What's up?
I'm Coach Dan Blewett.
In today's video, we're going to cover the baseball positions.
So we'll cover the baseball position numbers.
We'll cover some of the quirks of the system, how you can score you know, a game
if you're doing the score card or if you're coaching a youth team.
And we'll cover some of the skills and attributes
of different players by position because obviously your first baseman
looks very different than a second baseman
and has different skills than an outfielder or even a catcher.
So in today's video, we'll cover all about the baseball positions
All right.
So let's jump right into it.
Here you see a diagram where I've got a number for each of the positions.
Obviously, one is pitcher two is catcher.
Three is first base, four is second base, six is shortstop,
five is third base, seven left field, eight center field.
And nine right field.
So obviously, the quirk in the system here
is that the shortstop is six and the third baseman is five.
They're out of order rights. Everyone asks, why is it like that?
Well, back in the day, the shortstop was actually the fourth outfielder.
And then when they moved him or her into the infield,
they just kept
the number the same so that's why it's out of order.
It doesn't really affect anything.
It's not really that the shortstop takes charge,
even though that is the shortstop role of the infield.
They sort of
have priority over all their infielders on like pop ups and stuff like that.
And the shortstop
is one of the most demanding, if not the most demanding position on the field.
But that isn't really why it's scored number six.
But again, the shortstop is six because it was just a quirk
in the system where he used to be the fourth outfielder.
So when you're looking at how the scoring works, so if you want to
do a scorecard in the stands or you're watching a game,
or if you're a coach, then what you need to do is
you understand that a fly ball that's caught by a player
where, you know, they're making the put out.
So fly ball to the center field would be a fruit
fly ball to
right field to F nine, a fly ball, the catcher, a catch and B F two.
Now you probably heard like a 643 double play.
That's when the shortstop gets a groundball throws to the second
baseman who's covering second, who then throws it on to first
to get the double plate of complete those two force outs.
So the shortstop number six throwing it to number four,
throwing it to number three, makes it a 643 double play.
Now, if they didn't get the out a second, say the runner beat it
and it was still the shortstop
through to the second baseman who threw to the first baseman
it would just be a 643 regular put out 11 out
so you could throw it all around the diamond.
The first baseman could throw
to the catcher, to the third base, to the second to the shortstop to the
they could throw it around the horn.
It would be a 1-2-5, 643
put out at first base or you know, they would all get an assistant
and that would be that. So so that's how that works.
Basically, you just whoever touches the ball
is part of the play and whoever is the last in the line of that chain.
So four to three would be a ground ball to second, throws, throws to first
that'll be a 4-3.
And we know that the three the first baseman made the final put out.
So let's now talk about not only just the position numbers
but let's talk about the different skills and attributes of different players.
So in baseball, you know, speed and quickness, field
fielding, ability range, arm strength and hitting power
those are some of the biggest considerations
about where you're going to play on the field.
So then basically what happens is players start to get put in bins,
not literally, but basically body types will break out based on,
you know, where they're playing on the field.
Been won is kind of like athletic, scrappy, fast, quick players.
They don't really
the size isn't quite as important as long as they're super athletes
and very, very fast and quick and have good fielding range
bin two is they still have a lot of those attributes,
but they start to get a little bit bigger and a little bit more powerful.
And then bin three is the biggest, strongest players
where speed's not really important.
Then we'll talk about that.
So bin one fast and scrappy players.
These are typically the positions up the middle.
So they're great fielders, they're fast, they're good baserunners.
They typically hit for contact.
You know, maybe they'll hit some doubles, occasional home
runs, power is always accepted, but it's not really a demand of the position.
So positions that we're talking about here up the middle or center field,
you don't need a lot of home runs out of your center fielder.
You really do senior center field to catch everything.
Shortstop.
If you have a premium defensive shortstop like Andrelton Simmons
who's incredible, he's going to make up so much more value for your team.
Despite being an amazing shortstop and gobbling up every ground ball
and flare into the outfield that, you know,
if he hits a little bit less than, say, your third baseman, that's no big deal
because he gives you so much on the defensive side.
And then second base is kind of same thing.
Typically the smallest player
on the field plays second and they're a premium defensive player
and they're going to get on base, they're going to get a lot of walks.
They're going to basically because of their smaller stature, typically hit
more singles and doubles that most, but they'll hit some homeruns too.
Jose Altuve is now too, is an outsider outlier
because you hit I think like 30 homeruns in 20, 19 or 20.
And that's not typical for second base
but again, they'll always take it if a player has that skill.
So been to his corner outfield
corner outfielders and third baseman and these are good fielders
they have a good arm,
they have some power, but they're not quite as fast
because they tend to be a little bit bigger.
And when you have a more muscle mass on you and you're just a bigger person,
you're not going to be quite as fast as like the center fielder.
You're not going to have quite as much range as the shortstop.
