lack of baseball basics

I think a lot of it is because players are forced to play so many games rather than perfecting skills. Obviously what happens in a game can't be picture perfect, but practicing can improve those skills.

Players play too many games starting at a young age and continues through high school.

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
have you noticed how prevalent this is even in the bigs

With regard to fielding basics in the bigs, you could argue that they're improving.

American League, all teams, fielding pct:
1962- .978
1972- .979
1982- .980
1992- .981
2002- .982
2012- .984

TR, what exactly are you referring to?

The basics in MLB: Sac bunting

I can't find stats for RATE of successful sac bunts per attempt, which would truly show if today's MLBers are worse at getting the bunt down.

But, over the past 50 years, the AMOUNT of successful sac bunts is unchanged in the National League:

National League, all teams, no. of sac bunts per ABs

1962: 656 sac bunts/55449 ABs = 1 sac bunt/85 ABs

2012: 1024 sac bunts/87814 ABs = 1 sac bunt/86 ABs

first of all baserunning



secondly ability to bunt especially pitchers

I am one of those old school guys who think that if you do the little things right the big things will take care of themselves. I did it for a long time. I will be honest. I go see a high school game on occassion and at times I cringe. Missed cut offs, routine ground balls not caught,baserunning blunders. As a coach I would have let them have it. Of course today that is not well taken as I would be told I damaged their self esteem. ( sorry for the sarcasm but I can not help it)

Seems like today some want to reinvent the game.

Will I am with you

Will,

I know what you mean and I agree with you whole heartedly.

Agree....But I think it is even worse in basketball today

Interesting observation. Wonder what the root cause is?

quote:

Wonder what the root cause is?

On this site I read about ERA Batting Avg. Walk strikout ratio pop times mph on radar gun. all good things. Seems like everybody evaluates with a number. But there is no number that evaluates a players baseball instinct. Maybe if there were todays coaches and players would be a little more attentive to that part of the game.

Thanks Will. I attend quite a few youth games. Honestly what I have seen is that many "coaches" don't know either. Unconscious incompetence. They couldn't teach it even if they realized it was missing.

We had one tell us to do something that was fundamentally wrong the other day. The reason was there was a "scout in the bleachers and I know how to get people signed, it's what I do."

My personal opinion is that there is a lot of football mentality in baseball now. People think the two games are fundamentally the same and they can therefore teach them the same. I couldn't disagree with this philosophy more and I think it is ruining the game.

Hell, a lot of players and "coaches" now don't even understand what is important or how a baseball game is won. They are frequently trading things of value for things of little value.

I had a conversation with a high school coach and he was saying how he spent a lot of time fund raising. they have nice uniforms warm ups practice sweats score boards tractor to drag the field all the gizmos and gadgets booster club etc etc etc. go to a game and baserunning blunders, defensive miscues. But they looked good, the field was manicured.

Back in the neanthedral days I was just glad to have a bucket of balls and a fungo a set of uniforms(many years old) fee for the umpire and a bus that did not break down for away games.

Sorry for probably getting off the topic a little.
just blowing off steam

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog 19:

Players play too many games starting at a young age and continues through high school.

I concur with Bulldog on this. Kids (10-13)today are playing 2-3 weekends a month starting in March. They might practice for a few weeks before the first tournament, but once the weather warms a little it becomes all tournaments all the time. They do not take time to practice, therefore their fundamentals at the end of the year are not much better than when the season ends.

THE KIDS TODAY DO NOT PRACTICE ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!

We took the summer off to work on the bat, get stronger and faster and get the head right. Man did it ever pay off. I suggested (strongly) to him that he make it part of his plan every year. We are doing it in December as well, on a smaller scale. Back to the basics.

To be honest, I have to disagree with the OP. Lack of baseball basics is prevalent in the Big Leagues? There may be a handful of guys that have wacky swings, but almost all of them have great swings! That's why they're one of only 750 Major League Players in the world (at any given time).

The only thing that I could really understand as an argument is that almost all OFs catch fly balls with 1 hand instead of using 2. Other than that, Major League ball players (collectively) are extremely mechanically sound.

I don't think that it's prevalent at the Major League level at all. Now, amateur baseball...that's a completely different story and not what the OP said.

quote:

Originally posted by Catching101:
The only thing that I could really understand as an argument is that almost all OFs catch fly balls with 1 hand instead of using 2.

That's because fielding with 2 hands is a myth, and is not the correct technique.

come again?>

quote:

Originally posted by Catching101:
To be honest, I have to disagree with the OP. Lack of baseball basics is prevalent in the Big Leagues? There may be a handful of guys that have wacky swings, but almost all of them have great swings! That's why they're one of only 750 Major League Players in the world (at any given time).

The only thing that I could really understand as an argument is that almost all OFs catch fly balls with 1 hand instead of using 2. Other than that, Major League ball players (collectively) are extremely mechanically sound.

I don't think that it's prevalent at the Major League level at all. Now, amateur baseball...that's a completely different story and not what the OP said.

I got the impression he was talking more about things like base running for some reason.

One thing I do see with a lot of hitters in the Bigs is a lack of ability or willingness (I don't know which) to situational hit. A lot of bad attempts to bunt as well.

ndd watch thyem run the bases or how outfielders do or do not use the cutoffman properly