Offense vs Defense

OP said offense vs. defense in the title, but his post was hitting vs. fielding. Those are different discussions, IMO.

This is how I look at it ...

Offense (scoring runs) = defense (preventing runs). Their importance is the same.

Further,

Offense = hitting + base-running.

Defense = pitching + fielding.

Just my opinion...

College softball is:

42 percent hitting
8 percent base-running
36 percent pitching
14 fielding

My guess is as good as any.

But there can be no question that hitting is more important than fielding. Not that the OP suggested that it wasn't or shouldn't be.

BobInMadison said:

The study didn't look at those particular catchers, since they are both retired, but that is likely.

The study claimed that Yadier Molina would be more valuable than the best hitting catcher, even if Molina bat .000

Sorry, Giants fans.

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There's no way this is true. In his best defensive season (also his best offensive season), Molina wasn't as valuable as Buster Posey.

A catcher doesn't have to hit much to be valuable if he can play defense, but a catcher who hits .000 is a terrible player.

1B is a spot commonly reserved in college for the big slugger who can't play defense. The ironic thing is that they often lead their team in fielding percentage!

When we played our first 12U tournament a couple of weeks ago (we're still 10U this spring), you could definitely see where not hitting hurt us. Our defense tends to be pretty good. We only lost 2-0 in our last game. Not bad for a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds and yet, imagine if we'd actually hit the ball. Our strong defense didn't do us much good when we couldn't get on base.

Greenmonsters said:

1B is a spot commonly reserved in college for the big slugger who can't play defense. The ironic thing is that they often lead their team in fielding percentage!

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I am not an expert on calculating fielding percentages, but I think F3 gets credit for a put out every time they catch the ball at 1B for an out. There is little chance for a throwing error and throws that are not right to them or hop are usually scored as throwing errors.

Two true statements:
* You can't lose if you don't allow any runs.
* You can't win if you don't score any runs.

Both are important. But as the dad of a pitcher, I can tell you that I lean more towards the defensive side. Here is DD's stat line from the final high school game last season. 6 IP, 5 K, 1 BB, 2 hits, 1 ER. Not a bad game. However, this resulted in a 6-4 loss. Team had a total of 8 errors including 3 by the first baseman in the first two innings. Very, very frustrating.

Greenmonsters said:

1B is a spot commonly reserved in college for the big slugger who can't play defense. The ironic thing is that they often lead their team in fielding percentage!

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Yup, spot on!
queue Metallica's "Sad But True"...

What DD1 and I were told is that there is somewhat of a shift in this thinking (could be BS), for first base to be more of a utility infielder who is quicker and can play other positions...
Maybe they just didn't want to come and and tell my DD that she's not quick enough

JAD said:

I am not an expert on calculating fielding percentages, but I think F3 gets credit for a put out every time they catch the ball at 1B for an out. There is little chance for a throwing error and throws that not right to them or hop are usually scored as throwing errors.

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Very true!
I tell my oldest DD, that when she's at first base, if she can reach the ball and she drops it...she owns that error.

CoachJD said:

There's no way this is true. In his best defensive season (also his best offensive season), Molina wasn't as valuable as Buster Posey.

A catcher doesn't have to hit much to be valuable if he can play defense, but a catcher who hits .000 is a terrible player.

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I didn't do the study, and I may have misquoted it. I was listening on the radio. The study mentioned Molina, to be fair I am not sure if they mentioned the best offensive catcher or just the average defensive catcher. So I may be wrong on that one, or they may be wrong.

What the study emphasized was "framing" the pitches. They looked at some clips, and decided Molina's framing turned at least one ball into a called strike on the average every inning. That was worth > 1 run saved per game. Not even Johnny Bench was worth > 1 run per game offensively.

FP26 said:

Two true statements:
* You can't lose if you don't allow any runs.
* You can't win if you don't score any runs.

Both are important. But as the dad of a pitcher, I can tell you that I lean more towards the defensive side. Here is DD's stat line from the final high school game last season. 6 IP, 5 K, 1 BB, 2 hits, 1 ER. Not a bad game. However, this resulted in a 6-4 loss. Team had a total of 8 errors including 3 by the first baseman in the first two innings. Very, very frustrating.

Click to expand...

The value of defense might change depending on the level of play. If you play in a high school region/conference that is weaker and teams are prone to making 8 errors in a game, then having an air-tight defense and average hitting could be the ticket - presuming you have a good pitcher.

But if you're playing in a major D-I college, then everybody's defense is adequate. They're not going to make 8 errors (well, FSU almost did in the WCWS, but it's very rare). So having 9 gold-glove fielders at FSU isn't going to make nearly the impact as having stud hitters 1-9, IMO.