What would your reaction be?

What I would do

Baseball is a beautiful and cruel sport at the same time. Alex Rodriguez makes over 25 million a year and is arguably one of the most talented players in the game. I've seen him hit a walk-off but I've also seen him wear the golden sombrero. I've also seen the Yankees have bases loaded with no outs and not score any runs (strikeout followed by a DP).Every player will probably and eventually make a play to cost his team the game. At least you can see it this way anyway. So if a player drops a fly ball allowing the winning run(s) to score.......maybe if the team had scored more runs it would not have come down to that particular play. Ok, I hope you see my point. It all depends on the situation. First and foremost, I select players who can play. I do my homework and I have players who make the routine plays most of the time and they make the spectacular plays some of the time. But they must give 100% effort 100% of the time. A mistake is a mistake; plain and simple. But mistakes born out of a lack of effort turn coaches' hair gray. If one of my guys is busting his hump and makes a bad play I pat him on the back and tell him that its OK because he probably already has and will continue to be clutch at other times. Plus, he's already hurting enough with his own thoughts about what happened. Now if a player continues to make mistake after mistake either 1) I made a poor choice 2) I failed as a coach to adequately prepare him or 3) something else is wrong that we need to figure out.

 

If you have coached, you have had this happen

...anybody who has coached at any level - tee ball on up to college has seen this...

If it is a kid who cares and is working hard, I would say the coach goes directly to him and says:
"I know how you are feeling right now, anybody who has played the game for any length of time has had something like this happen. I am really glad you care this much. You and I will work hard in practice to make sure you don't have to go through this again anytime soon. You get to feel bad for the next couple of hours, but then this is behind us and we pick it up and start again."

If the kid has talent but is not working hard...that is another issue.
If the kid is in over his head at this level...that is another issue.

 

It really is hard to say what the correct answer is without knowing more details. I believe there are a lot of great answers posted and it appears the commonality is if the players is making the effort be positive, the player already feels bad. If it was done because of lack of effort, that issue needs to be addressed. If it was done because he was playing out of position and struggled, that's a coaching situation that needs to be corrected.

But, if he has a history of nonchalance and you took the risk of bringing him on your team...the coach has to shoulder the blame.

 

Amen to that !!

What Braves said - I second it and move that we vote on it....

 

Good and Bad approach gives differing results

The best way to handle bad situations is to send in the right people to deal with it. Excellent.

Glad you didn't say PUNCH him out!!!

 

Promote the player to coach or umpire

 

Plate or bases...your choice

Never to a fraternity brother!!

 

Nothing

I have never seen a player try to make an error. As long as the player is doing his best to make a play and hustles after the baseball and doesnt sulk then you just let it go. If the guy continues to miss fly balls then of course your going to factor that in when making out a line up down the road. But no one is going to feel any worse than the guy that drops a fly ball. He needs someone to pick him up not beat him down after something like that happens.

Now if he acts like he doesnt care. Doesnt hustle after the ball once its dropped. Then he will hear about it when the next line up is announced. But I dont think anything is gained by jumping on someone when they are already down. Heck pick the kid up and move on.