What defensive positions are the hardest to fill for HS coaches?

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Jan 24, 2023
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(other than bag footwork, I'm honestly not sure what special 1B skills even exist).
Heres a few answers. Along with the footwork you mentioned true all fielders are trained at grounders but not all infielders have to stay on their bag like 1st does to reach and extend for bad throws. More plays at first then other infield positions. Now include small ball awareness playing up and back. Back pick-offs from catchers. Coaches who have 1st take cut offs. Playing foul territory with fence awareness.

Others are talking about shortstop being the most difficult but i would say second base has to cover the same field territory including more small ball awareness and movement covering first base and pick offs from catchers. Second base also covers backpicks at second base. Shortstop is not as involved at the bases.
 
Aug 5, 2022
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From the right side?

From either side…although mine is a righty. If you are not sub 2.8 from the left side you will be out against our defense unless your slap is absolutely perfect but our team is elite so sometimes my view is a bit skewed.


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Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Trosky has 9 different zones at SS where you have use different footwork, etc to make the proper play. The better the athlete the larger some of those zones are in terms of being able to make a play but the footwork/glove/throwing skills necessary for each zone are the same regardless of athleticism. Granted in fastpitch a few of those zone plays come up very rarely but still. You have to make every play clean and using the right path to the ball at SS if you want to get an out and that only becomes more important as the speed of the game increases. Doing this properly not only involves skill but split second decision making to decide the right play which takes time to develop.

Learning how to cut a ball properly,field the small game well, dig out bad throws,etc are certainly skills but the learning curve is much less steep imo.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Heres a few answers. Along with the footwork you mentioned true all fielders are trained at grounders but not all infielders have to stay on their bag like 1st does to reach and extend for bad throws. More plays at first then other infield positions. Now include small ball awareness playing up and back. Back pick-offs from catchers. Coaches who have 1st take cut offs. Playing foul territory with fence awareness.

Others are talking about shortstop being the most difficult but i would say second base has to cover the same field territory including more small ball awareness and movement covering first base and pick offs from catchers. Second base also covers backpicks at second base. Shortstop is not as involved at the bases.

Any shortstop who can't learn everything you mentioned there is not even remotely good enough to be considered a shortstop. That's the point. Nothing you mentioned there is more difficult than playing shortstop.

Taking cutoffs? Seriously? Aside from being something a softball player can learn in a single practice, it's also not unique to 1B.

Every infielder needs to learn fence awareness. Is it a skill? Sure. But it's not exclusive to first base.

Every infielder needs to work on pickoffs from the catcher (3B/SS at third, 2B/SS at second).

The only real point you mentioned was the one I mentioned: bag footwork (that includes when/where to plant your foot, how/when to stretch, etc.).

A 2B in softball does more than a 2B in baseball, but it's still nowhere near as difficult as shortstop. Again, there's a reason the best infielders are at short and not second. Shortstop is simply harder. You want a second baseman? I can give you a second baseman. My teams usually have like 6 girls who can play second and maybe one or two of those are passable at short. Because shortstop is significantly more difficult.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I agree with you but am not sure this proves the more “skill” argument..unless we are counting athleticism as a skill.

The real question is if you had two untrained Carlos Correas (since he is tall we can eliminate any “too small a target” arguments) and train one to be a SS and one to be a 1b, would it take longer for SS Correa to be really good or 1b Correa?

Obviously no way to test this, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the 1B Correa would become a great 1B long before the SS Correa could be great at short.

If for some reason the Twins (wait, is the ink dry on that contract yet?) decided to play Correa at first this year, I'm confident he'd be the best defensive 1B or very close to it after a single spring training.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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Obviously no way to test this, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the 1B Correa would become a great 1B long before the SS Correa could be great at short.
Agree and it wouldn’t be close IMO but seems as if others disagree which is fine..
 
Jan 22, 2011
1,610
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Obviously no way to test this, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the 1B Correa would become a great 1B long before the SS Correa could be great at short.

If for some reason the Twins (wait, is the ink dry on that contract yet?) decided to play Correa at first this year, I'm confident he'd be the best defensive 1B or very close to it after a single spring training.
Depends whether 1B or SS puts the most stress on Correa’s ankle.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Agree and it wouldn’t be close IMO but seems as if others disagree which is fine..

It's just such a weird argument. As someone who spend a career playing up the middle (SS/2B as a kid, then primarily CF as an adult), I would always move to first whenever I was banged up. I actually love playing first, but I would do it at those times because it was significantly easier than anywhere else on the field.

It's just weird to me because any variation of the sport (baseball/fastpitch/old man slow pitch) is the same, yet people are arguing against the obvious for some reason.

Do you think they'd be shocked to learn how many players are drafted as C/SS/CF but are projected to move to other, less difficult positions as they mature?
 
Jan 22, 2011
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SS obviously requires a more athletic player. The old saw is if you can hit, they will find a way to have you in the line-up. In the past I’ve noticed on some college teams the starting catcher has less than perfect skills, but they start because they have a strong bat and “good enough” defensive skills.

My DD has a good bat and is a very strong defensive 1B, but is also a pretty good LF/RF. On the best team she has played on, she saw less than 10 innings in blowout games at 1B because two of the pitchers had good bats, so one of them usually played 1B.

I’ve seen good HS teams struggle because of weak pitching. I’ve seen historically weak teams do decent in league for a couple years because they get a good pitcher.

The topic is what HS defensive positions are the hardest to fill, not requires the most skill. You aren’t suppose to recruit in HS and there is no position to hide a player. So my list in order of most important would be:

P, C, CF, SS, 3B, 1B, RF, 2B, LF

If a HS has a limited talent pool, it could be argued after pitcher and catcher, 2B and LF are the hardest to fill because you don’t have the talent left after the filling the 1st seven positions.

SS should be easy since every parent wants their DD to play SS. A HS coach should have a couple players that have experience playing SS.

The big question on my DD’s team this year is catcher. They have one player who has caught regularly and she is a freshman. My DD is a decent backup catcher, but due to injuries her doctor has recommended she not catch this spring.

A school in our league last year had a very strong catcher, but no pitching. She wound up having to pitch.
 
Last edited:
Nov 5, 2014
351
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In MLB sabermetrics they use positional adjustments to account for difference between an average player at one position vs another. Using these the most "important" positions in terms of saving runs are in order (the numbers are just relative numbers..)

1) C (12.5)
2) SS (7.5)
3) CF/2B/3B (2.5)
4) LF/RF (-7.5)
5) 1B (-12.5)

Now of course this is for MLB but in general if your team has other kids who can at least catch a flyball and a throw to them at 1B then if you have a good (or even average) SS or Catcher moving them somewhere else is probably not a good idea if the replacement is below average (if you are looking at defense alone). Small differences at those positions are magnified.

All positions are important, some more than others. Also all positions are difficult to learn if you want to play them well but some are more difficult...sorry.
I'll try to find a link but I saw an analysis for College Softball that made what I found to be a convincing case that LF is more important than CF. It has significant data to support the assertion.
 

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