- Jul 15, 2020
- 48
- 8
You read it correctly. She's new to this level of play and has a lot of catching up to do. Luckily this isn't a great team so she's not that far off. So no, she's is not way better than the others in the position but she wanted it known that she's willing to work at it and wanted guidance on what it would take, only to be told "don't bother, lefty." Pretty tough to hear for an 11 yo. And yes, right now, OF is not seeing much action but at 14U and beyond it's a very important position, so at the very least, I'll work with her on OF skills.For a lefty to be useful on the IF (except 1B), they need to be WAY better than any of the righty options, and even then, you won't get many coaches willing to give it a shot. It might not be fair, but this is pretty standard operating procedure. From what you've described, it sounds like she isn't WAY better than the other options right now, and the road to 1B is pretty unlikely. At 12U, OF probably still feels like a "lesser" position. At 14U, OF becomes critical, and good OFs are very valuable. At 14U and above, there are no good teams with mediocre OFs. The unfortunate thing for leftys is that this is probably her best option, unless...
...how does she feel about becoming a catcher?
She's not a catcher for lots of reasons. And I thought lefty catchers were rare if ever--throwing around righty batters is very tricky. She does pitch -- she's working hard on that . Her consistency of strikes is good (and what this team needs) but she needs speed. We'll get there. Thanks for the response.