The Art of Progression: Developing a Baserunning and Situational Baseball Framework from Draft Day to the Major Leagues
Curriculum development in schools is a continuous process, one that teachers dedicate significant time and effort to throughout the year. Careful planning and thoughtful reflection are essential in shaping a robust curriculum that supports students as they advance through grade levels, where they will encounter increasingly challenging material. This progression ensures that each new academic year builds upon the last, preparing students for greater academic rigor and intellectual growth.
Similarly, in professional baseball, baserunning and situational awareness are critical skills that evolve with a player’s development. Just as academic curriculums gradually increase in complexity, designing a situation game play curriculum that begins at the rookie level and progresses through the minor leagues requires a balance of teaching foundational techniques and introducing more advanced strategies over time. By carefully structuring this progression, coaches can build a scalable and effective situational program that equips players to handle the complexities of the major leagues — much like how educators prepare students for the challenges of higher learning.
As players progress through different levels of play, there should be a gradual, advancing understanding of the skills and knowledge we teach them. It’s beneficial for players at lower levels to play more aggressively, even if their decision-making lacks refinement. Over time, as they advance through the system, their decision-making skills should become more focused and precise. By the time they reach the upper levels of minor league baseball, their ability to make calculated, informed decisions will have sharpened, allowing them to play with both intelligence and control.
But where and how do coaches begin to build a curriculum that goes beyond simply reacting to the situations that arise during a season? Most teams focus their player education on the daily situations that emerge, reviewing them the following day or analyzing them after the fact. The problem with this reactive approach is that it keeps us constantly responding to issues, rather than proactively addressing them. Developing a comprehensive curriculum for player development is about equipping players with the skills they need before those situations arise. While there will always be moments when players need to reflect on a situation that occurred during a game, our goal is to minimize these instances. Instead, we aim to address potential challenges preemptively, preparing players to handle them before they even occur.
So we can start at the bottom of the minor league ladder and start to think about how these curriculums would look. How they would feel for players and what might be the big picture things that we teach at each level of play regarding the gameplay.
Starting at the bottom of the minor league ladder, we can begin to envision how these curriculums will look and feel for players, as well as identify the key concepts to teach at each level of play. At the Rookie Ball level, the primary focus should be on establishing foundational skills and fostering an understanding of the game. This is where players are introduced to the basics of baseball and begin to develop their individual identities as players.
Our expectations for the lower levels will focus on indoctrinating players into our style of play and the organizational goals we prioritize. We aim to teach them not only what we want them to accomplish but also how we expect them to accomplish it. To do this effectively, we need to build a robust system for educating them on the topics we value and how we evaluate their performance in these areas. At these lower levels, the emphasis should be on developing a curriculum that centers on the perceptive actions players take in various situations. Specifically, we want to focus on what they’re looking at, how they execute these actions, and what factors they consider when making decisions. By distilling these decisions down to the two or three highest-quality factors, we can help players better understand the core of each play.
At this stage, we place significant importance on asking the question, “Can you be safe?” We want to build their confidence and reputation by helping them learn to identify the key factors that contribute to whether they can safely advance or might be at risk of getting out. The primary focus is on developing their decision-making abilities and their understanding of the probabilities associated with various actions on the field. While we don’t want to overload them with analytics, we do want to stress the aggressive mindset that we value, encouraging them to think more about the extra bases they might be leaving on the field if they hesitate.
Once players begin to move up the ladder the obvious transition is that we move into a situation where players begin to understand the risks and rewards associated with different decisions on the baseball field. What we need from them is as they approach the AA level of play is to start to think deeper about what their decision means for the game itself. It is the game and the chess match in the game that becomes more important for our players to understand. What we begin to need is for them to realize that their decisions start to effect the final outcomes on the game. This is where we transition from ‘Can I be safe?’ to more of a situation where we think ‘Is the risk worth the reward?’ and this is where we want to live with the upper levels of the minor leagues. We think about what the game play will look like at the highest level of play, and consider the decisions that we make and how our decisions will effect the big league team. We start to think more about the leverage points of things like the inning, outs, base state, part of the lineup we are in, standings, the actual game leverage, who is pitching, the list can go on.
As players advance up the ladder, the natural progression is for them to develop a deeper understanding of the risks and rewards tied to their decisions on the baseball field. By the time they approach the AA level, we need them to start thinking more critically about how their choices impact the game itself. At this stage, it’s no longer just about asking, “Can I be safe?” Instead, the focus shifts to “Is the risk worth the reward?” This mindset is where we want players to live as they reach the upper levels of the minor leagues.
We want them to think strategically about what gameplay looks like at the highest level and consider how their decisions will affect the outcome of the game — and, ultimately, the success of the big league team. They need to weigh the leverage points of various factors, such as the inning, outs, base state, part of the lineup, standings, game leverage, and who’s pitching. This more nuanced decision-making process becomes crucial as players move closer to the major leagues.
Along with the increased pressure on players to develop a more nuanced mindset regarding situational fielding and baserunning at the lower edge of the upper levels (High A and above), we can begin to incorporate a much stronger focus on the rules of the game. This includes how we, as an organization, will play within the rules and use different leverage points to gain advantages during gameplay. This focus on rules and the exploration of deeper situational gameplay should signal a shift in our players’ mindset — we want to win games, and understanding how these elements contribute to winning should be a valuable asset for our organization.
At this stage, the focus transitions from teaching fundamentals, such as how we execute our cuts and relay systems, to a more complex way of thinking. Players will need to consider edge cases that arise and think critically about how slight changes in situations, whether experienced on the field or seen on film, could alter outcomes. The goal is to maintain a solid foundation in the basics while introducing different scenarios so players can adapt quickly and think creatively, all within the framework we’ve instilled at the lower levels.
No system is perfect when it comes to developing players, but the goal should not be to simply react to situations that arise daily. Instead, the objective is to build a proactive system that allows both coaches and players to stay ahead of the demands placed on them. By creating a structured framework, we enable consistency in development, ensuring that players are equipped not only to handle the challenges they face but to anticipate and adapt to them with confidence.
