infield

Question
yes i wanted to know how i can read the ball better because i play 3rd and i wanna get better at it by knowing if the ball is gonna take a bad hop or not so how can i get better at it please help me and thank you so very much.

Answer
Carlos,
Sorry this took so long.  The problem with 3rd base is that you rarely have time to always get a good hop.  SS's and second basemen have more time and are taught to read the hops and adjust accordingly.

A good third baseman is made up of a combination of good hands, quick feet, and big cajones.  Because 3rd basemen get a lot of hard hit ground balls and line drives, you need to incorporate drills to speed up your hands and footwork.  

One good drill is the "short-hop" drill.  Get a partner and stand about 15-20ft apart from one another.  Take turns throwing the ball so that it short hops your partner.  You should take a wide fielding stance and try not to move your feet.  Put your throwing hand behind your back and extend your glove hand out in front of you.  Don't let your glove slip back underneath you.  You need to focus on fielding the ball out in front of you as opposed to letting it eat you up.

Try this and let me know how it goes.  You should see some improvement in your hand speed when fielding ground balls.  Let me know how it goes and we'll go from there.  Hope this helps, Carlos.  Good luck.

Donovan