Advice on (home) cuts

[Steve Huff]

We lost a game this weekend because of two misplayed cut-homes. The throws were there, the communications and anticipation was not. One time we should have cut a throw home and taken an easy out at third, another we should have let an online throw go through for an easy out at home.

It's our fault as coaches for not getting them prepared, we realized, so we need to take this part of our game forward for our team (young 14U travel team, 13Us, started raw but getting much better, good athletes learning softball skills).

I'm going to throw out some questions any help or advice would really be appreciated. TKS.

- We use our pitcher for cuts. Like all baseball dads, I grew up using 1b/3b and pitcher backing up bases. But pitcher cuts are how we started and seems to make some sense, especially at early ages where field is "shrunk" and some throws come sooner than a first basemen, for instance, can position themselves. What player does your team use for cut-homes?

- Who should be responsible for calling the play? The catcher? Do fielders (ie, maybe a third base calling for a throw) get involved at all? Do coaches? Does the receiver (in our case the pitcher) have some responsibility to watch runners?

- What are your calls? Do call call "let it go" or only a cut? Do you call base numbers? Does your receiver automatically cut offline throws?

- How do you help the catcher learn to 1) be loud and authoritative and 2) make good decisions? To me this is the biggest thing, who is in control of this play?

Ultimately our girls will only be as good as what we teach them so we want to be able to put a good, workable system in place. We obviously haven't done it yet : >
TKS.

I can only speak of older girls, but the farther the cut-off is from home plate, the easier it is for trailing runners to advance. The outfield should carry the load and make the long throw. The relay should make a short and accurate throw for tags. That throw should not be more than one base length, unless the ball is hit to fence. In that case we used a "double-cut" and 2 relays (middle infielder to 1Bman or 3Bman). But nothing on the infield changed. If the ball through the outfield is toward the LF side, the IB follows the runner to 2nd base. The pitcher on all throws backs up 2/3 the distance down the 3B line.

I used a P as the cutoff in HS for the relay only because I had a 1B who couldn't throw, and a 3rd baseman who was a contrarian! The last year I coached HS she made 14 of the teams 31 errors. So pitcher it was.

In TB and at the University, I used the 3B on throws from LF since the SS would be moving toward 3B and the 3B only had to take a few steps to get into position, and were already at the correct depth to relay the throw. On anything up the middle or to the right side, I had the 1B take the cuts. They generally moved toward the pitching rubber, but also tried to never let the ball bounce if possible.


The relays function is two fold! To redirect an off-line throw to the base (including home), or to redirect the throw to a different base.

The catcher called all cuts, and if no call, the ball went through, but the cutoff never let them think it was going through.
The catcher would called "Cut-2" for 2nd, and "Cut-3" for 3rd. If the throw was offline for a play at home, she could also call "Cut-4".

Your catcher is self-conscious, but in a game a little more pop in her voice will come out.