So someone like Nolan Arenado who is an amazing fielder, but he's a
physically bigger body than a second baseman or typical shortstop,
you know, he's got a lot of pop and he's going to hit four more homeruns
and he can carry more muscle mass because he plays third base, which doesn't
require quite as much range as playing shortstop or even second base.
So that's kind of accepted.
Same thing of the corner outfield positions, left field and right field.
You don't have to have quite as much range because you're the foul line
there, right?
So those are typically bigger bodied outfielders
than the center fielder who has the absolute most ground to cover.
And then lastly and and been three, you're going to have big power at first base.
And then behind the plate, you just it's not as important
that they have a lot of speed because they're not covering much ground.
They just have to be excellent receivers, throwers, blockers and game callers.
So you typically have the biggest player on the field.
And this is like without exception
at the highest levels plays first because they don't have to make long throws.
Typically, they don't have to have a ton of range
because they're playing close to the line.
So that's why the first baseman is typically this really big bodied person.
If you put your first baseman size, a first baseman size player in center field,
it would be a big problem.
They wouldn't be able to get to as many fly balls and in the gaps. Right.
So this is the way baseball is kind of
shaped the body types and skills of different positions.
So let's talk about pitchers real quick.
So obviously a pitcher is their number one on the position chart.
So if you go back to the baseball position numbers, pitchers are number one
and they kind of go into three been starters, short
relievers long relievers, all link in the description below to a video.
I talk more in depth about the traits
of starters, relievers and long relievers, but we'll cover those quickly here.
So starting pitchers, they have good command
because if you're going to pitch six or seven innings or hopefully more,
you have to throw strikes and keep your pitch count down and they have good stuff.
So stuff is
how good is your breaking ball, how good is your changeup, how hard do you throw?
So to be a starting pitcher,
you have to be able to get both handed hitters out.
So if you're a lefty pitcher, you have to be good to get lefties
and righties out.
So that seems like common sense, but it's really not a lot of times
relievers can only get one sided hitter out predominantly.
And so that's why you see lefty specialists in the major leagues
where the lefties very ineffective against right handed hitters.
So this
this particular lefty will only come in to pitch against like a lefty or two
in tough situations.
But starting pitchers have to get out both sided hitters.
The entire game multiple times that they'll face them through the lineup.
So that's important.
And they need one out pitch at least, which is a dominant pitch
that can give them a strike out pretty reliably when they need it. So.
Oh, to one, two in the count, does a pitcher have a nasty slider
that he can get a strike out and help bail himself out of jams?
That's important.
If you see Chris sale here on the on the screen.
He's got a dirty slider.
I mean, he's got he's he's got amazing stuff in general
so he can punch guys out when he needs to because when you view the bases loaded
No one out sometimes the only way to bail yourself out of those situations
is by getting a strikeout short relievers they're kind of been to
these are more of like the sprinters if this was like a track team.
Right the the starting pitchers are more like the distance runners but
even they're not as much distance runners as more as like maybe like a 400 meter
but the short relievers are the sprinters, the 100 meter guys, you know
and you see Aroldis Chapman here throws super hard, has a nasty slider.
So he's got that dominant out pitch where if you get the two strikes,
the guy's going to strike you out a lot of the time
and they might have less command, but that's okay because if they walk a guy
or two more than the starter,
they're going to make up for it by striking out so many more hitters.
So that's typically the attributes of a short, short reliever.
And they have this bulldog mentality.
And lastly, the long reliever, this is the role that you don't want as much.
It's still an important role, but long relievers,
they're not really good enough to be starters
and they're not really good enough.
They don't have good enough stuff to be short
relievers, like the seventh, eighth, ninth, inning guy.
And so they tend to
they don't have a clear out pitch where they can get a lot of strikeouts.
They're just not as good typically.
So they'll typically do what we call mop up role
which is if the starter goes to innings and has a rough day,
you need a long reliever to come in and pitch four or five innings
to get us through the rest of the game.
That's what the long reliever tends to do.
So every year long reliever is still important to the team.
Like you have to eat up those innings and
and save other arms in the bullpen, especially the higher levels.
But obviously long relievers want to pitch well and then move into better roles
to get the innings that are more pressure
packed and more important to the outcome of the game.
No one likes pitching, you know, the fifth through this eighth inning
when your team is getting blown out. 13 to one.
But that, unfortunately, is what long relievers have to do a lot of the time.
So those are the kind of three bins as far as pitchers go.
So just to review,
here are the nine baseball position numbers again, again, one through nine.
Again, this is important just for scoring for the most part.
And if you're a youth coach starting out
or if you're a young player and you just want to know hey,
when coach says right to me in at five in the lineup, where does that mean I go?
All right. So hopefully this video is helpful.
If you have any questions or concerns, leave in the comments section below
and if you have other questions you want to learn more about baseball,
please subscribe to my channel, check out my books, courses
and other links in the description, and I'll see you here in the next video.