The "Fielding" stat on the backyard kids baseball cards gives you a very general (and wrong) sense of the fielding abilities of players. This stat is made up of only few parts of fielding and don't take into consideration players who can excel at certain positions. Height and speed are huge factors on how effective a fielder will be and neither of these are considered in the "fielding" ball ratings the game provides. If you are looking to place players around the field here are some great guidelines to make sure you are getting the most out of your squad.
You'll want to familiarize yourself with this table of the "hidden" stats of each Backyard Baseball Kid, Pro and Generic player so that you can easily browse and compare stats across your squad. Backyard Baseball Resources
Pitcher- You'll want a higher stamina here obviously and 1 great or multiple good pitch rating. The pitcher will field a ton of grounders in this game, so you should try to avoid having a very slow pitcher with a bad throwing strength. Angela Delvecchio is often placed at pitcher because of her great stamina and pitching kit, this can be done, but a fast 3b and catcher will be required to pick up her slack.
Catcher- This one can be pretty simple, A high arm strength is great here as well as high aggression. A low aggression player may not give full effort if there is a close play. Throw accuracy is nice to avoid overthrowing the 1st or 3rb basemen on short grounder. You don't need much speed at all here unless you need to cover grounders for a slower pitcher. Coordination and height is a bonus here so they can catch those little pop ups right over home plate. The game does not like when players backs are turned when catching fly balls so catchers will drop thse little pop ups very often. You'll most likely want to save your height for other fielding positions,
1B- Three height players are immensely better than two, the most common height of players. The taller the better here as you want to make sure no errant throws get past the 1b. It's also really great to rob people trying to hit down the line. Height helps catch those higher throws/hits, but height also increase the players catching radius. The 4 and 5 height players can snag balls as if they have a magnet at times. A high aggression or high speed could spell issues here since the pitcher and 1b may run into each other trying to pick up the same ball. If the 1b is slow enough and low enough aggression they should mostly stay put. Fast 1b's have worked before, you'll just need to be careful abuot who is pitching and who is playing 2nd Base.
2B- Some would consider this as the short stop of Backyard Baseball Online Season 4. One way to setup your defense is to try and funnel all of the plays towards the right side of the field. This is for a few primary reasons. 1, throws on the right side of the field to first base are much shorter. 2, Most fields have a more difficult home run wall in right field. 3, It's easier to place all of your good defenders on the right side then to spread them across. If you don't intend to pitch only to the right side of the plate and funnel everything to 2b, this position is your worst defender typically. The throw from 2b to 1st is very easy and even the worst arms can do it. If you are going to be funnelling everything to the right side of the field you'll want a taller, faster and more coordinated player here. Keisha Phillips is a fantastic player to place here.
3B- Since this is down the foul line you can rob people of hits with taller players here, you'll also want a little bit of aggression or speed if you can afford it here so that you can cover for the pitcher on grounders toward 3rd (Sally Dobbs, Jorge Garcia). Here you need a big arm and accuracy (if you plan on funnelling you might be able to sneak a stinker here).
4B- Not a real position.
Short Stop - Good arm, speed, and Coordination here. The SS covers a lot of the outfield so they are often times tasked with over-the-shoulder catches that high Coordination players can grab more regularly than others (Vivki Kawagucchi, Lisa Crockett).
LF / RF (good) - Depending on the field you'll want your better out fielder in the spot that will be more important. Vision is very important for tracking fly balls, if you have a low vision player make sure you are super confident in manually placing outfielders under the ball for catches. If you are funnelling hits to the right you'll want your best fielder in RF. You want to shut down doubles and even take away singles with 7-6 putouts. Kenny Lofton, Derek Jeter, and many other Pro's are great here since they will likely have 3 height, speed, coordination and an arm.
LF / RF (bad) - For filling in your less important outfielding position you'll want either good speed, or a great arm. It may be hard to get both of those, but when a ball is hit out there you either want to grab it right away, or when you do grab it, prevent extra bases by ripping the ball back into the infield. High vision is great for getting right under the ball and of course coordination will prevent drops.
CF - The CF has to cover a ton of ground on some fields (sandy flats, dirt yards, Eckman Acres) while on others they cover nothing (Tin Can Alley, Steele Stadium). If there is a large area to cover you'll want speed and that arm, but you'll also want stamina since they will be making long throws and a higher stamina will prevent them from being completely drained after a couple throws from deep center. On fields like Tin Can Alley and Steele Stadium you can put your worst defenders (Amir Khan, Achmed Khan) here and normally be just fine.
Good Luck! Don't forget you can play with any of the 260+ players in the game online with competitive mods enabled. Join the discord to find opponents or join any of our leagues! https://discord.com/invite/sN8ddB2psp