The above picture was a thought I shared on twitter some time ago. I have the same thought every time I watch The Sandlot. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the movie. It’s one of my favorite movies and I could watch it everyday. What’s not to love? It’s a movie about some kids having … More The Rundown on Rundowns
If you’ve followed this blog you might know that I like to break the fielding process down into smaller phases for instructional and evaluating purposes. Each phase works in conjunction with the others, but one could be argued as the most influential in turning groundballs into outs. That phase is the approach phase. The approach … More Exploring Groundball Approach
Tag plays at the bag aren’t exactly a sexy aspect of infield play, at least they aren’t unless you’re Javy Baez. Baez’s rise in popularity has shed light on the tag play as a play that can be exciting and impressive but above all else an important skill that well rounded infielders should master. There … More Tag Play Timing
Any time there’s a ball in the gap or down the line that leads to extra bases for the hitter there’s potential for one of the most exciting and entertaining plays in baseball; the relay. Many times when a relay is necessary there’s a momentum type of play happening. We could have a runner trying … More Relay Rules
Recently I was watching an MLB game and I was blown away at the lack of attention to detail displayed by the 1B while “holding” a runner at first. The pitcher was clearly doing his part to control the running game. He mixed up his hold times and showed a couple different moves over to … More The Art of Holding Runners on 1B
All images below are depicting 2B double play pivots with feeds from the direction of 3B. Footwork will be the same with feeds from SS but the orientation of the bag will be slightly different as is in the picture. We’ve gone around the diamond with the feeds (3B, SS, 2B, LH 1B, RH 1B) … More Second Base Double Play Pivots
Last week’s post discussing deflecting vs catching & exchanging the ball was a precursor to this week’s post about SS double play pivots and next week post on 2B double play pivots. You can read last week’s post here. As we dive into the specific footwork for each position’s pivots it’s important to remember a … More An Inside Look at SS Double Play Pivots
This week we’re continuing to look into double play feeds from around the diamond by diving into left handed 1B double play feeds. You can check out the double play feed posts for 3B here, SS here and 2B here. These checkpoints for left handed 1B are similar to what we discussed with 3B. I … More 3 Checkpoints for Left Handed 1B Double Play Feeds
We’re back this week going around the diamond breaking down double play feeds. This week we’re going to focus on the feeds used by the second baseman. You can read about 3B feeds here and SS feeds here that we’ve discussed in previous weeks. Again, to reiterate from the last few weeks that these feeds … More Everything You Need to Know About 2B Double Play Feeds
This week we’ll continue to look at double play feeds around the diamond and focus on 6-4 feeds with this post. I’m going to again preface this post with the importance of being efficient and having a sense of urgency when feeding from the shortstop position. To piggy back on that, we need to again … More A Complete Guide to SS Double Play Feeds
Defend the Diamond 