[Hoot Gibson]

As a coach, let’s say do you allow a player to make 40 errors without replacing him or letting the player try another position?  Do you just go ahead and lose games in order to develop the talent in hopes of getting the better for the year to come?  All coaches have different philosophies.  What are yours?

As a former pitcher who had politically connected players in the field behind him, I can say that it is demoralizing and infuriating to have players who often commit multiple errors in an inning when players with equal or better skills are sitting in your dugout. If the principal's son cannot throw the ball from second base to first base, then no amount of "development" is going to change that. Coaches should put their best lineup on the field every game, while giving every player a fair opportunity to prove himself in practice.

There is nothing wrong with hitting players extra ground or fly balls, but you cannot single out players who are playing as the direct result of political favoritism for extra individual instruction, at the expense of better players who are riding the pine.

There is also nothing wrong with moving players to different positions, as long as you give most of the playing time to players who have earned it in practice.

I never coached above a Little League level, but I did play for a coach in college who had coached many major league players, including Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, and Rick Monday, when they were freshmen at Arizona State. I learned more baseball in one semester playing for that coach than I did in four years playing high school baseball and three years playing American Legion baseball. I still remember a couple of simple pick-off plays that are good for one or two outs per game.

IMO, the best thing that a coach can do to develop players is to work hard to learn as much about baseball as he possibly can and pass that knowledge to his players. A lot of personal development can be done by players in the off season but they need to understand their weaknesses and what they can do to overcome them.