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Outfield By The Numbers
by Dave
Friday, March 26, 2010
Math can be a beautiful thing when it is applied properly and/or not overly relied upon. That is true in determining offensive and defensive strategies. That is true when approaching pitch call decisions. And that is true when it comes to positioning outfielders.
I recently witnessed something of a misapplication of math to outfield positioning. I won't criticize the person who committed the sin because I have done it myself many, many times. I only bring it up because I want to spur your thinking and because, through thinking things out thoroughly, I believe we can improve play.
The misapplication of math I saw recently had corner outfielders determining their positions by dividing the distance from the foul lines to the placement of the CF in half and then standing there. This is wrong, most obviously, because when a ball is hit to the gap, both the CF and corner OF are running towards the ball. By contrast, when a ball is hit to the line, only the corner OF is in pursuit. In other words, two OFs should be able to cover more ground than one. So the LF, for example, can divide the distance in half but she should position herself closer to the line than the midpoint. That is the easiest part of the overall analysis and there are certainly more considerations.
Another reason this is wrong is because it does not take into account the speed and ability of each OF involved. Generally your CF should be one of the fastest kids on your team. She should also have some of the best ball instincts. When a ball is hit anywhere on the field, your CF, hopefully, is one of the people who can first judge where it is headed because she has that innate ability to quickly vector the orb coming off the stick. So, she not only gets the best jump on a ball hit to the OF, she is also the fastest one in pursuit. And this should alter the relative positioning of your OFs.
The second consideration has to do with the batter. If a batter is right handed, she will generally hit the ball more sharply (at a higher rate of speed) to left than she will to right. She will do the opposite if she is left handed. There is no question that sometimes a righty will hit a ball sharply to right and a lefty will hit the ball sharply to left. But, by the numbers, this is a less frequent occurrence. So, if you are playing the percentages, in general, all other things being equal, the LF should be shaded more closely to the line than the RF with a righty batter and vice versa with a lefty. It is important to note, however, that all other things are seldom equal!
Our next consideration has to do with the style of batter. There are probably more pure rotational hitters in softball than there are any other style. This reality serves to further magnify the second consideration - the pull side shades the line more. With notable individual exceptions, pure rotational hitters tend to hit the ball the opposite way much less frequently and with much less force than other hitters. There are not many pure linear softball hitters on the planet, excluding some styles of slapping, but we'll get to slappers in a moment.
Probably what is next most often seen, after pure rotational, is the so-called hybrid swing. These hitters can hit to all fields but also tend to pull the ball more than go the opposite way. They do tend to hit more frequent sharp balls down the opposite field line but the percentages say they will tend to pull, again, all other things being equal.
Slappers, especially good slappers, are a much more complicated issue. For beginners, most teams alter the positioning of their infielders on slappers which requires adjustments to the positioning of the outfielders as well. For example, many teams will pull the infield in totally or in part. We can't go over all the possible positionings I have seen for slappers here because I want to move on to other things but, let's assume that at least two infielders are pulled in and the other two are at either normal depth or adjusted to cover for the pulled in ones. Most commonly, the entire OF is pulled in several body lengths, generally positioned about halfway between their normal position and the infield dirt. Sometimes I have seen OFs pulled right up to the dirt. This is inadvisable unless you know the skill level and tendencies of the slap hitter at the plate.
The problem with slap hitters is many are quite good at their craft. They are not only able to slap a grounder where they want to, of course depending on the pitch location, but many are able to get the ball up and over the infield, sometimes much further than that, at will. I have seen a fairly large number of slappers who are quite capable of hitting a ball well into the outfield gaps and bouncing it all the way to the fence on just a couple hops. This opens up one of the most important issues with respect to outfield positioning. Are we so concerned about the slapper getting on base that we are willing to leave much of the field uncovered and which might allow her to get a triple or possibly round all the bases and score on an inside the park homerun?
I understand that many coaches would like to cover the lines and prevent the speedy slapper from drilling one into the corners and thereby accomplishing perhaps the same thing. But that says almost nothing about where the CF is positioned. What exactly is the point of moving the CF in? If the slapper goes up the middle, she uis probably going to get on anyway. There is a very low likelihood that the CF will be able to throw the slapper out at first with anything she can field. It is extremely unlikely that the slapper will be able to leg out a double on anything hit up the middle since the bag will be right in front of the CF. Of course, if she hits the ball over the head of the CF or in the gap, a double becomes a high percentage bet. What I am saying is that if you pull in your outfielders to protect against the slap, at least keep the CF back to cover more ground on the balls hit into the air, especially those in the gaps.
Like I said, you must either know the ability of the slapper in order to set up the defense or you must set up as if she is the best one on the planet until you obtain better information. I suppose that there are a large number of relatively unskilled slappers. These kids can merely hit the ball to ground in front of the plate. I prefer to call this kind of "slapper" by the name "tapper" since I have high respect for the skilled slapper and not particularly much regard for the tapper. If there is a genuine tapper at the plate, you must just as well pull everyone onto the infield dirt and set your team up for an easy ground ball that must be fielded quickly. Genuine slappers are much harder to defend. And if you're not sure, you should assume the worst. To me, that means keeping your CF back at almost normal depth.
