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

[Dabears17]

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.

Interesting. The rule of thumb I’ve heard for HS is you need a good OF in all 3 positions, but you can put the weakest arm in LF.

 

[_MIA_]

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.

Interesting. Data aside would be interested in the explanation using the differences in the two games.

 

[benjey]

Interesting. Data aside would be interested in the explanation using the differences in the two games.

Drove myself crazy looking but can't seem to find it even though I could swear I saved the PDF. I'll keep looking and post here if/when I find it. The data was interesting and completely surprised me as it was contra to everything I assumed being a baseball fan for 45 years.

The basics of the argument are the data shows LF fields significantly more balls over a greater distance than CF part of this was foul territory. The primary reason for this difference in softball vs baseball:

Slappers. A significant portion of the LH batters in softball are slappers and they are trying to hit the ball to the left side. With the increased emphasis on power and HR hitting in both baseball and softball traditional hitters are pulling the ball more than ever (hence the rise of the shift) So RH trying to pull to left and and a significant portion of LH trying to hit there as well. Baseball nearly all LF trying to pull ball to right.

 

[Rick M]

In regards to the OP (although most of this thread is fascinating), I’m seeing outfield as being the toughest for a lot of the reasons detailed above.

DD’s HS has 23 serious, year-round travel players competing for varsity spots. Almost all of them consider an infield position to be their primary spot, because that’s where the good players go in Rec and early travel.

DD is a pitcher, but considers the OF to be her primary spot when not in the circle. When tryouts start in a few weeks, she’ll do the pitchers & catchers for the first three days, but then head out with the three other girls who identify as outfielders while 20 kids (including the other pitchers) all scramble for reps on the dirt. For those kids who are third on the depth chart for an infield position, JV is waiting.


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[_MIA_]

Depends whether 1B or SS puts the most stress on Correa’s ankle.

Ok use Seager (or any tall SS) then

 

[_MIA_]

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?

The argument (I think) is that the athleticism required is what makes it difficult. That is partly true but doesn’t explain the myriad of great athletes, including Mike Trout, Mickey Mantle, Mookie Betts,etc who were moved out of the SS position because their skill set wasn’t up to snuff to play SS..(Betts might not be the best example since he got primarily moved from
2b late in his MiLB because they had Pedroia at 2b and it was going to be easier/better to convert him then to move Pedey)

 

[CoachJD]

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.

I like the approach you took here. Different way of looking at the question.

My initial response was that the hardest positions are the hardest to fill. I still think that's true for P, C, and SS. I think it makes sense that the more difficult the position, the fewer girls who can play it, and because in HS ball you get what you get, you're more likely to not have girls who can play the harder positions (and they're also hard to train someone to play on short notice).

The reason I wouldn't consider 2B or LF (I'd actually flip LF with RF in my situation... I can definitely hide a bad player in RF and get away with it more often than I can with LF) hardest to fill is they're easier to teach. Almost all the time, if you have a 2B who can field a ground ball and throw to first, you're fine. Yes, 2B has other responsibilities. And it can hurt you if you have someone there who can't do all of it. But the thing they do the very most is field ground balls and make a short throw to first. If she also can cover first on a ball hit to the 1B, we're golden.

So for me, I'm trying to create someone who can do the basics and is good enough to get by at a position because against most of the teams we face, good enough is good enough. Don't screw up on the routine play, and we're going to win most games (especially with a #1 pitcher who could strike out 2 batters per inning this year). I can make outfielders. If you give them the reps they need, you can build a pretty decent OF from scratch. I might not have Andruw Jones in center field, but I can give you a girl who will catch most of the balls she should. At short? Much harder to quickly teach a girl to do everything she needs to do.

Depends on where you are and what you get. A coach who gets a lot of pre-made softball players probably does have an easier time filling short. This year, I have 14 girls signed up who have never played (with us) before. A couple have a year or two of previous rec experience. That's my JV pool of future players. I'm betting it's a lot of future 2B and OF and not many SS in the bunch.

 

[_MIA_]

The “great hands/smoothness” of a good SS is due to them always getting the right hop for every ball..which is not easy due to the myriad of different types of balls they get. For the most part that has nothing to do with athleticism.

I honestly have a hard time watching most SS play (especially younger ones) , including my kid a lot of the time, because I physically “feel” it when I can see they are going to get an in-between hop just from watching their footwork.It is like a PTSD thing

 

[Dabears17]

@CoachJD Good points. We lost a HS playoff game last spring by 2 runs when our LF had 3 errors. In general if you have two players equally skilled at tracking and catching balls, you put the stronger arm in RF.

As Rick mentioned, seen lots of IF in 14u realize OF is harder than they thought and not get playing time.

 

[_MIA_]

Like I said before if you want to be any good you have to be good at all positions and each position has its own difficulties which need to be trained. Most kid’s don’t get fly balls hit to them if they are not OF so yeah if you cannot track a fly ball it is going to be a problem. Taking the right angle to balls in the gap is the second thing kids cannot do. Not enough BP on a field with kids shagging is big reason for this IMO..I never played OF in my life but I probably got more reps than a lot of OF do nowadays just from shagging balls with friends..