Ok, all you coaches...
At the high school level, where do you play your best outfielder? And where do you play the fastest, if he isn't the same as the best?
Please answer and then tell why...add your coaching experience...

Thanks in advance for your input!

The best outfielder plays center. It's the outfielder responsible for covering the most ground and on both sides of the outfield. I've seen fast outfielders who stare down the ball too long before getting a jump on the ball. At my son's high school the slowest of the three plays center. He'll get to the ball first.

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On a side note. I looked at a CF today who has blazing speed. He played in the same spot for every hitter,every pitch count and every type of pitch. He got burned a few times by not cheating on every pitch.

In a perfect world I want my best arm in rf. I want my weakest arm in lf. I want my best guy in cf.

Sometimes your fastest guy is not your best of. If he is then its a no brainer.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach May:
In a perfect world I want my best arm in rf. I want my weakest arm in lf.

I read/heard somewhere that there were more LF to Home throws than RF to 3B and RF to Home combined. I think I saw it on ESPN last year.

While I agree with Coach May, it makes me think that the best arm ought to be in LF.

Maybe so redbird5 I certainly dont know about that. But as you know there are no assists to 1B but there is to 3B.

Well hold on just a minute on that bball419. I have been blessed with some very good power arms in my HS program over the last few years. Very few HS hitters were capable of turning on them and most if not all the action was in right field when they were on the hill. Especially since the majority of the hitters are rhh. I have many times put my best guy in rf knowing the other team was overmatched at the plate and I wanted my best defender in a posisition to field the most plays.

RF can be a very tough posistion for outfielders to play especially at the high school leve where you just are not always blessed with great ability out there. The ball coming off the bat of a rhh to right field can be nasty. Most hitters rh. This might not be the stretch you think it is.

I take a different view on this. I like my guy with the best speed in center, but then I like to have my best fielder other than the centerfielder in left. In high school many balls are hit harder to left, and they are often on a line. The left fielder must be great at reacting and getting to those balls. Many of the balls that go to RF are pop-ups or balls that are not driven. The best hit balls to RF are in the gap and our CF should track those down if possible.

coach wouldnt it depend on how good your guy on the hill is and how good the competition is? When I am throwing a dominate arm at a team of rh hitters I dont see any balls in lf. Most are late and if they go to the of its rf or rcf.

I think we all agree that typically your best guy is in cf. But hs baseball is a different game than college and beyond.

We adjust our outfielders in there placement with the pitcher but not by position. When we have a dominant pitcher on the mound we will play our left fielder all the way in left-center, our CF plays in right-center, and our right fielder plays the line and in. This is another reason why I like a quality fielder with speed in LF as well as CF.

I'm not the coach...

But I think our best OF is our RF. I think there are several reasons for this.
1.) Power pitching staff with lots of balls hit that way
2.) He's the best OF at dealing with the sun, which is horrible at our home park and all of our conference opponent's fields. Games are played at 4pm, with sunset between 6 and 7pm during the season. Sun seems to be in direct line with home plate and straight away RF. I've seen first baseman cover up when the catcher attempts a pickoff throw. Its bad and he handles it well.
3.) The HS fields in our town were designed by a pitcher. There is at least 60' between the RF & LF lines and the fence. We have at least 1 foul fly ball out in RF every game. This territory may not be what you defend, but you can certainly take advantage of it.
4.) He's got the best arm (strong & accurate).

CF is a good outfielder and may be faster in the 60, but the RF gets the best jumps and by far the most action.

Best outfielder goes in Right. Arm strength is way over rated at the high school level. Track the number of hit balls and I bet most will be to RF, over a full season. Ours broke down like this 47% to RF 31% to CF 22% to LF. Our CF covers a lot of ground, but RF is our best all around outfielder.
Our park is pretty standard for a HS field. 330 down the lines and 380 to center

Most batters are right handed.
Most players are pitched away.
Most plays in the outfield are made in right field.

It just stands to reason your going to put your best guy where he has the most opportunities to make plays.

And yes , arm strength in the outfield at the hs level is over rated. But the only problem is when you really got to have it , its not over rated then.

But to each his own.

BEST depends on coverage ability to me. If the BEST means the guy that is the most consistent while covering the most real estate, that guy HAS to be center.