Lorenzo Cain of the World Champion Kansas City Royals (pictured here) makes outfield play look routine.  It is anything but easy!

Former major league player, coach and front-office person Jose Cardenal shares some tips for basic outfield defense.

Source: The Keys to Great Outfield Defense Can be Simple

Cardenal emphasized the mental part of the game when providing tips on outfield defense at the Joe Maddon and Friends Coaching the Coaches Clinic earlier this month.

“Is he a pull hitter?” Cardenal said, pointing out the things outfielders need to be thinking about while waiting for their few plays a game. “Is he a little guy, rinky-dink hitter or a power hitter?

“You have to know game situations.”

Cardenal built his knowledge of the game over a lengthy career as a player, coach and front-office person in Major League Baseball. The Cuban-born outfielder played 2,017 games for nine teams over 18 seasons from 1963 to 1980 while hitting .275 with 329 stolen bases.

Concentration through long breaks of inactivity is part of the assignment, he said.

“If your mind’s not right, you can’t do it,” said Cardenal, who was a coach for four MLB teams. “You have to know how to throw to the right base. You have to know how to keep the deciding run from advancing. There’s a lot of things you have to think about.”

Cardenal stressed preparedness. Outfielders must be prepared to hit the right cutoff man if the ball is played to them. They also must know the proper position to be in for each new batter.

“If it’s a pull hitter and the pitcher’s throwing hard, maybe you have to play back just a bit more,” Cardenal said. “You have to know who’s playing next to you. You have to think, ‘How much can he cover? How much can I cover?’”

Think of some of the most respected athletes of our time… Derek Jeter.  Peyton Manning.  Michael Jordan.  Three guys whose careers have represented the best of the best.  A huge reason behind their reverence in the sporting world is due to the fact that they all have won humbly and graciously with superior talent.

Source: CHARACTER COUNTS | Coaching Your Kids

Rutgers University coach Fred Hill had a saying that you could only have one jerk in your program at a time, and if he’s a jerk, he better be damn good.  What he was talking about was not the kid’s athletic ability, but rather his character and who he was as a person.  When one bad seed is surrounded by 34 quality guys, he has no other choice but to get in line with the high moral standard of Rutgers University Baseball.  More than one jerk and there is the potential for cancer to spread throughout the clubhouse like wildfire, which we had a couple examples of as well.

So when he went out to recruit a potential student-athlete, not only did he need to be good enough athletically on the field, he needed to fit in with the character of those who make the team who we are off the diamond.  With limited scholarship money, their decisions as to who we were going to offer often came down to that player’s personality than how far he can hit a baseball.

He had instances where they brought kids on because we loved WHO they were as people, and we had times where we backed off others because they knew they weren’t what their team was all about.