I grew up playing 1st base. I was taught to:

1) Sprint to the bag
2) Place feet on either side bag
3) And then slide in the direction of the throw
4) Stretch and receive the throw

On skipped balls, you get your body in front of it and go into catcher block mode.

What I saw last night was Moss being completely stretched out before he knew whether the throw was good or offline. Out of the 4 skipped throws last night, I thought with better footwork he could have kept 2 or 3 in front of him and scooped another for an out.

The other thing I noticed is his glove hand is moving up really fast as he tries to time scooping the ball. He's giving himself a very narrow window to time the catch perfectly. I was taught to keep the glove ooen in the location the skip ball should bounce so you have a better chance to knock it down. It seems like he's either going to catch it or have a pass ball. Is this what they're teaching nowadays so they look like the pros?

I'm a lefty so 1st Base was my position pretty much my whole career.

Yes, sprint to the bag and get in the "ready" position as quickly as possible.
Put your left foot (in my case) on the inside of the bag and your right foot off the bag (shoulder width apart), so that you can quick step (with your right foot) to the left or right or forward) to meet the ball.
Show the infielder your glove, give him a target.

You mentioned sliding your body on skipped balls to block the ball -- IMO you only do that when you've got a runner on 3rd really, or if you are 100% sure the throw is going to be way late.

If there's nobody on base, or only a runner on 1st, and the throw was wide left or wide right, I would stretch and scoop.

I guess y'all didn't see Moss make 3 maybe 4 incredible digs in our fist win against Florida. Trust me, he has been taught correctly.

He had an off game yesterday. He's been like a human backstop at first.

Yep. Nobody is a machine but Jack is pretty close to one. Bad game yesterday early on both in the field and at the plate. Was back to his old self by the later innings.

I have no idea how he's made some of the plays he's made. It's like he's Plastic Man.

trouble said:

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I have no idea how he's made some of the plays he's made. It's like he's Plastic Man.

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Being 6'5" helps.

Moss shouldn't get any grief. He was the single bright spot in a slow start.

The radio guys were talking about Jack and how great his footwork is last night. They mentioned him saving that Friday night game against Alabama and I remember that. It was a high ball and he had to jump a little to get it, but he got his foot back down in time while he was arcing back his arms after catching the throw. It was really pretty to watch and the ump got the call right! Of course Alabama asked for a review anyway. The Bama guy next to me (we'd been pleasantly conversing through the game) asked me if I thought he was out. I said I know he was out. Umpire got it right. Review confirmed it.

I think if we should have had anybody on SEC first team, it should have been Jack Moss.

At lower levels of baseball you block the ball because Catcher and Right Fielder are not reliably backing you up but once you get to most high schools, and all college +, the first baseman has to stay on the bag and make a snag with the glive only.

We had 5 errors. 4 before we even got 6 outs. Uncharacteristic error on a simple ground ball by our centerfielder, plus uncharacteristic bad throws from third and shortstop. It was truly the worst two innings of Aggie defense all season and yet we got ourselves straight around our pitcher for the rest of the game and came back with relentless bats. Moss will be fine,

Great player, best infielder on the field. At the plate, he has above average bat control. He goes inside/out opposite field better than anyone on team.

wink1989 said:

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I guess y'all didn't see Moss make 3 maybe 4 incredible digs in our fist win against Florida. Trust me, he has been taught correctly.

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Lots of throws in the dirt this year. Too many (IMO) at this level. But, Moss is doing a good job.

While the avalanche of errors was frustrating, the boys got out of it only down by 3, and those of us that have watched this team know these guys don't even bat an eye at 3 runs. Never seen a more resilient Aggie team, nothing seems to phase them.

Every adversity they encounter just seems to be channeled into future motivation. They remind me of Sebastian Shaw in x men first class, they just absorb any energy around them, positive or negative, store it up and explode at the optimal moment.

Ball, Bag, Backup are every positions responsibility in that order.

Whatever ball you can get to, get it. If you can't, go to appropriate bag, if no appropriate bag or someone else covering bag, then backup.

First baseman steps to the ball no matter where it's thrown. You time your step to hit the ground at same time ball hits your glove. If stretch is needed, simply step longer, but still time it so that your foot lands on ground at same time ball hits glove.

On low throws nothing changes except you get on same level as the ball. You get down so that you can adjust and see the angle of the hop better. You also push glove through the ball to stay on plane longer and "scoop" it up.

dude, do you even TexAg? Come on, let the TexAgs experts pontificate!