One of the most intriguing areas of baseball is the use of different baseball strategies. People seem to intuitively know that using the right baseball strategies can help their team win and make good teams great. But the problem is trying to figure out which strategies to follow and when to use them. Nothing can get as heated and controversial as a discussion about the best strategy to use in a given situation among so-called “baseball experts.” For this reason, we’ve put together a list of tips to help you sort through the various strategies and find the ones that will benefit your team the most.
1. Advisor experience. This is important in determining how much credibility you should give to the proposed strategy. Has he been able to try this strategy or is it more of a mental exercise for him? If you are not willing to test your strategy, I would be inclined to pass it without further support.
2. Key in quantitative results when you can. When you hear that a certain baseball strategy is proposed, are numbers used to back it up? Also, do these numbers really mark what is important? If the coach is pushing a strategy and you don’t have numbers to back it up, you have to ask yourself how solid the strategy is. Also, it is important to make sure that the numbers used are really relevant. For example, if you are using batting average to determine if a batter should swing on a 3-and-0 pitch, is this really the best number to use? Wouldn’t it be better to use slugging percentage because a single is essentially the equivalent of a walk?
3. Don’t be afraid to challenge long-held assumptions.. Many things in baseball are the way they are due to custom and tradition. This does not mean that they are the best way to do things. Be willing to challenge certain assumptions. If you can’t find legitimate reasons why one shouldn’t do something, chances are there aren’t any.
4. Be willing to be a pioneer. Don’t be afraid to try different strategies, especially if they challenge existing assumptions. Just because no one else has thought of it doesn’t mean it won’t work. Instead, I recommend that you try these strategies in low-stakes situations. For example, why not try these strategies in summer league games, preseason games, and regular season games where their impact will be minimal? The idea here is to find strategies that either succeed in the playoffs or help your team make it to the playoffs. By testing your strategies, you can see firsthand how successful or unsuccessful they really are. This is good to know when wondering whether to wear one when deep in the playoffs.
5. Strategies can have success rates at different levels of baseball. If you’re a youth or high school baseball coach, it’s easy to be in awe of the big leagues and the baseball strategies their coaches adopt. However, just because a strategy works well on that level doesn’t mean it will work well on yours. Also, there are many strategies that will work much better at the youth and high school level that would not work well in the major leagues. For this reason, keep this in mind when looking for certain strategies. The real question is will this strategy work for my team based on our league? How you respond to this will determine if you should progress on the test.