Probably the most important consideration in setting up outfielders is going to be something you'd rather not consider or divulge to your opponent, pitch location. What I mean is, if you know that this next pitch is going to be outside, just beyond the corner, you would probably swing your fielders around expecting either a grounder top the pull side way or any kind of hit to the opposite field. Your pull side OF could move in and perhaps cut off bloopers hit beyond the reach of the middle infielder. Your CF could move several body lengths toward the pull side.
I said if you knew where the pitch would be, you could. But you wouldn't, would you? Can you imagine planning to pitch a highly skilled hitter one pitch inside, the next outside, the next inside, and so on. She gets up to the plate and the CF swings 20 feet towards left. The pitch is thrown inside and then the CF moves 40 feet towards right. This continues for just how long before she knows the expected location of the pitch before the pitcher begins her windup? if you positioning fielders on every pitch like that, you are giving way too much information to the hitter.
Of course, I also said if you knew where the pitch would be. That assumes not only knowing where it is going to be called but also where the pitcher will throw it! There are certainly many pitchers who can be relied upon to at least generally hit their locations. I say "generally hit their locations" because there has to be some leeway. Some, few pitchers, can hit their precise location. But many pitchers cannot. They hit their locations within a margin of error of about 6 inches to 1 foot or so. That makes an inside pitch into an outside one. So beyond doing a little math, knowing the style of hitter, understanding her skill level, particularly if she is a slapper, observing her tendencies - assuming you see her often or have scouted her thoroughly - you must also know your own pitcher, including the kind of day she is having today.
OFs can benefit from knowing where the pitch is going to be thrown but, as I said, you don't want to give away pitch location to the hitter and, for most pitchers, you have to make allowance for pitches that miss their marks. Still, if you have a very good pitcher who hits her spots, the OFs can be moved slightly. I would stick to just a couple feet, perhaps one full stride, possibly two. This movement should come fairly late and not occur on absolutely every pitch. It is still best to keep the hitter guessing about where the next pitch is going to be thrown.
This brings me to the manner in which OFs can be told pitch location. I would guess that I still do not see many teams utilizing the most simple strategy for informing their OF of the pitch selection. I went over this a few years back and I can't develop the topic completely but some teams will have one or both of their middle infielders look into the catcher for the sign. They then show the OF behind them that signal by means of a hand in their back. I like this but I need to limit my assessment of its utility a bit. An OF can benefit from knowing what kind of pitch is to be thrown, IF the pitcher can be relied upon to throw it well AND knowing the pitch selection provides information to the OF about its location.
If an OF knows that the pitch is going to be a rise, she might expect a fly ball if the batter makes contact. But she knows nothing about where it might be hit. So she gains little real information. If an OF knows that the pitch is going to be a rise inside, now she has something she can use to be ready should the batter hit the pitch. Actually, knowing the location is probably more important to the OF than knowing the pitch selection. Yet most teams that signal the OF about the pitch call do not signal the location. I really don't understand why that is. Perhaps the best explanation is they do not believe their pitcher hits her mark more often than not and since expecting an outside pitch when an inside one is thrown can backfire, they choose not to sign locations.
You might be left wondering what this is all about if it is a bad idea to move your OF as much as you would want to because you are afraid of giving too much information to the batter. Your repositioning of the OF should be subtle rather than obvious and this doesn't provide all that much benefit. I think you are quite wrong about that. Think of it this way, how many balls are hit just beyond the reach of an OF? If you were able to position her just two feet closer to the landing spot of the ball, she would have caught it. That is what we are after here. There is almost nothing you can do to position an OF to catch a hard liner right in the center of the gap. It is not the absolutely clean and clear hits we are trying to stop. It is the ones which just barely bleed by which we want to turn into outs since those are often the ones which change the outcome of games.
To summarize where we are, before you position OFs based on pure mathematics and distance, you need to add into the equation the fact that in the gaps, there are two OFs chasing the ball but down the lines, there is only one. You also need to factor in the ball skill and speed of each OF. Next the nature of the hitter should be factored in. If you also know her tendencies, you have even more information. Slappers need special attention in this regard. The next item up for consideration is the pitch. The pitch selection may be important but the location is more so. Your pitcher's tendencies to hit or miss location is as important as the called location. Better safe than sorry. Outfield positioning should be subtle not obvious to the hitter. Even with little significant repositioning, benefits can be realized. Now let's move on to some concluding points.
We spend a lot of time, particularly with young girls, teaching them the infielder's ready position. Outfielder's ready position gets scant attention. There are two primary reasons for this. The first is at the early stages, not many balls are hit to the outfield. The second reason is nobody wants to give up and admit that their athletic skills are better suited to the outfield because, in the early years, nothing gets hit out there.
