Main Baseball Training Videos Sponsors

Social bookmarking
You like it? Share it!

Welcome to Baseball Hitting Training

Baseball Training Videos Article

This is a selection made from among articles on Baseball Training Videos. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.

Baseball - The 5 Tool Player
By Michael Russell

You hear talk about somebody being a 5 tool baseball player. These athletes are very few and far in between. Five tool players are the highest paid players in the game if you can even find them. But what exactly is meant by a 5 tool player? How do you know when somebody actually fits this description? We're going to present the basic definition of what a 5 tool player is and why these are such a rare breed.

A 5 tool player is one that has great speed, can hit for average, hit for power, a great throwing arm and is excellent defensively. Let's take a look at each of these separately.

Players with great speed are hard enough to find. Most of these are usually lead off hitters because they are needed to get on base and steel bases in order to get into scoring positions. Most lead off hitters are mostly contact hitters and don't hit for much power. So right there, finding somebody with great speed and somebody with power is already hard enough.

But then we get to somebody who can hit for average. This is something that can easily be linked together with just about any of the other tools but one, hitting for power. In order to hit for power, you have to either be incredibly strong or swing the bat very hard. When you do this, it is hard to hit for average because you are more prone to striking out a lot. Most power hitters strike out over 100 times a year. These people usually don't hit for a high average.

Then of course there is the person who just hits for power alone. This is not very common by itself. Take a look at the list of home run leaders in the major leagues and you'll see that out of the hundreds of players that play the game the list isn't any more than a dozen or so. Therefor, finding somebody who hits for power by itself is not an easy task. Finding speed, power and the ability to hit for average is very rare. And that's only 3 tools.

Then we come to fielding. Defense is something that requires a lot of practice. They talk about somebody having soft hands. That's a person who catches just about anything hit to him no matter how hard. The great fielders in the game defensively are a select few by themselves. Now add that to the other 3 tools and the list narrows even more.

But we're still not done. Then there is the matter of a player's throwing arm. Most of your best throwing arms are actually pitchers because they need to be able to throw hard to get hitters out. Pitchers certainly don't hit for power. Many short stops and third basemen have good arms but very few of them hit for power, let alone have all 5 tools.

So as you can see, a 5 tool player is indeed a rare breed. So many power hitters are very big and therefore very slow. Tall, thin, fast players don't usually hit for power. And yet, there have been a number of 5 tool players in the game of baseball, including Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Baseball

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell
http://EzineArticles.com/?Baseball---The-5-Tool-Player&id=209591

Baseball Training Videos Specific links

Baseball Training Videos News

MLB.com Selects the Adobe Flash Platform - Earthtimes

SAN FRANCISCO - (Business Wire) MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, and Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a two-year agreement in which MLB.com has selected the Adobe® Flash® Platform to deliver all of its ...

Sports notebooks - Canton Repository

The Malone University baseball team will hold a silent auction Nov. 20 at Skyland Pines. Cost is $45 per person or $75 per couple. The auction begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6:30. For information, call (330) 471-8239. West Branch sports passes on ...

MLB to Silverlight: You’re Out! - Newteevee.com

Major League Baseball announced today that it has selected Adobe’s Flash video platform to deliver its live and on-demand video for the next two years starting in 2009. This is a blow to Microsoft and its Silverlight video technology, which up ...

Lee transforms his game, but still has some baggage - Canton Repository

• Latest Videos, Slideshows, Audio... The bridge wasn't burned. Just slightly baked. Cliff Lee probably wasn't bleeding Cleveland Indians red, white and blue after the 2007 season — a disjointed and disappointing year that saw the lefty sent to ...

Minor League Games Today - OurSports Central

Ticket Solutions - Premium ticket broker offering World Series Tickets , Super Bowl Tickets , Final Four Tickets , Orange Bowl Tickets , Concert Tickets , and Theatre Tickets - 200% Guarantee! Buy sports tickets at CTC! Find cheap MLB baseball ...

Your Latest Community News - Evening Star

-- Select Your Community -- Albion Angola Ashley Auburn Avilla Butler Churubusco Corunna Cromwell Fremont Garrett Hamilton Howe Hudson Kendallville Kimmell LaGrange LaOtto Ligonier Mongo Orland Pleasant Lake Rome City Shipshewana South Milford ...

November 2008 - Weekly Standard

Out on the tour circuit for his new book, "How Mitt Romney, the Fake Conservative, Almost Bought the Republican Primary With His Big CEO Money" "Do the Right Thing," Mike Huckabee took a break from bashing former rival Mitt Romney to take a few ...

Big shrine, bigger fans - FOXSports.com

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is that rare museum that almost every guest visits because he or she really wants to. Nobody goes there for erudition or culture or status or because some professor announced that the modern condition really can't be ...

Vicky Hallett and Howard Schneider - Washington Post

He's a veteran reporter, digging up the latest fitness news. She's an irreverent columnist with a knack for getting people off the couch and into the gym. No exercise question is too odd or embarrassing for them to answer. Howard Schneider: Just to ...

World Boxing News - Secondsout.com

In today’s edition of Ask The Editor (ATE), we review last weekend’s Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr New York City boxing event and preview the David Haye-Monte Barrett and Jermain Taylor-Jeff Lacy fights. We ask again why Oscar De La Hoya is facing ...