Outfielder needs a stronger arm

Here comes ol' Mr. Negativity again, but I'm only speaking from limited experience and guessing on the rest.

From what I can tell, having a gun in the outfield is a definite plus, but just like a pitcher who can throw at 110mph but can't get the ball over the plate, the gun will get the look, but the accuracy will get the job.

I'm gonna refer to my experience with the Jr. Olys again only because that was the first time I saw actual grading done on outfielders on a large scale where I was told that they were looking for more than a gun.

To refresh, the outfielders had to catch a hand thrown ball and then make a throw from left field and behind cones 225-250' from home.

The max score was a throw that was on a line all the way to the plate that could be cut off by a player between the mound and the edge of the infield grass, and ends up inside the lines of the batters boxes. I'll estimate about 70-80' from the plate for the cutoff man.

Out of the 200-300 16U players I watched, each getting 4 throws, I don't think I saw that happen more than a dozen times, and never twice by the same player. I honestly don't know what weight the evaluators put on the different factors, but I know for sure that if the throw was more than a couple feet outside of the batter's boxes, no matter how it got there, pencil wasn't toughed to paper which leads me to believe the throw wasn't even evaluated.

I wish I could be more sure of everyone there, but in the case of the players I saw throw that I knew, as would be expected, the very best arms were also pitchers.

Like I said, I don't know how they assigned different weights to throws for each of the things they were looking for, but I have to say that if it were me having to choose an outfielder on his ability to throw alone, I want that liner to the cutoff man 1st, the throw to be accurate 2nd and if he has a gun too, that would be a bonus.

But as far as actually playing the outfield goes, if I was choosing outfielders, to be honest, the last thing I'm looking for is an arm! I'd like to have outfielder that can run like deer, but I think its more important that they make a good play on whatever they can get to.

It's not really hard to watch an outfielder catch some balls and be able to tell if he has good instincts for getting to a fly ball and then catching it. it also fairly easy to tell if an outfielder really knows where he needs to throw the ball and to get rid of it quickly. Its harder to tell if they have the ability to cut a ball off properly and know how to use their momentum to throw the ball. Until they are in a game situation, it is impossible to tell if they have the instincts to back up plays both in the infield and outfield.

But all of those things are important, not just having a gun! A lot of people, especially in youth baseball, really don't give much respect to outfielders or the skills it takes to play out there well. Some coaches might put one really good athlete out there, but that doesn't mean he'll be able to play the out well. There's are a lot of unique skills required to play there.

If its advice you're looking for as to how to get a strong arm, the advice the other folks gave o is the best there is. But, if you want to be a good outfielder, you have to do the same things it takes to be a good infielder.

That's not only having someone pound ball after ball after ball that you can catch. You have to practice getting to the ball correctly, setting up correctly and getting rid of it quickly with a good accurate throw to where it should be going. Unfortunately, that's not the way I see most outfield practices go.

Usually its a bunch of players standing around waiting for their turn and then making some kind of catch and then throwing a lazy looper in to the batter or guy catching for him. that's going through the motions, not practicing!

I'm not going to put words in anyone's mouth, but as for me, if you are trying to win an outfield spot for me, given that all of those trying are of fairly equal hitting ability, my first vote goes to the player who can catch the most balls in the air. My next vote goes to the player who can cut balls off and throw to the right place next. The tiebreaker from there would be the player who throws the most accurately and the last thing would be whether or not he has a gun.

Of course those are only general guidelines, and in reality things may change a little bit here or there, but in general, what good is an outfielder who can throw the ball 400' but can't catch a fly or throws it to the wrong place or throws it away?

To add one other thing to the advice already given, the weighted balls might be worth investigation. Since reading more about them, of course I had to buy a set for my son. He is trying to use them "properly" and that means sparingly, and it appears they are having a positive effect.

I can't say they will turn your arm into a Roberto Clemente arm, but if used properly, I believe they shouldn't hurt and will probably help.