Around The Diamond: The Outfield

The corner outfield position was always a hitter's position because RF and LF are two of the easier positions to field. In recent years RF and LF have turned into extreme power positions along with 1B because in the 90's and early 00's many baseball players were on steroids hence hitting tons of homers so they needed a position for only hitting homers. Why LF and RF? Because who do you think hits homers? I think it's the extremely large guys that are defensively inept and therefore play LF or RF. Now, most corner outfielders only hit homers, doubles, walk or strikeout. The only reason why such a player is playing baseball is because the homerun is the best play in baseball.

Centerfield on the other hand is the most overrated position defensively. According to Bill James C,SS,2B and 3B are all harder positions to field. Recently centerfielders have gotten much better at hitting. Most centerfielders now are either good hitters, extremely fast or five tool players like Carlos Beltran, Chris Young and Jacoby Ellsbury. In the minor leagues right now are a bunch of future five tool CFers in the Mold of Carlos Beltran. There are a lot of these guys, for example: Carlos Gomez, Cameron Maybin, Justin Upton, Fernando Martinez and Colby Rasmus to name a bunch. Soon every major league team will have a complete player playing centerfield similar to a Carlos Beltran.