Concentration

The ones that I see most often are when a player's mind is ahead of his body. In other words he is looking to complete the play before he has control of the ball. Looking up at the last split second, prior to making the catch.

It is counter intuitive because the player needs to speed up and break down all the while maintaining control of his body. It is almost like "hurry up and wait".

Is it a lack of taking as much pride in their defense as in their hitting? Is it simply a lack of focus? Or is it a lack of stressing fundamentals in the minor league systems?

We used to hear about, from two of the more fundamentally sound organizations (in the 70's and 80's)...the "Oriole way" or the "Dodger way" of playing the game. You also had baseball lifers such as Cal, Sr who spent YEARS in the Orioles system before becoming a coach at the MLB level.

I agree with Florida fan .. the players mind can be ahead of his body... which makes the bang bang play easier. Its funny talking to son after games because plays that look routine to me may have been a hard play for him... we don't always see the hops,spins, grip, obstruction etc. that player is dealing with, not to mention there is a lot of other information that needs to be processed while you are making the play ....
Then the play that look like a high light was really easy for him.....Game is some times very different in the stands

I witnessed numerous errors on routine plays at a few D1 college games I attended the past two weekends. Very routine grounders to third that were bobbled and thrown away, and a few errant throws from middle infielders. The guys making these errors just didn't look too good defensively at all.

My thought is that the recruiting game has evolved to finding the great hitters with power and/or size, disregarding defensive abilities (besides maybe arm strength), and then finding a place on the field to play them. The fielding suffers because these guys just don't have the tools defensively. I've watched these college scouts/recruiters in the stands, and they don't even watch the defense. They clock pitches and watch the big guys take their cuts. Defense seems to be the forgotten part of the game.

You know what they say, "Hit the ball and they will find a place for you." Makes it pretty obvious what the priority is at most levels.

I agree. My son plays at a small HS. While others here debate whether to play the fast guy or the power hitter, we're just happy to fill every position with someone who can make the routine play on defense and put the ball in play on offense.

At the last D1 game I attended the visiting 1B had a routine grounder go thru his legs. The next night the home team had eight errors....

Who cares about 6.5 speed when your dropping balls or throwing them into the stands...

Yes, he did talk about slowing up on the play, some players are too much in a "rush".

Errors can mean the difference between wins and losses in HS or college ball. These plays are routine, most have been doing it for years. The game moves faster so I can see freshman having to make adjustments, but for older guys, are they just not concentrating?

How much of this comes down to COACHING. The colleges (a little off topic) have a limited amount of time they can spend with the players (20 hour rule + day off)...and then with the compressed schedule, that leaves very little time for the college coaches to work with a player individually...on skills such as defense.

JT,
You won't find just 20 hours a week at most schools.

I brought this up because I am assuming most of this is routine stuff (as the guy said), but concentration is lost somewhere, how do you improve that?

JT i agree with the coaching aspect even as HS level.

I have seen area HS teams make 7-8 infield errors in a game and the next day at practice they warm up then hit for an hour and a half, no work on defense.

Stanford is one of the very best teams in the nation defensively, and they made 4 errors on Friday night.
Their shortstop, who made something like 6 all last year, made one of them.
Was Stanford not prepared? I doubt it.
Were the players concentrating? Looked like it to me.
If we are looking for answers as to why college players make errors, one reason is they are not professionals, and they don't have an on field schedules like a professional.
Other reasons: Stanford is not playing well early this season and it surely looks like everyone is pressing a bit.
Their opponent on Friday was Texas, and they pressure other teams with speed and aggressive base running. Two errors were slowly hit balls that the pitcher and the 1B tried to throw before they fielded cleanly. One was the shortstop making an errant throw to home on a runner leaving from 3b on contact.
Similarly, the Texas runners were very aggressive and stole bases(3rd) when pitchers failed to look back to 2b and failed to change how/when they looked back to 2b.
You are not going to find a better coached and fundamentally solid team in college baseball than Stanford. Pretty smart kids too.
Sometimes the quality of the opponent makes a difference.
Sometimes trying too hard makes a difference.
Sometimes trying to do it all, when your team has high expectations and isn't performing makes a difference.
Sometimes, they just make an error because it truly is baseball.

quote:

Sometimes the quality of the opponent makes a difference.
Sometimes trying too hard makes a difference.
Sometimes trying to do it all, when your team has high expectations and isn't performing makes a difference.
Sometimes, they just make an error because it truly is baseball.

Well, that explains why my teams make errors but what about all those other teams???

Good post...

This weekend at Sonoma State in Rohnert Park, California. Four games were played with U of California at San Diego.

The scores were 2-; 3-2; 3-2 and 3-2. Two errors in four games.

Walter White coach at SSU is one of the best infield instructors in American.

To watch Walter and the daily practices is an education in proper defense. He played 7 years with the Diamondbacks in the minor leagues.

Bob Williams

quote:

My thought is that the recruiting game has evolved to finding the great hitters with power and/or size, disregarding defensive abilities (besides maybe arm strength), and then finding a place on the field to play them.

The Money Ball approach.

We always look at errors in a "as they happen" time frame and then try to find explanations. My question is

Could someone find some data that supports the fact that FLD% are down on average over the last five years in both the college and pro games?.

What are the MLB monthly FLD % numbers over that same time?

Do the percentages stay close each month?

Is it just the absence of baseball over the last 5 months that makes our observations more focused?

From a Northern college perspective I've noticed over the last 5 years that the fielding improves over the coarse of a season. That make alot of sense considering schools like my sons ex that they have yet practiced outside, games only. Granted there have been indoor fielding drills but nothing compares to being outside in the dirt.