What defensive positions are the hardest to fill for HS coaches?

[SoftballDadnWV]

I am going to disagree. All good softball players can play outfield. Wouldn't want my DD to be the obvious best SS on the team but playing RF because some other player can't play outfield. I would go further and say, if you cant play outfield I highly doubt you are a very good SS. You might see a college coach convert a recruited SS into a RFer but probably not going to see a RFer converted into a SS.

Maybe I should have said softball players and not "good" lol But I agree with you as well - easier to convert a SS to OF. But on my DD's team, there are probably only three capable of playing the OF really well and one is playing SS and the other 2B, and my daughter will move from C/1B to CF for this year.

 

[FB Fool]

ive seen a lot of ball games and won/lost with a good/bad catcher. no way in hell am i putting my best catcher into the CF at 12u!

 

[Lance Steckler]

ive seen a lot of ball games and won/lost with a good/bad catcher. no way in hell am i putting my best catcher into the CF at 12u!

couple more years when every player you face can hit rockets to the fence.... OF becomes more and more important.

 

[joe720]

Two of the best players on DD's varsity team play CF for their club teams. But in HS they rotate the two between pitching and SS. They both are pretty good at SS as well. Just don't have any desire to play that position.

Put the best players where they can make the most impact. No special formula.

 

[_MIA_]

In MLB sabermetrics they use positional adjustments to account for difference between an average player at one position vs another. Using these the most "important" positions in terms of saving runs are in order (the numbers are just relative numbers..)

1) C (12.5)
2) SS (7.5)
3) CF/2B/3B (2.5)
4) LF/RF (-7.5)
5) 1B (-12.5)

Now of course this is for MLB but in general if your team has other kids who can at least catch a flyball and a throw to them at 1B then if you have a good (or even average) SS or Catcher moving them somewhere else is probably not a good idea if the replacement is below average (if you are looking at defense alone). Small differences at those positions are magnified.

All positions are important, some more than others. Also all positions are difficult to learn if you want to play them well but some are more difficult...sorry.

 

[FB Fool]

couple more years when every player you face can hit rockets to the fence.... OF becomes more and more important.

if this is happening then id be looking for a better pitcher and not worried about where girls are in the field.

 

[Tatonka]

if this is happening then id be looking for a better pitcher and not worried about where girls are in the field.

I think you may want to rethink that

 

[uncdrew]

I find it funny that no one ever wants their DD to play OF when they are young, then when they get to HS, there are no OF and everyone is mad.

... and it made me smile when travel teams were put together for the first time for both my DDs.

The girls that made the travel teams (from the rec leagues) were the best players, who had all be exclusively used as infielders in rec. So both my DDs ended up on travel teams that had no outfielders.

 

[uncdrew]

The hardest positions to fill are the hardest positions to play.

I'd kill a drifter for a bona fide shortstop. I've had girls who can play short. But I've only had one actual shortstop (and only for a year because Covid came her sophomore year and she moved during her junior year) since 2017.

This year, because of a transfer, I have a hole at 3B for the first time ever (In 2017 we had a Freshman who played third, then in 2021 we got another Freshman who was a mediocre SS who I taught to play third; that girl is the one who transferred). One of my meh shortstops does pretty well there, but she hates it. Filling 3B is my primary concern as we approach the season.

I rarely have an issue with OF, but that's because I start developing them in middle school. Barring that, I find girls who have an aptitude for judging a ball in the air and actually spend a lot of time working with them on it. I do have a couple holes this year -- we had 3 varsity seniors graduate, 6 transfers from our two levels, and 1 senior (last year's CF) who looks to be opting to work instead of playing. I'm not concerned though. I don't have a lot of OF depth today, but by our first game I'm confident I'll have a decent enough starting OF.

tl;dr version: If you want your DD to go to high school on the Southwest Side instead of in the burbs, you could very well save a drifter's life.

Yup.

Every travel team both my DDs have been on (about 7 total) lacked a great SS. Until this most recent team for my youngest.

 

[uncdrew]

ive seen a lot of ball games and won/lost with a good/bad catcher. no way in hell am i putting my best catcher into the CF at 12u!

Well you can't catch them every single game (in a long tourney)...