Baseball Charts are Helpful - 365 Days to Better Baseball

Tuesday Tips to Tattoo the Ball Seeing is Believing

At the professional level, baseball charts are kept on everything, so analysis of those baseball charts can lead to strategy. At the youth level, elaborate baseball charts are unnecessary, of course, but some documentation is helpful.

As a hitting instructor, I like to get as much information about a player's game hitting results as possible. Often, what hitters do in batting practice differ from their game results, so it is important information.

Why Baseball Charts are Necessary

The problem comes in when trying to gather that valuable information. This is a common scenario:

My initial query, "What's been happening in the games, recently?"

Dad's response "He is popping everything up"

Kid's response "A lot of grounders"

Mom "Striking out all the time"

So much for that, the point is everyone remembers things differently. Because of that, it is never a bad idea to chart at bats, so there is accurate accounting of players' results. As mentioned, players often perform things differently in games than in practice, so coaches cannot just rely on what they see in practice to make the perfect analysis.

In game baseball charts, along with batting practice results, give coaches the best chance at proper analysis and for solving hitting problems. With the availability of cell phones, it is relatively easy to plug in game results for future, accurate analysis. For the best analysis, people should document pitch types and pitch locations, along with the batted ball results.

As players move up the baseball ladder, they should be encouraged to keep this game information themselves so the proof is in the seeing. Of course, this is also a good practice with pitching results, too.

Finally, coaches may want to have bench players keep baseball charts during the game to keep players busy and "into" the game.