Playing time for young ballplayers

I don't think it is about being easier to catch one ball or the other.  It is about the damage which could be done by the stronger player or the hard ground ball.  Back when I was a kid, my good friend was a top baseball player.  He threw the ball hard to a kid, who looked like he could catch.  Well, he caught it.  Fingers up, glove out in front - a real standard catch.  And then his entire hand, glove and ball proceeded to hit him in the face and bloody his nose, lips, and everything else.   

In two years of  7/8 machine pitch I never had a first baseman get hurt by a thrown ball. I rotated every kid through with equal time. I told them they will keep their eye on the ball and get their glove on it. Some werent caught. But there weren't that many throws from the left side to first. Once there's a runner on, which is almost always the play is at second which is a flip unless coming from third. More often there's a play at any base. 

Originally Posted by Golfman25:

I don't think it is about being easier to catch one ball or the other.  It is about the damage which could be done by the stronger player or the hard ground ball. …  

Ya know, I’m certainly not someone who likes to see anyone get hurt no matter how it happens, but there is a certain amount of “danger” in playing the game of baseball. If a player is truly such a poor fielder that he can’t handle “normal” throws or grounders, he shouldn’t be playing anywhere. Above the “normal” level things do get more and more dangerous, but the way to mitigate that danger isn’t to try to hide players in positions they’re less likely to be injured or to make things “easier” for them. In fact, if you have a player who can’t catch throws, prolly the positions he’d gain the most would be playing 1^st or catching. Unless there’s some kind of physical problem like poor eyesight, all it takes is practice, and where would players get the most practice?

This is a fair point.  With the younger ages it's always a balance of trying to teach and challenge them, without putting them in a situation that they aren't prepared for. With 8U ball you have kids coming up from t-ball that are only 6 years old, and some of them still haven't got decent eye-hand coordination.

I've always handled it this way - if a player shows me in practice that they can handle a position, both physically and mentally, then they can play it in a game.  If not, they need to keep working on it in practice. On the last team there was only one player who I didn't play in the infield.  It wasn't because he couldn't physically handle it, it was because he couldn't manage to pay attention. Not like occasionally daydreaming - I mean between every pitch having to yell at him.

I did have him play catcher though - I figured with the gear on he was probably safe. Although he did take a few off the facemask.  

but I also believe the best players ought to get most of the playing time.

Sooner or later that will be the case. 

As a former high school coach my philosophy at the varsity level you play the best players.Playing time?  players earn that. Now at the JV or freshman level I believe that players are to be moved around and in and out to develop them. When and if they they moved up to varsity I had a pretty good idea from my jv coach who could do what and how well they could do it.