Thanks, Bonesaw! I do enjoy writing them and sharing what I hope are interesting perspectives with others.
Outfield Is Not a Punishment
- Thread starter Ken Krause
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Great to see all the responses, and to see there are people who see and understand the value of great or even good outfielders. So many games turn on outfield play.
When I was coaching I liked to teach my outies how to go back on a ball so we could play them in a little more and cut off those bloopers and flairs. You tend to see more of those than the deep flies - at least if your pitching is good.
Nothing more frustrating for a pitcher's parent than to see a ball that should have been caught not be caught. And the ball will ALWAYS find the outfielder who can't catch a ball.
When I was coaching I liked to teach my outies how to go back on a ball so we could play them in a little more and cut off those bloopers and flairs. You tend to see more of those than the deep flies - at least if your pitching is good.
Nothing more frustrating for a pitcher's parent than to see a ball that should have been caught not be caught. And the ball will ALWAYS find the outfielder who can't catch a ball.
- Dec 11, 2010
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When two evenly matched teams play each other, the game will often be decided in the outfield.
Also, there are outs to be had in rf for a player that can come in hard on a ground ball and come up firing. It’s worth working on if you have the right player.
Also, there are outs to be had in rf for a player that can come in hard on a ground ball and come up firing. It’s worth working on if you have the right player.
My DD best friend moves to center field from SS anytime we play good hitting teams. She feels its a demotion......we keep telling her that she is a special talent. As a brand new 12U...10 yo turning 11yo...the coach had her back up to the warning line as we were playing a older 12U team with big sticks.....a fly ball line drive was hit over the pitcher and was clearly a base hit....the girl on second took off to third....out of the blue we heard out than another out by the field judge.....this little girl ran from the warning track caught the ball where the in and out field met....maybe 5 yards from that point and her momentum took her across 2nd base....lucky someone from the other team filmed it.....I looked at my DD friends dad and said your DD can be the best center fielder in the state.....that was a supernatural play...
And the girl still thinks center field is a demotion!!!! SMH
And the girl still thinks center field is a demotion!!!! SMH
No kidding. Probably watched it happen at least a half dozen times this fall. Drives you crazy.
My philosophy when playing the outfield is always hit one over my head, and then I'll back up next time (of course I would adjust some based on the hitter, but always played more shallow than others). Some of this is because I actually prefer going back to coming in. But I also hated letting singles drop. And yep, occasionally someone burns you. Good for them.
But when you're playing 185 feet deep with 200 foot fences, you're not really playing no doubles defense because fast runners are turning singles into doubles anyway.
- Jun 8, 2016
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These threads about OF always crack me up. It is like some kind of support group or something. IF is important. OF is important. Pitching is important. Hitting is important...Above 10U if you are not good in all 4 your team won't be very good..not that hard.
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The difference is that three of those four are always important. It's not difficult to convince a kid that P, C, and IF are important because they're even important at 8U. But they watch the games, and they know the OF is less important (until it's not).
I do think getting the buy-in from players can be difficult. The girls I've had the best success turning into outfielders are ones who had little to no experience playing before playing at a level where the outfield mattered. Their entire experience is knowing that not only will they get a ball or two a game, if not more, but that catching those balls is really important.
When DD was young we went to a local HS game between 2 pretty good teams. The CF from the one team dominated the game. She almost threw a kid out at first on a base hit to center and ran down everything. I never saw anything like it. Having just terrible OF at 14U and above is just a nightmare.
