Position Ranking

[canyonjoe]

For a Travel Ball or good All Star team, what does everyone think is the ranking of pitcher
after Pitcher for 10U, 12U 14U and above.

 

[chinamigarden]

not sure I am following you here Joe. Are you asking us to give you a list of 1-9 of how important each position is with pitcher being number 1 and on down the line? for me #2 is which ever player the ball is headed toward at that particular moment.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Dang, I was excited to respond, since I love rankings, but you'll have to ask again, Canyonjoe. I have no idea what you are asking.

 

[canyonjoe]

Sorry, I guess I must have written it wrong, but which position is the most critical after pitcher at various levels. Or to put it another way where would you put your best player, 2nd best,etc. until you have all 9 out there.

I'll start in 10U rec I would say 1B, C,2b,3rd,SS,RF,CF,LF

 

[coach james]

Your team is only as strong as its weakest link!!
Regardless of position.
But without strong pitching and catching you won't go very far.

 

[Eric F]

For 10U, I'd give the nod to C over 1B. Even at the 8U level (without DTS or stealing home), a great catcher can make a significant difference. For 10U and up, it becomes even more important.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Sorry, I guess I must have written it wrong, but which position is the most critical after pitcher at various levels. Or to put it another way where would you put your best player, 2nd best,etc. until you have all 9 out there.

I'll start in 10U rec I would say 1B, C,2b,3rd,SS,RF,CF,LF

In 14U -

SS
3B
C
CF
2B
LF
1B
RF

To complicate matters, I will note that catchers remain the most valuable because they are more rare. Catchers require more training/experience to be good. It's hard to develop a catcher at this point. So having a hole at catcher is worse than a hole elsewhere, but once you fill that need adequately, I'd rather have a super SS/average C than vice-versa.

 

[canyonjoe]

This was my stab at 12U.
Only reason for 2B to be so high is that if you have power pitching they get a lot of balls and
have to cover a lot of bunts. Same with RF as they can still throw out runners at 1st.

SS,3B,2B,C,CF,1B,RF,LF

Obviously you have to have reasonably good players at each position. I know on 2 teams that our
best catcher was also the best SS. On our last 10U team we moved a great 1B to C, C to SS and CF to
1B. It gave us a good chance to win, We lost a little at C and 1B, but now made almost every play at SS.
It was tough because the CF was fast and caught everything, but in the end it worked best for us. It definitely
showed the above statement that we are only as good as the weakest link.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Good points about 2B. ...

For me, the biggest difference between 12U and 14U has been more balls hit into the outfield. Outfielders' value rises with age.

 

[JAD]

"It depends on the pitcher". In most defensive rankings, the SS would be ranked ahead of 2B in the importance category, but if you have a "flame throwing" pitcher, you will find that 2B probably gets @ 60% of the balls hit to the middle infielders vs. 40% for SS (assuming most batters are hitting from the right side of the plate). Having range at 2B is also more important because of the shorter throw - a good 2B can take more than two steps to her right and still throw most runners out.

3B is also under rated. If you have a slow 3B who cannot field a bunt, just wait to see how many good TB teams will bunt you to death! Some positions (typically 1B, 3B, LF and RF) are players with a big bat. Most coaches are willing to trade a "gold glove" 3B, for an average glove who hits home runs.

If you ask college coaches, most of them recruit P, SS and CF assuming most teams will put their best athletes at these positions.