Tag plays at 3B

[aliciaf1]

Hi all,
Just curious on what everyone teaches as best positioning for 3B to take throws at third when tag is involved to decrease injury - staddling the bag, or standing in front of the home plate side of the bag and turning shoulder to throw. This would be at 14U/16U age levels.
Thanks

 

[Kaizen]

If the throw is from the catcher, I like to straddle the bag. If the throw is coming from somewhere else, I may adjust my position inside or outside the baseline to be clear of the runner.

 

[rowdy]

From home we throw about three feet toward second to give our fielders time to catch the ball and locate the runner before the runner is on top of the base. If you have a good catcher and a good third baseman a steal of third is an out every time.

On throws from the outfield we will position our fielder either on the bag or inside the bag depending on where the throw was coming from. We always want to catch the ball away from bag far enough to give us time to locate the runner but close enough that we can still get them on a close play.

One thing we do in practice is every ball thrown to third requires the third baseman to place a tag.