http://iscoresports.com/

When scoring a hit, what is normal practice for locating a hit on the hit chart? Is it where the ball was fielded? So a ball that bounces twenty times, but gets thru to the left fielder, do you generally mark it where the left fielder picked it up?

Also, in the case of a line drive or pop up that is not caught, but an out is recorded, what is the proper way to classify the type of hit ball? Lets say a line smash to third base, he knocks it down, throws to first for out. So, just score as line drive, hard, out, 5-3? I just get caught up thinking a linedrive out was caught, but I guess not necessarily.

Similar situation is a popup over the first basemen head, lands fair. He picks it up and touches first for unassisted force out. If I do popup, soft, out, 3, it looks like it was caught by the first basemen.

Or, is the proper designation a ground ball if it hits the ground (regardless of if it was lined or popped up)?

For both of these questions, I think it is personal preference. I don't believe it will affect any stats except possibly whether a play is a GIDP or not.

For hit charts, it is not very critical, I usually mark it where it ended up (fence, stops rolling, fielder picks it up). I use the soft, medium and hard choices to give more detail, but FTM doesn't currently display this anywhere that I am aware. I mostly use it to future-proof my database.

For classifying outs as you describe, I would call both of those ground outs since they both required force outs. I would make the hit chart show a pop-up, but the out would show as a ground out since that is technically what happened. The hit charts and the classification are independent of each other in iScore.

Though subtle, the soft/medium/hard are actually used to change the thickness of the lines drawn on the hit charts.