Defense

While there definitely is a lot of interest in hitting,  we see plenty of great fielding.

DANNYBALL17,

I suspect in general the defenses are neither any better nor any worse than any time in the past. Having said that, I also suspect that the best teams put just as high a premium on defense as they do on any other phase of the game. How much emphasis is dependent on the talent available, i.e. if you have 2 of the best hitters in the state, you probably concentrate a bit more on offense.

There's definitely more emphasis today in hitting than fielding. If you don't hit, you don't get recruited for the most part. Unless your size will project. Ozzie Smith would have trouble getting interest today. Not your prototypical player they look for today. Not a strong hitter and small in stature.

The emphasis on defense in pro ball has gone up a lot in the last 10 years. Hitting is still most important but since advanced defensive stats are out there teams are emphasizing it a lot.

defensive stats are the reason Heyward got so much money. He is a solid hitter but 10 years ago a corner outfielder with a 115 ops+ would not have been that impressive. But his great defense combined with good but not great hitting makes him one of the best players of the league.

you have to hit to play in the majors but in all positions except first you need to field unless you absolutely mash. Defense can turn a slightly above average hitter into an all star caliber player and MLB is full of outstanding defensive players ( Simmons, machado, lindor, arenado...). IMO MLB defense is now much better than in the steroid era when all teams cared about was home runs.

i would say that the emphasis on hitting is bigger than 30 years ago but not as high as 15 years ago. You need to hit but if you are a HS third baseman that projects to be a 1B you will be drafted as a 1b which lowers your stock.

the 2015 top draft picks Swanson and Bregman don't project as great hitters ( they project as very good hitters but not as 30 bomb, .300 hitters) but they were drafted on top because they project to play a premium position well.

DANNYBALL17 - I have to defend my team just a little...there might have been a couple of errors in the championship game, and maybe a mistake or two that didn't get counted as an error, but you don't make it to the 6A championship game in Texas by playing that way all year.  They had a great season, just simply had a bad day that day.

Everyday Dad posted:

There's definitely more emphasis today in hitting than fielding. If you don't hit, you don't get recruited for the most part. Unless your size will project. Ozzie Smith would have trouble getting interest today. Not your prototypical player they look for today. Not a strong hitter and small in stature.

Which is exactly why using size to cull players is so stupid. Can anyone imagine baseball without Oz, Omar, and Nellie Fox, just to mention 3 small players who didn’t rip the cover off the ball.

Slugger middle infielders and catchers is a something that really didn't exist prior to 1990 with some very rare exceptions.  Johnny Bench, Honus Wagner, Yogi Berra, are GOAT level players because they played key defensive positions while being top level hitters. 

Prior to that the ideal SS or 2B, C played top level defense first - Mark Belanger/Jerry Grote type guys.  If they hit .240 so what if they made all the plays or could handle pitchers and stop stolen bases.  Ozzie started out like that but he grew into his hitting and became proficient.  He was never a top flight hitter but he was not an easy out after 4/5 years in the bigs. 

I think the thing about him that was really undervalued was his consistency.  If you look at his career he was durable, and you knew in March what he was going to give you all year.  And for 15 years it was amazing how much one year looks like another.  IMO these kind of guys are the key to building anything sustainable in MLB. 

The KC royals put 8 athletic dudes out there every day with gloves on and it sure did work for them.

(A bullpen with more gas than a Daytona pit crew didn't hurt either)

The Cubs got rid of Castro because of defense. Offense is the key but teams increasingly realize that defense buys them wins.