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Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:07 am
by livestrong4ever
A friend and I was discussing this earlier today. And he said center field was, and I was thinking that short stop or third base would be.
What do you think is, and why

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:18 am
by TyCobb
Catcher. You have to call a game, get beat up by bad pitches and foul tips, wear heavy gear, squat down for half the game, be able to catch about 4 different pitchers on any given night, scout each hitters hitting charts.

No question catcher is the toughest position in baseball. Not even close.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:25 am
by livestrong4ever
i said to play defense. i didn't say toughest position over all.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:30 am
by TyCobb
And? What part of that isn't **** defense?

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:23 pm
by Posey H8er
Toughest to easiest.

C
SS
CF
3B
2B
1B
LF
RF

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 5:28 pm
by studcrackers
right field is not the easiest to play, u normally hide ur worst defender in left

i may move up 1st base. thought it may be one of if not the easiest to play but i think good to great 1st base defense is underrated and think people take for granted how great they are at scooping balls out of the dirt or making those long stretches or diving stops.

that's about the only reason chris davis stayed up so long this year, his defense was amazing, one of the most flexible players in baseball. and though i hate teixeira he's great too

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 6:18 pm
by Modern_epic
Pitcher is definitely the easiest, but out of the people you care about, it is LF. Range is right and left are the same, but more balls are hit to right, and you have to throw further when trying to gun down runners at 3rd.

I'm also pretty sure 2B is harder than 3B. 3rd needs a stronger arm, but second touches the ball more, and need to be able to turn the double play.

C, SS, CF, 2B, 3B, 1B/RF, LF, P

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 8:25 pm
by livestrong4ever
TyCobb wrote:And? What part of that isn't **** defense?

calling a game isn't defensive.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 9:19 pm
by trwi7
livestrong4ever wrote:
TyCobb wrote:And? What part of that isn't **** defense?

calling a game isn't defensive.


You're just failing epically at this. Do catchers have to field or catch a ball? If the answer is yes, they play defense.

C
SS
CF
2B
3B
RF
P
LF
1B

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 9:54 pm
by jumanji
Modern_epic wrote:Pitcher is definitely the easiest, but out of the people you care about, it is LF. Range is right and left are the same, but more balls are hit to right, and you have to throw further when trying to gun down runners at 3rd.

I'm also pretty sure 2B is harder than 3B. 3rd needs a stronger arm, but second touches the ball more, and need to be able to turn the double play.

C, SS, CF, 2B, 3B, 1B/RF, LF, P



I'd say 3rd is the toughest, pitcher is probably the most dangerous. 60' 6" being shorter than 90'.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2009 9:54 pm
by Stanford
livestrong4ever wrote:
TyCobb wrote:And? What part of that isn't **** defense?

calling a game isn't defensive.


Correct. It's offensive.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Tue Aug 4, 2009 3:29 pm
by sunshinekids99
I would say short stop would be number 1 for me, I'd have catcher 3rd or 4th I believe.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Wed Aug 5, 2009 2:42 am
by Dirty Water
OP you are not making sense.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Wed Aug 5, 2009 5:23 am
by livestrong4ever
trwi7 wrote:
livestrong4ever wrote:
TyCobb wrote:And? What part of that isn't **** defense?

calling a game isn't defensive.


You're just failing epically at this. Do catchers have to field or catch a ball? If the answer is yes, they play defense.

C
SS
CF
2B
3B
RF
P
LF
1B

I am not saying catchers don't play defense, i am saying calling a game isn't part of the defensive process.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Wed Aug 5, 2009 6:04 am
by HCYanks
Why not? The entire objective of pitching is run prevention, so by extension anything a catcher does to help a pitcher not allow runs could be considered defensive action. No need to create unnecessary subcategories of performance.

Game calling is sort of overhyped nonsense anyway. It's a much more learnable skill than most other aspects of catching and it's not as easy to label certain catchers as good gamecallers as a lot of analysts make it out to be.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Wed Aug 5, 2009 6:18 am
by High 5
Catcher is definitely the toughest position to play. Why would someone say LF is tougher than RF?

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Thu Aug 6, 2009 3:27 am
by Modern_epic
Modern_epic wrote:Pitcher is definitely the easiest, but out of the people you care about, it is LF. Range is right and left are the same, but more balls are hit to right, and you have to throw further when trying to gun down runners at 3rd.

I'm also pretty sure 2B is harder than 3B. 3rd needs a stronger arm, but second touches the ball more, and need to be able to turn the double play.

C, SS, CF, 2B, 3B, 1B/RF, LF, P


I should have added the caveat that Joe Inglett reminded me of tonight: just because you can play a tougher position, it doesn't mean you will be good at a worse one.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Thu Aug 6, 2009 9:48 pm
by Da Schwab
I'm with Ty on this one, catcher is the toughest position out there. I'd rank the positions like this:

C
3B
SS
2B (Playing up the middle is tough because you have to deal with all the tweeners)
CF
RF
1B
LF
P

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Thu Aug 6, 2009 10:11 pm
by Modern_epic
I don't understand the third base thing. Not the least of my problems with it is that 3B is typically where people move a good hitting SS who has lost a step.

Re: Toughest Position to play defense

Posted: Thu Aug 6, 2009 10:30 pm
by Dirty Water
I'll agree that 2B is harder than it looks. My junior year in high school I moved from SS to 2B because we had this hotshot defensive SS who got on the team. I really struggled defensively, The throw is just weird for me. I feel a lot more comfortable across the diamond. Long story short, a few Chuck Knoblauch-esque games later I told the coach abotu how I felt and he moved me over to 3rd. A lot easier for me. Started there my final two years.