I understand this but I don't accept it. In travel ball, at better 12U games, many balls are hit to the outfield. As a former one time outfielder, the positions in the grass are as honorable as any others. Further, in high school and college the items which most differentiate these levels from age group play, the element that makes the largest difference in the college game, is the play of outfielders. College games can be somewhat difficult to watch because just about every well hit ball that doesn't go over the fence gets caught. The OFs are just that good, particularly on better college teams.
The infield ready position is low to the ground with glove on front of the player, etc. An outfield ready position need not be so low to the ground and the glove need not be up in front of the face because balls are not going to reach the OF as quickly. Still, an OF needs to stand in an athletic position, ready for action. She should be more erect than an infielder but not totally so. Knees should be bent in order to get a good push-off when running after a ball. And whereas infielders generally move towards the plate on the pitch, an OF does not need to be coming forward. More importantly she should begin moving her feet on the pitch. That is because a completely stationery human being is more slow to move in the right direction that another that is already in some sort of motion. A couple short quick stutter steps is enough to put the legs, feet and torso into motion enough to get a better jump on the ball.
Additionally, whereas infielders are square to the face with both eyes equidistant to the point of ball-bat impact, an OF has completely different spacial orientation. The vectoring of a ball from the OF is a much more complicated job. It is much more difficult to pick up direction, trajectory and speed from the OF than it is from the infield. OFs need whatever edges they can generate on their own to vector balls hit towards them.
Because of the realities of seeing the ball off the bat from the OF, many OFs stand sideways to the plate. The reason this provides benefit is because you have two eyes for a reason - that reason is because they provide two points from which to vector moving objects and the further away you are from the flying object, the more you need both eyes to vector it. Standing sideways provides better recognition of all three elements of direction, trajectory and speed. This is probably more true when the OF, like most human beings, has one eye that is stronger than the other.
I think a fundamental mistake some folks make is believing that an OF is standing sideways because she has one primary direction in which to run and the other way is a secondary concern. That being the case, I suppose it would always be advisable for a LF, for example, to face toward the foul line since this is probably her danger zone. Conversely, the RF would face her foul line. I don't know where this is supposed to leave the CF but I suppose she could face RF with a righty at the plate and LF with a lefty. But that is not the point of standing sideways, better visual perception is!
So when a coach talks to his LF who is standing with her shoulders square to center, most often he or she will tell them to face the line instead. That would be right if the coach knew which eye was the stronger of the girl's two but that's generally not the case. The girl knows subtly which eye is stronger. She should know instinctively which way to stand. I always stood facing center when I played left, right when I played CF and the foul line when I played RF. I had absolutely no trouble moving to my right despite facing the "wrong" way. I positioned myself so as to see the ball better. So, coaches, please don't "correct" the way your outfielders set up naturally. make them aware of why they might want to stand sideways and then let them figure out the best way.
My final point for the day has nothing to do with outfield positioning. Rather it has to do with something I believe will yield higher outfield performance. If I watch a major league baseball game, between innings, very often I see OFs walking or slowly jogging with short steps to their positions before throwing a ball for a few tosses. In softball, I generally see one of two types of taking of the field. Either the OFs walk out to their positions while futzing with their hair and/or equipment, or they sprint full out to their spots and then futz with their hair and/or equipment. All of these types of taking the field get under my skin. What, in my humble opinion should happen is, the OFs get their gear and hair in good order before taking the field and then run out easily with very long strides or perform dynamic stretching exercises all the way out to their final destinations.
If you give this some thought, anyone can agree that walking out is bad. Jogging with short steps does nothing for you when you have to sprint into the gaps. An OF needs to both warm and loosen up their legs. Jogging with short steps might warm you up but it does not stretch anything. Sprinting is probably almost as bad as jogging since, although it does make you warm and temporarily a little loose, it tends to tighten up the muscles after a minute or so, by about the time your pitcher is done warming up. Jogging out slowly with long strides should have the opposite effect on tightness and it should warm you up plenty. Performing dynamic stretches would definitely be best but most girls are unwilling to do anything to call attention to their strange behavior as they make their way onto the field!
Related to this aspect is what happens during long innings. The typical half inning is anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes long. I won't belabor the point but 2 minutes is probably a short, one or no baserunner inning. 5 minutes is probably an inning in which the opponent loads the bases or scores a run or two. Seldom does a half inning extend to 10 minutes. Longer innings (5 to at most 10 minutes) usually result from a baserunners and/or runs scoring plus a defensive conference in the circle.
When this happens, usually the entire infield comes to the pitching circle to discuss things with the coach. Also, on most teams, the outfielders saunter together to discuss God only knows what. If they are discussing defensive strategy, that's all well and good. But if they are merely socializing, I would much prefer to see them jogging around with long strides or performing dynamic stretches of some kind. If you've taken my advice and done this at the beginning of the inning but the inning has stretched to 5 minutes or more, your legs have gone cold and tight again. You need to warm them up and stretch them out. Do something smart. Do something that will yield a half step to you as you chase down that line drive in the gap. That way you may catch it and win the game!
Well, that's it for today. I hope I have given you some tips or at least some things to think about. I hope you gained something which will make your or your team's play just a hair better.Labels: outfield
 
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