Hey, Glass. Is there a website that you know of that instructs each baseball player what to do when the ball is hit where in different situations? While a complete guide would be helpful to have, what I'm specifically interested in is what a little league pitcher should do when a ball is hit to the outfield and goes to the fence. To me, you're assuming a double, so the play for the outfielders and cut-off should be to 3rd. Would you instruct your little league pitcher to stay on the mound so that the ball could be thrown in to the middle of the field to him, or should the pitcher back up 3rd base? This league allows lead offs and steals at any time if that changes anything. Which means just because the pitcher has the ball on the mound, doesn't mean the runners have to stay at the base they are on at that time.

Thanks for any help.

Tracy

I know im not Glass, but the pitcher should ALWAYS be backing up the bases, 3rd and home.

If you need someone in the middle of the field to give the ball to you have the 1st baseman, since if it's a clear double or triple, they wont be doing much (at that level).

But if you get the ball into 3rd, you could always call for time, no real need to have someone in the middle to stop baserunning.

Thanks. I agree. My son has an idiotic coach, and after I told him the correct positioning for the pitcher, I guess I was just looking for some sort of validation.

Sorry I didn't see this any earlier. The correct positioning for the pitcher there is third base. If the there is a play at second, and the throw goes into that bag, you probably still want your first baseman on at first. The entire play is in front of the catcher, and he should be backing up that if it does get by, UNLESS there is another runner at third that could score, then you have the first baseman move over, giving up the slim chance of getting a runner out if he decides he can't make it and goes back to first.

Boomer is right, the pitcher is always backing up a base on a ball to the outfield. The catcher is the qb who tells the pitcher where to go, as he sees the entire play in front of him.

Don't think you are the only one in that situation Manzier. I am sure Boomer can confirm this, being he is also a highschool coach. I have had way too many kids that I had to teach the basic fundamentals of the game to at the high school level when they should have been taught it at age 8-10.

This is just me, but when you get to high school, and legion ball, you should know where you are going with the ball in all situations, when the ball is hit to you, or know where you should be when the ball is not hit to you.

I would say, maybe, only 3 o 4 guys each year really know the game and what they are supposed to do. The rest have to learn, and be broken of bad habits that have been taught to them at a young age and never told it is wrong.

Seems baseball is the sport that anybody thinks they can coach because they watched baseball all their lives. Most of baseball is played before the pitch is even made, and that is things that just are not being taught by little league coaches anymore.

There have always been bad coaches, but I would say around the mid 80's it seemed to get alot worse in this area. Is it about the same there Boomer?

Thanks, guys. You backed me up. I didn't want to sound too leading in my original question, but Ethan had an idiot for a Little League coach this year. He specifically yelled at Ethan to stay at the mound when he was backing up third. I guess he did that because in T-ball or something like that, if the pitcher got the ball on the mound, all of the runners had to stop, but I don't think that is what should be taught. This was a 10-12 year old league, and they need to be learning baseball.