When does a decoy become dirty?

Last week the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals had a blench-clearing skirmish after the Pirates third baseman (Jung-ho Kang) decoyed Bryce Harper on a play at third base. Here is the video.  The decoy or “deke” occurs at the 21 second mark. UPDATE: The video below is apparently not working for most people.  I […]

Hitters are stupid

Hitters are stupid … … but they get significantly smarter as the count turns in their favor! The game of baseball has forever favored pitchers.  If it favored hitters, all fences would be 300 feet.  There wouldn’t be 9 players on defense either. I could go on but the point is that the way baseball […]

Should a batter keep his back elbow up?

Today’s video is about the controversy over the back elbow of hitters.  It’s a longer video because there are multiple layers to this debate.  As you will see, I don’t believe the problem is with the elbow itself. Feel free to give me your thoughts in the comment section.

Principled drills

There are two different types of drills that we coaches tend to run our players through during practice. The first involves picking a position-based skill that needs to be worked on and designing a drill to target the skill. An example might be underhand feeds by the shortstop on double plays with the second baseman. […]

What is the proper arm path for pitchers?

I fully expect some criticism over this video because I think my views are in the minority.  So all you keyboard warriors get your fingers ready! Today’s video explains two things from my point of view: How most kids are taught a proper arm path. What I think a proper arm path should look like. […]

Tips for the showcase circuit

It’s showcase season! The Fall is when many high school players hit the showcase circuit in the attempts to woo a college or pro scout into giving up some money.  If you are already a selfish, “me only” player then you may stop reading and move on to another activity.  You won’t learn anything new […]

Another option for catchers when blocking

Today’s video tip is another option for catchers concerning what to do with their throwing hand/arm while blocking.  Getting hit on the throwing hand/arm on balls in the dirt are not much fun.  Typically, catchers are taught to hide the hand behind the glove to protect it. Here’s another option I am seeing more and […]

Donaldson and Trout talk hitting

Watch both of these videos.  It’s the closest you will get to pornography for hitting coaches. The first is Josh Donaldson and the second is Mike Trout.  If you don’t have a lot of time at the moment, go to the 5:25 point of the Josh Donaldson one and watch the rest later. Now it’s […]

Tuesday is the day!

Hi everyone!  Just a heads-up that new posts will be starting Tuesday, September 6th!  I hope everyone had a great finish to the summer!  As always, if anyone has any topics you’d like me to cover in written or video form, shoot me an email at BaseballByTheYard@gmail.com.