2013 17U USBC

Well. This was what began as a delayed steal. Mike kind of ate the catchers and infielders up down there all week at that tournament with the delayed steal stuff. Many times we see that infielders are out of position for a play like this from the catcher (which is one of the reasons that the delayed steal is so successful). So there is all kinds of stuff going on here with this one play. It's not just the throw.

I think that more players (base runners) at the youth level should be taught how to read the infielders and the catcher and take advantage of the delayed steal when they're young. Add in good foot work and timing (like the three hop thing) and a baserunner can generate a lot of bases and fielding errors. It's fruitful, for sure. Not only that but it gives them a tremendous advantage on the defensive side as well if they're a middle infielder just by understanding the whole thing with timing and reading the awareness of the defense as a base runner.You can pick off base runners all day long once you put that all together and then even practice it with your catchers who benefit as well.

I don't want to spend a whole lot of time explaining that because, really, I just thought that the picture in the original post was pretty good. Maybe someone else here can do a better job at explaining the relevance that the delayed steal has on the defensive aspects of the runners game. As far as what initially led to this error, I'd say that the 3rd baseman was late seeing the play and the catcher had to fall back on a throw to 2nd in a hurry. By the time the 3rd baseman saw what was happening, the base runner and the catcher had already challenged one another and the play changed that quick to 2nd base (which was also late on seeing the play). What we usually see is a heightened awareness from infielders during the pitch and then as soon as the catcher has the ball that awareness drops for just a few seconds which is what we see here before the second or so of defensive confusion when the runner jumped on it.

Here is the video on that play in the snap shot, btw. It's just kind of dumb luck that I have it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpKp6P65TO8&feature=youtu.be

Nice jump, but did the catcher make a bad throw into center field..?

doesnt make a good WebGem for the SS...

Boy, did he ever get off the ground. I don't know if it just perspective but liiks like that kid can jump.