Baseball: Situational Team Defense

How nine players defend as one

Great defense is not nine players making plays alone — it is nine players moving as one. This epoch teaches situational team defense: the way the whole field works together once the ball is in play. You will learn cutoffs and relays, bunt defense and the wheel play, the first-and-third defenses, rundowns, double-play depth and the turns, when to play the infield in, fly-ball priority and communication, holding and defending baserunners, positioning and the modern shift rules, and how the entire defense changes to protect a late lead. Every assignment — who is the cutoff man, who covers the bag, force versus tag, who has priority — must be right, because on a team defense one player out of position turns an out into a run.