of the 5 tools is most important and in what order if you were building a high school program? My order would be:

Speed
hitting for average
Fielding ability
hitting for power
throwing ability

My rational is speed....speed kills. The most important factor in a successfull player is confidence. Kids that are confident play well, thay are aggressive and attempt to make plays. Kids that play for a coach who yells and screams play scarred and are prone to making mistakes.

I believe their are two reasons why coaches kids are for the most part the better players in youth baseball. The first is coaches kids usually are more fundamentally sound as the dads work with their kids, but IMO the most important factor is they are relaxed because the old man is the coach. These kids normally have a confident relaxed swagger on the field, do you agree?

hitting for average
hitting for power
Speed
Fielding ability
throwing ability

Speed kills only if you can hit. Can't steal first base. Hit with power, you're a lock.

Speed kills IF they're aggressive players. If they don't attack the game and don't have the instincts or baseball smarts, speed means squat.

Most kids should be able to field the ball when they get to high school so if they got a strong arm, it's a bonus.

Without defense,nothing else matters.

I'm assuming you are considering only position players, or does pitching count as throwing ability? I think that rather than rate the importance of any individual tool, I would consider the all around ability of players and would look for plus ratings at any of these skills in putting together a program.

Agree that confidence is a must, but talent and skill build confidence - coach's kid or not.

I would think that they are equally important as they build on each other. Depending on what each team has all around will factor into what the team can carry as far as a kid that exels in 1 or 2 but may be very weak at another ex; great pitcher--can't hit no speed---great hitter and speed no arm poor fielding--A kid with a great arm I would say is a lock on most teams--with short tryouts--many indoors ,it is the easiest (along with speed) to see.
A kid above average in all and excelling in 1 or 2 is great to have. (obviously excelling in all is the best)

quote:

Originally posted by tfox:
Without defense, nothing else matters.

There are plenty of below average defensive players who pound the ball. A player needs at least two tools. Hit and hit for power works. So does hit and speed. It's easier to develop fielding skills than hitting skills. You can't steal first. I doubt you will see Mark Belanger, Ray Oyler, Eddie Brinkman types in the majors anymore. Pitchers need one tool (velocity) then the coaches will do the rest.

My college coach once said there are two types of baseball players......

Those who hit...and those who pitch.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:

quote:

Originally posted by tfox:
Without defense, nothing else matters.

There are plenty of below average defensive players who pound the ball. A player needs at least two tools. Hit and hit for power works. So does hit and speed. It's easier to develop fielding skills than hitting skills. You can't steal first. I doubt you will see Mark Belanger, Ray Oyler, Eddie Brinkman types in the majors anymore. Pitchers need one tool (velocity) then the coaches will do the rest.

But if a pitcher is unhittable,he wins.defense rules.You can win a game 1-0 with good defense.

I agree though,hitting is VERY important.BUT without pitching,it is irrelevant.


I watched our high school score 12 runs in the first the other night on just 4 hits.

A program is built on the kids it has playing, so it will vary from season to season depending on the make up of the players. Some years you will have power hitters, some years speed, some years flame throwers on the hill. The only constant is to teach good fundamentals.

Except for a few idiosyncratic tweeks here and there, baseball is played the same from HS up.

If you are lucky enough to get a look at a professional tryout the first hurdle you would need to master is speed. If you are not fast enough you will be thanked for trying and sent packing. Unless, of course, you are a pitcher. Even more so, a left handed pitcher.

You will need two of the five tools. Which translated means you need speed plus one of the other four.

There was an F9 playing for the Reds in the 50's before the advent of the tool system for ranking players. Had a great arm and very few risked a tag up from third on a fly to RF. He threw frozen ropes to home with accuracy. He was a power hitter as well.

But he was a slug. I once saw him thrown out at first base on a ball he hit off of the wall in right center. He was missing the tool he needed for openers. But that was then and this is now.

quote:

You will need two of the five tools. Which translated means you need speed plus one of the other four.

For the most part correct. For position players, catchers and mashers are exempted from needing speed.

The very first thing you have to do is be able to catch and throw. You can score runs even if you dont hit. We are talking hs baseball. There are many was to manufacture runs in a hs baseball game. If you can not catch and throw it will not matter.

The question was building a high school program.

Proper throwing mechanics
Proper fielding mechanics
Proper hitting mechanics

I am gonna have to go with Coach May on this one. Throwing ability is the number one key to success. Not only for pitchers and catchers, fielders need to have good and acurate throwing ability at the HS level. I have been to too many HS games and see games won or lost because of a teams inability to make an acurate and hard throw and the opposite end being able to make a good catch.

For the most part, HS games are played around errors of the defense failing to play fundamental baseball. Scores get high, arms get overly sore as the season progresses, and while the better teams are focusing on strengthening their defense, the weaker teams focus more on offense and hitting to try make up for what they can't do defensively. Needless to say, it never works out!!! Good defense will always beat good offense, especially at the HS level.

The reason I believe the coaches kids are usually the better players is because of their natural ability and as the years go by their dads try to help coach in order to protect and groom that ability- they don't want other coaches to screw them up!

quote:

The very first thing you have to do is be able to catch and throw.

I thought this was just a HS post out of place. The above statement leads me to wonder what the level is. Someone has a firm grasp of the obvious.

I once asked a professional scout what it was that he was looking for in a player. He replied that he was looking for a player who played his position with proficiency and could carry his fair share of the hitting. Sounds right to me. At any level.