Trash the error stat in youth baseball
If you're open to questioning it, you may see what I see: The defensive error is the most worthless, problematic stat in all of baseball. Stop using it.
This is going to sound crazy to a lot of people. But, I encourage you, stick with it.
First, the obvious: Scoring errors is subjective. Whether a play “should have been made” depends on the scorekeeper, the player and who’s on the mound. One scorer might call seven in a game, while another calls zero.
Second, to make an error, you must first do several things right. You need good positioning, a good jump and quick feet. The player with no range never gets to the ball, so he never makes an error. The player with great range makes more of both.
Third, every play is a team effort. If the shortstop’s throw is a little off and the first baseman scoops it, it’s a great play. If he doesn’t, it’s an E-6 — on the exact same throw.
So what should we measure instead? I want to know who executes the most outs at each position.
Imagine two shortstops, Tommy and Jimmy. Tommy makes every play he gets to. Jimmy gets to three times as many balls and boots one of them. Which shortstop do you want?
Give me the player who executes outs all day.
And enjoy never having another parent argue about an unearned run.
Still have a question? Ask Coach Fungo.
“Tommy doesn't make mistakes. His range sucks.”
I wrote the long version of this when I coached the Spiders: Don't Use Errors to Measure Defensive Performance on SpidersElite.
The pitch-calling approach we taught our catchers
We let our catchers call the game, but they always started from the same general approach. Everything else they did was an adjustment to the hitter, the pitcher and the situation.
“There's rarely a clear right or wrong call on any given pitch.”
Don’t pull a player mid-inning to make a point
I watched a coach pull two outfielders in the middle of an inning for playing at exactly the level they'd been trained to play. He embarrassed those players to make a point.
“Baseball is a game. It's not life or death. Stop treating it that way.”
The playbook
Thirty-three defensive plays, animated. Cutoffs, relays, first-and-third, bunt coverage.
New cards land on Instagram and Threads first. Follow along there.
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