When Do You Stop Playing the Best Hitters

As Freshman move up, the gap closes dramatically.  The hitters will typically become "adequate" fielders, and until a better fielder who can hit as well emerges, they will continue to get more playing times versus better fielders who cannot hit.  You might see late game substitutions where you insert a fielder for defensive purposes only, but you really should not see really good hitters who just can't catch, or throw the ball as you move up the chain.  On a straight Freshman only team, the coach should be developing talent, more than winning games, so allowing the hitters to stay in, hoping they can start becoming adequate fielders is normal.  This is not a blanket statement, however you typically have an easier time making a bad fielder, an average fielder, than making a bad hitter, a very good hitter.  Hitting is the most difficult task in baseball, that is why a hitter that only excels 1/3 of the time is an All-Star.  Hitters will always grab more playing time.

I have a kid on my bench this year that is probably one of our better hitters but I can not stick him anywhere because he is a defensive liability and I have to big lefty's that can not play anywhere but 1B or DH.  On the flip side of that I have used defensive replacements late in games.  It is true, most of the time if you can hit, you will play.  BFS is correct in saying that you can make a kid an average fielder a lot more that a good hitter.

I once had a 3rd Baseman that could hit all day long, and he led the team in Home run's also. But he was my worst fielder on a very good team. I figured he might have 1 or 2 difficult balls hit his way each game, but I knew he would bat at least 4 times a game.

Freshman team = time for players to develop skills (hitting, fielding, pitching, etc).  It's not necessarily about "winning."  That's the varsity's job.

 

That said I'd still keep the "hitters" in the lineup.   As stated it's easier to develop average fielders than it is to develop good hitters.

 

As the old saying goes, "if you can hit we'll find a place in the lineup for you."

Interesting that you have district level post season play at the freshman level.  As big as HS baseball is in California, post season play is conducted only at the V level (in the bigger Southern Section, any way).  This may factor in as to why there seems to be such a range of opinions on lower levels being developmental vs. winning.

 

So, for us at the JV level it is a non-issue because both players should be playing and developing.  If asked that same question about V at the HS level, there are lots of layers to the answer.  How big is the gap between the hitter and the fielder both offensively and defensively?  What position do they play?  Is your P for that day dominant or will there be lots of balls in play?  What other moves have to be made and what is the net effect on the team?  Do you need that hitter available to come out of the bullpen?  Who is the opposition and how does the decision play into their strengths and weaknesses?  You can drill down forever on this one and it is certainly one of the biggest challenges for the HS coach.

 

 

Here in our conference (Virginia 4A - conference 22) the only post season play for the JV teams is the conference championship.  The two JV teams with the best records play for the JV "championship".  That's it.

 

Only varsity plays beyond the conference level (formerly districts) to regionals and then state.

Thanks Fox.  Cavtrooper, don't mean to stray from your OP, but curious... what state are you in and what is the playoff setup?

Well you have to weigh everything out. Would you win more games with a better defense and adequate offense or are you better off trying to out hit everyone?

In the BBCOR era... defense and pitching are out weighing offense. If you play solid defense you are, in my opinion, going to win more games. It saves your pitcher's arms and will allow them to pitch more effectively deeper into games. If you are weak on the defensive side the opposition doesn't really have to hit with you as much as they just need to put the ball in play.

My philosophy from my playing days and now into my coaching career is defense first. A solid defensive team will save you more runs over what you can get with their superior offensive replacements. Also defense is something you can control to an extent. You can't control the other team having dominant pitching and usually defense doesn't go into a slump.

My advice is play your better defensive line up for a bit and see what happens. I have a feeling you will be surprised.

For those of your players who are outfilders, helping with their positioning will go a long way towards less errors.  If you have leftys that can't play anywhere else ( a pet peeve of mine)  teach them to pitch.

