Throughout the course of the spring, PBR will be working in conjunction with the NC Baseball Coaches Association to share thoughts and strategies to continue to improve High School Baseball.  Ed Hall will head this effort for PBR, with the help of coaches from across NC.  Hall has been with PBR since its arrival in NC in June of 2016.  Prior to PBR, Hall coached high school baseball, and taught, in the Wake County area, most notably starting the Wakefield HS program and running it for 15 years.  In total, Hall has accrued over 25 years of coaching high school athletes in various platforms, including developing numerous college and professional players.

Professionals that have a history of developing infielders, typically have one key attribute in common, patience.  Infielders, and the ability to learn to play the position at a high level takes repetition and time.  To develop soft hands, quick feet, rhythm, and an accurate arm takes hours and hours of work over years.  For young players, as they begin to figure out how their feet and body can work together, they typically grow and have to continue to find their rhythm. 

Talking to coaches at the high school level, college level, and professional level, about infield play can lead to a rabbit hole that will kill several hours in one sitting.  The ability to position players based on a pitcher, and the hitter, has become a hot topic, as seen by the World Champion Astros and all of their shifts.  Take coaches that work with infielders daily, and the ability to get their players properly positioned and setup in the pre-pitch, and this conversation can be just as detailed. 

Today we will dive into the rabbit hole of positioning.  The ability to secure the baseball and take routine outs can lead to wins.  The ability to turn more balls into routine plays by simply positioning players correctly will lead to more outs.  While each team and player may have different nuances to their own positioning, we can start with some simple thoughts and move from there.

Positioning

Think about all the different field types that are available to play on these days… Turf, skinned, pro style, cut outs around bases, deep infield cuts, shallow infield cuts, etc, etc, etc… Day to day players are working to position themselves on fields that may look and feel completely different.

On the infield, the positioning should work off the bases.  The bases do not move.  Every day, we know where the bases are and it does not matter if the entire field is clay or grass, we can work off the bases and be in the right spot.  A good starting position, to begin defensive setup can start with this:

NORMAL DEPTH:

1B          8 feet off base and 8 feet deep -- As the 1B works further off the bag, he should work more shallow, almost like an arc.

3B          8 feet off and 8 feet deep -- Arm strength can play a part in determining what a routine play and routine positioning is for 3B.

2B          6 feet off and 12 feet deep

SS           8 feet off and 12 feet deep

When we think about positioning infielders, think about moving them as a unit.  Most of the game of baseball is played up the middle and at higher levels, coaches should be careful of abandoning the middle to cover the 4 or 6 holes. 

DOUBLE PLAY DEPTH:

2B          4 feet off and 10 feet deep

SS           6 feet off and 10 feet deep

ADJUSTMENTS:

Of course adjustments are made on normal depth and double play depth… bunt situations and runner on 3^rd… as well as speed of the runner.  One thing that younger players may not recognize is how shallow Major League infielders play vs. speed guys, like Billy Hamilton of the Reds.  The MIF does not have their feet on the edge of the back cut, instead they are probably a step shallow of double play depth.  The goal is to be able to make a routine play on a routine ball. The speed of the runner, as well as the quickness of the infielder can adjust starting positions.

Practicing Positioning

The stopwatch can be the friend of an infielder and his coaches.  Players and coaches can work on positioning depth with routine fungo’s and the ability to time a play like a coach would time a player running home to first.  This will give everyone an idea of what routine is for individual players and where players may be able to play vs. minus, average, and plus runners. 

In double-play situations, players can begin to get a feel for what a double-play ground ball looks, and feels like vs. a ground ball that will only secure one out.   Positioning of the middle guys, as well as the first baseman, can be pushed to see where they can start and still get to the bag on each play possible.  The end goal is to make routine plays routine outs and this is a teach-able skill.