Glove for 3B/2B, under $100

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Oct 26, 2019
1,375
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Got a picture of it so I can send it to them to make sure it looks cute enough? (I wish I was joking)
The ball is an 11 inch
 

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Dec 20, 2019
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Is she an infielder or an outfielder? Infielders don't or shouldn't really use the depth of the pocket 90% of the time except on that rare leaping line drive or full on dive. If they're getting ground balls deep in the pocket it makes their transfer way too slow

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She plays 3rd base and 2nd base. So infield.
 
Nov 8, 2020
402
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I would first ask what level is the player who the glove is for playing at and then how often are they playing the position that they need that glove for.
Before the plannedemic girls out here in So Cal would play 340 days a year and my kid had played in as many as 200 games in a year. On top of that there are 5 hour long practices and fielding clinics and lessons. If a player is playing that much, even the top of the line gloves are going to break down if not properly cared for, treated and stored.
Everytime there is a big weekend tournament coming up I will go through her stable of gloves, brush off and blow out any grit in them, use a saddle soap and a tack sponge or small horse haired brush to clean out the hand and finger wells and then once they dry I will apply a conditioner to the inside of the glove and allow it to dry before the gloves are put back in to their wraps. This has allowed her to have gloves last 5 years.
I also tend to relace her gloves once a year and clean and condition the outside of the gloves as needed (usually once a month or every other month, sometimes after a weekend on those red clay fields in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, I will clean the gloves as soon as we get home.

These photos are from the clean up done before this last weekends trip to Arizona to playView attachment 2077320210121_195525.jpg
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Nov 8, 2020
402
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As for a less expensive glove.....
I'd be pretty careful selecting a less expensive glove for travel ball use unless it was a younger player, a player who was on a lower tiered travel team or it was for a position that the player didn't play much.

The problem with the lower priced gloves is that they're made with cheaper materials, materials that do not hold up as well.

On the exterior of the glove you will find some of the less expensive materials in the lower priced gloves and much of it you will want to avoid.
All leather construction can be tricky, some gloves will use synthetics or mesh on the back side of gloves to make the glove weigh less, this doesnt necessarily mean its a glove to avoid but I'm not aware of much of that on the lower priced gloves, usually it's just on A2000's and Heart of the Hides
The binding on most lower priced gloves won't be leather, its usually some sort of vinyl/plastic concoction and that stuff will harden, crack, flake off even with out use. That will leave you with a mesh that absorbs dirt, water and sweat and leads to other issues with the glove.
Most lower priced gloves won't have full leather construction inside the hand and finger wells. This is most often the biggest exterior issue with the lower priced gloves. The synthetics in the hand and finger wells dont hold, especially with girls (in 20 years of working with gloves, girls gloves are way nastier than the boys gloves, theres reasons for this but that's for another conversation). The hand and finger wells will break down fast in these gloves, even when they do have some leather in there it is thinner and often cracks will form between lace holes. This is why it's so important to clean out the hand and finger wells often, even with high end gloves. Get any grit you can out of there and let the gloves air out quickly if they're wet with sweat as that will kill the hand wells quickly.



The internals of the glove is where you find the biggest differences between the lower end gloves and the high end gloves. That makes sense because a lot of people buying a less expensive glove won't be taking the glove apart or spending 40-60 dollars to relace a glove they spent 60-80 dollars on.
Once you have a glove apart you can see where the manufacturers have taken their cost cutting steps at. Nearly all gloves under 100 dollars are going to have a gray particle type of stuffing in them that is usually heat and water formed to the shape they want I to be in. Biggest issue with this is heat and moisture can cause this stuffing to lose its integrity. When you get to the 1-200 dollar range you will see manufacturers start to add the white felt to the gloves and they may add a few other things like foam or poron palm pads at these price points and I have seen some gloves use a combination of the felt and particle padding here. Think of this in terms of lumber, particle board vs ply wood, the felt is normally in several sheets and glued and sewen together to to make the padding forms, like lumber the ply wood is stronger and less likely to have catastrophic failures than the particle board. As the level of glove goes up the materials that make up the felt do as well.
Also, when you have a glove apart you can see the differences in the quality and thickness of the external leather, how well the glove is sewen together and the quality.and flexibility of the plastic inserts if its a love that has those. Many of the custom gloves I have worked on from mexico will be filled with just whatever plastic they can find, often it's cut up storage containers that still have the stickers on them and every time the plastic is broken to pieces and usually too thick anyway.
As for the foam or poron palm pads, its all junk, the poron busts in to hundres of pieces that then float all over inside of the glove. The poron and foam also prevent the palm adhesive from doing its job and you wind up with pregnant or wrinkled palms on your gloves. The poron is really only in Liberty and Miken gloves and the foam is in the Mizuno MVP gloves and those are all in the 100-200 dollar range


Most of my personal gloves are Rawlings Pro Preferred gloves because as someone who has seen the insides of thousands of gloves, the Pro Preferred is IMO the best available.

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Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I would first ask what level is the player who the glove is for playing at and then how often are they playing the position that they need that glove for.

Thanks for all the information in your posts.

In addition to our HS team, she's on a B-level travel team where she is not an every-inning player. She won't come close to playing in 200 games in a year. I can't say how much less wear and tear she'll put on the glove, but it'll be quite a bit less than the players you described.

I've had girls play with me for years with the same glove, and it didn't break down. They weren't using expensive gloves, and I'm certain they weren't taking the kind of care of them that's described here. But the gloves lasted because they just don't play the number of games at the level many here think of.

So when I say there's "no difference," I guess I don't literally mean no difference, but most of my players are not going to experience that difference. Paying extra money for a first-class plane ticket makes a lot more sense if you're flying to Europe than it does if you're flying from Chicago to Detroit.
 
May 28, 2014
281
18
I would not recommend the sub 100$ Vinci gloves for high school ball, they are really not designed for that for that level of play.
 
Feb 6, 2020
100
28
Wouldn't one of the Marucci Magnolia be pretty hard to beat for the price right now? No one around where I live has any in stock so can't check them out. My daughter really liked a Rawlings Heart of the Hide PRO125SB that is local. How would a Marucci Magnolia compare to it? Thanks
 

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