This was not the case at our HS this year. We played our best defensive players but could not score enough runs to win. We finished well below .500 with many 1 run losses. We went with small ball and bunted whenever we had a guy on first with no outs to move him over to 2nd. Problem is we could not bring the runner in most of the time. We gave away a lot of outs and could not produce enough runs to win. Once we fell behind it became very difficult to catch up. In HS generally there is not a huge disparity in fielding where it makes a difference other than the catcher and pitcher, but there is in hitting. I still believe even in the BBCOR era you gotta have good hitting and and pitching to win. 

Yeah, I see benefit in both sides of it.  Problem we would see is a kid would knock in two runs a game and then give that many back on errors.  We were a high scoring team so could usually overcome the errors, but when we faced a tough pitcher this problem with errors became huge.  I also think Coach Sampson made a good point on relating this to pitching.  The errors are going to drive up the pitch count which could then domino into starters not being able to stay in longer, relievers being over used, etc.  The other thing for us was that we had other hitting choices, most of our kids were pretty good hitters, but most of them were contact hitters rather than power hitters and the power hitters won out.

You have to be able to play your position.  Otherwise, you're a DH or pinch hitter.

 

If someone is so poor on defense they can't make a play, they have no future except as a DH.  It seems odd that one team would have their best 3 or 4 hitters be that terrible playing a position. On most every team the best couple hitters are also two of the best players defensively.

I have not read the replies yet, but you pose some interesting questions. First you are correct that the common consensus today is, "if a kid can hit, he will play". However when I was growing up and playing, the only time you would see a poor defender starting because he could hit, was if his weakness could also be accounted for. That would typically be in one of the outfield corners. Of course anytime the ball went out there, everyone held their collective breath (think Manny Ramirez).  
You would never see a middle infielder with a weak glove, nor a 3rd baseman. Sometimes the coach would put a nonathletic kid on 1st, but he still had to do his job or the team suffered.

 

Now days, many things have changed. For instance, more hitters are willing to swing for the fences, their strikeout % be damned(Ty Cobb is spinning in his grave). That is especially true of the pros where as in the older days players were embarrassed to be a stikeout king. But no longer, probably ever since the infatuation with the long ball emerged. So it comes as little surprise that more deference is being given to good hitters, regardless of their position. I know a college team that has a defensive liability at shortstop, which is insane. The kid can certainly hit, but has plenty of errors to go along with his RBIs.

 

Of course coaches can try to tailor their lineup & defense based on who is on the mound. If you have a flamethrower or a pop up pitcher going that day, maybe short wont be as challenged. But if you have a groundball pitcher who throws to contact, your infield better be top notch.

 

Whether right or wrong, chances are if your team is in the districts/regionals, the coach is going to the dance with who brought him.

However just as your speculate with your question, he is going to potentially face the decision as to when the poor defense is outweighing the hitting. If the opposing pitcher/team is shutting down his offensive lineup, he obviously cannot afford many errors.

If a player can hit he should be able to learn to catch it.  Athletic ability to run into the gaps or making the backhand play and throw from the hole might not be there but making routine plays should be within their ability if they are good enough hitters.

 

Hitting is a harder skill than picking up grounders or tracking fly balls.  You do have to practice it and place value on it or it won't happen. 

 

The other piece that hasn't been clarified is how many spots are we talking about?  Realistically this might be an issue at 1 or 2 spots on the field.  As noted with the DH slot and possibly a corner outfield or 1B you shouldn't have to make drastic tradeoffs to get a couple of stronger bats in the lineup.  Finding a 5th or 6th bat to add depth to a HS lineup is often the difference in a close game especially if you are running 6 quality hitters up against a team with 4 or 5.  Those extra 5-6 good swings might add 2 or more runs in a ballgame if they are bunched together or don't leave runners on base from the top of the order. 

 

It can turn 4-3 losses into 6-4 wins because your 5 or 6 batter cleared the bases in the 3rd with a double rather than ending it with a pop up or strikeout.  Also it should not be forgotten you might turn your lineup over 1 more time and get your 1-4 an extra cut.  A tack on run or two in the 7th makes life a lot easier.