mounds, and HS mounds start the slope right at the rubber. As little difference as that might be, its still a difference. If that hole gets dug in front of the rubber, it could change the height of the dirt where the foot lands by as much as 2 inches. If you don’t think that can mess with a P’s mechanics, you better guess again.

Then there are those mounds that look like volcanoes with a slope like Mt Everest. They can be the correct height, but the landing area might be as much as 4” different than the P is used to. The trouble is, no matter how good a P is, those are the kinds of problems that will make things very difficult, and there’s really nothing that can be done.

The safest thing to do is, put a guy on the bump who has little polish, can throw fairly hard, and is “effectively wild”! Why will he be affected less? Because he’s wild anyway and won’t get frustrated because things aren’t going right and he not realize what’s happening.

Those are all excellent points. Add in that sometimes they play on a Varsity field, and other times it's a JV or MS field. We laughed at how one visiting pitcher kept digging into the mound right where he was landing to change it to his liking. Plus, the LHP's want one hole and the RHP's want a different hole.