Selecting an Outfielder

[Ivy's Dad]

Which of these two outfielders would you chose? Outfielder #1 has a strong arm and can reach home plate easily on one hop, but has trouble catching fly balls to the outfield (missed 3 out of 3 easy to moderate fly balls last game). Outfielder #2 can reach the cutoff quickly, but does not have a strong enough arm to reach home plate. Outfielder #2 typically catches fly balls hit to the outfield (caught 1 out of 1 moderate fly ball last game). The team is a start up B level travel team. The batting order is the full roster, so offensive capability is not relevant.

 

[3'sDad]

#2 - catching and recording an out is key. Giving teams extra outs is a recipe for disaster.
1st team to record 21 outs (7 innings) nusually wins. Provided #2 hits the cut-off consistantly, there is the winner.

 

[Lozza]

Number 2. What's the point of her throwing to home if she can't catch?

I would work hard with #1 to get her catching but not put her there yet.

 

[SoftSocDad]

Why concede a hit in the first place?

 

[sluggers]

There are two ways to look at this.

The first is simple--put the fast people in the outfield, put the slow people in the infield. Therefore, you pick #2.

But, if you want to get all mathematical:

OUTFIELDER #1:

How many times do you think she will throw out a runner during a season? Probably, once, if you are lucky. A lot of stuff has to happen to get the runner at home plate.

Suppose 40 fly balls are hit her way and she catches 50%, which seems extremely generous. So, outfielder #1 has given you 21 outs.

OUTFIELDER #2

Runners thrown out at home: Zero. Assume she catches 75% of the balls of the 40 fly balls, for 30 outs.

21 outs vs. 30 outs...So, you go with #2.

 

[SnocatzDad]

Playing outfield might be the most undertaught skill in our sport. Most of what I see is coaches hitting a ball to roughly where a player is and training them to catch a ball they can run to a spot and camp under. That is definitely a part of outfielding, but what i don't see is enough work on catching a ball at a full sprint. It's not an easy thing to do and requires a lot of repetition.

I'd generally agree that you want fast kids in the outfield, and that is who you would want to train into outfielders, but I've seen kids with average speed who can consistantly catch a ball at a full sprint play much better at outfield than some kids with better speed but no ability to seal the deal and catch a ball at the end of a long run. You can make yourself look like a speedy outfielder by correctly reading the ball off the bat and going 100% right away. That is another underrated (and undertrained) skill in outfielding.

Watching WCWS it struck me that pitching/catching and infielding are impressive. Some outfielders were impressive but many looked like players who were out there because they could hit, not play defense. My guess is that if you moved college fences back to 220-230 you might see a shift in the importance of outfield defense.

 

[sluggers]

You can make yourself look like a speedy outfielder by correctly reading the ball off the bat and going 100% right away. That is another underrated (and undertrained) skill in outfielding.

Absolutely, completely agree.

 

[CoachKevin]

Snocatz - great post, this is kinda off the topic, but how to teach outfielders to dive for balls. I can maybe hit 1 out of 25 that is the perfect ball to dive for. We were thinking of setting up a pitching machine to get the spot pretty close for our outfielders. I realize that maybe 10 balls all year will be the type that they have to dive, but making the girls not afraid to try is what I need.

 

[NorthMS]

There are two ways to look at this.

The first is simple--put the fast people in the outfield, put the slow people in the infield. Therefore, you pick #2.

But, if you want to get all mathematical:

OUTFIELDER #1:

How many times do you think she will throw out a runner during a season? Probably, once, if you are lucky. A lot of stuff has to happen to get the runner at home plate.

Suppose 40 fly balls are hit her way and she catches 50%, which seems extremely generous. So, outfielder #1 has given you 21 outs.

OUTFIELDER #2

Runners thrown out at home: Zero. Assume she catches 75% of the balls of the 40 fly balls, for 30 outs.

21 outs vs. 30 outs...So, you go with #2.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that looks at most decisions in a mathematical form. Drives my wife crazy though.

 

[SnocatzDad]

Snocatz - great post, this is kinda off the topic, but how to teach outfielders to dive for balls. I can maybe hit 1 out of 25 that is the perfect ball to dive for. We were thinking of setting up a pitching machine to get the spot pretty close for our outfielders. I realize that maybe 10 balls all year will be the type that they have to dive, but making the girls not afraid to try is what I need.

First off I see too much diving in the outfield where a player could have sprinted through the ball and caught it on the run. 80% of dives I see are kids slowing down the last few steps getting ready to dive. A "real" dive is just a stretch on the last stride of a sprint and is pretty natural for a kid once they are taught to not give up on a ball.

I would work on fielder's range with a pitching machine as follows set one up to throw high fly balls (about 150' with ~100 ft of air under them (should be aroung 60 mph at a steep angle) figure out where they are landing, that is the center of your circle and then set up cones at that spot and in a circle around at every 45 degrees starting 30 ft from the center. Start with a catch sitting static in the center and then work from all eight surrounding spots. At this distance most should be able to get there in time to be able to step into the catch so that they are in motion throwing on the catch. Keep moving the cones farther out to stretch their range and find their limits and have them work on pushing past that limit to catch at the next distance or from more of the spots at their top distance.

There is nothing wrong with hitting them balls yourself and trying your best to stretch them out. They learn more about spin and distance when fielding real balls hit with a real bat. What doesn't get taught is that they need to go 100% early and slow at the end if necessary. Most want to start at a jog and accelerate/dive at the end when it should have been a routine catch if they just went hard right away.

Another of my favorite outfield drills is drop step drills. (and since it takes little set up it is part of every warmup) Player faces coach, drop steps (alternate right/left/straight back) and sprints and trys to catch a ball the coach is throwing to them over their shoulder at hopefully the limit of their range. Catching a ball at a full sprint is harder than most people think, it absolutely needs to be practiced regularly.