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THREAD: 
Outfield Defense
I’m going to challenge some of our thoughts about how we think about OF defense in softball.
Below is a field (fair territory is 90°) divided into 3 equal segments of 30°. Theoretically each OF gets as many outs in their segment as possible. 1/
Outfield Defense I’m going to challenge some of our thoughts about how we think about OF defense in softball.
Below is a field (fair territory is 90°) divided into 3 equal segments of 30°. Theoretically each OF gets as many outs in their segment as possible. 1/
A basic ready position for each OF is in the middle of their segment. This field is 220ft to the fence in center and 205ft in the corners.
-LF/RF are 15° off the line about 154 ft from HP
-CF is directly behind 2B, 45° from either line, and 180ft from HP
1°≈ 3ft in the OF 2/
-LF/RF are 15° off the line about 154 ft from HP
-CF is directly behind 2B, 45° from either line, and 180ft from HP
1°≈ 3ft in the OF 2/
I charted each out chance the OF gets at the D1 level during 28 games of Regional play.* LF got 68 chances, CF/ RF got 40 chances each.
A basic theory is the best OF should be in CF.
*The location of each mark is not exact to where the play was made but is relatively close. 3/
A basic theory is the best OF should be in CF.
*The location of each mark is not exact to where the play was made but is relatively close. 3/
When the charted outs are overlaid with the 30° you see that the corner OFs creep into the CF segment but not vice versa.
Obviously OF can shift based on situation and hitter but this is an average of a lot of games.
The green dot in CF was the only slap caught by CF. 4/
Obviously OF can shift based on situation and hitter but this is an average of a lot of games.
The green dot in CF was the only slap caught by CF. 4/
Here’s what the real segments of each OF looks like. LF & CF overlap but CF & RF do not. Some outs happen in foul territory so the 90° field does expand some.
Here is the ° each OF covers:
LF - 42°
CF - 24°
RF - 41°
17° are added because of the OF range increasing outs. 5/
Here is the ° each OF covers:
LF - 42°
CF - 24°
RF - 41°
17° are added because of the OF range increasing outs. 5/
LF & CF can catch each fair ball within a 50ft radius if their ready position was on the x in the circle. RF’s radius is 60ft because of an outlier. LF & RF both have to increase their range by 15ft in order to record outs in foul territory.
The goal is to get to the ball. 6/
The goal is to get to the ball. 6/
How does the blue x compare with a generic start?
The red line was the initial start point and the green circles are where the blue x’s were.
To increase out probability:
LF move 1° towards CF & 6ft back
CF move 3° towards LF & 0ft back
RF move 1.5° towards CF & 14 ft back 7/
The red line was the initial start point and the green circles are where the blue x’s were.
To increase out probability:
LF move 1° towards CF & 6ft back
CF move 3° towards LF & 0ft back
RF move 1.5° towards CF & 14 ft back 7/
If you go back to 6/ you’ll see a distinct difference in ball direction from start point. A lefty in LF will be moving glove side more often increasing their range and the same goes for a righty in RF. Knowing this can maximize our players. LF gets almost 50% more balls than 8/
the other OF positions. Each position has its unique difficulty except CF. CF seems to have a smaller range of plays, less variety in plays, and overall isn’t the position we always thought it was. This might be because all D1 OFs can play at a high level but it is interesting 9/
