How to Pick the Right Leather Baseball Glove

Finding the correct size of the glove can be tricky. The first of which is what is the age of your player. If a player is younger than the age of 10, they probably don’t have a primary position. Therefore, they can look at something in the range between 9.00 and 11.00″ in size. This is as a result of them not playing at a primary position and instead, playing all across the diamond, so a smaller glove is going to give them better control, better confidence, and allow them to play all the positions.

The second factor is going to be what is the primary position of the player. This won’t impact younger players, and however, once your player has a primary position, we can start to curtail the size of the glove directly to that position. If your player is playing second or shortstop, you’re typically going to look in the range between 11.00 And 11.50″ in size, ranging upward to 11.75. Moving across the diamond over to third, you’re looking at a glove between 11.50 and 12.00″ in size. 12.00″ is also a perfect glove size for a utility player or a pitcher. For a utility player, they can comfortably play on the infield and outfield, and for a pitcher, it gives them a little bit more room to set their grip without the onlooking hitter taking notice.

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12.00″ is a good starting point, but as a player gets more comfortable, they can move upward to 12.50 and even 13.00″ in size. For the position-specific models, first base will start out between 12.00 and 12.50″. And again, as they get more comfortable fielding balls across the diamond, they can move upward to 12.75 all the way up to 13.00″ to help scoop the balls in the dirt. Lastly, as we look at catcher, catcher’s going to start around 31″ in size for new players to the position and move upward to 33 and even 34″ in size to help with blocking and give a bigger target for the pitcher.

Determining the correct web type for you or your player is going to come down to two factors, the first of which is going to be your primary position and the second is a personal preference. Let’s break down a couple of the more common web types across the sport. This I-web is going to have a vertical leather strip that’s going to provide for a shallow yet consistent pocket for middle infielders to take full advantage of. Next up, we have the H-web. The H-web is perfect for third baseman and outfielders. It has two vertical stripes that are going to allow for a larger overall web. It allows for debris to fall through on dive in place and it also allows for a larger, more consistent catching pocket for your player, except we have the closed web.

The closed web is going to be utilized mainly by pitchers. As you can see there, you have no idea what’s going on in my hand, so any sneaky onlooking hitters aren’t going to be able to get a peek at the next pitch coming to him. It’s also more flexible because it has an all-leather web type. Last today, we had the modified trap web. The modified trap web is similar to a trapeze web. It uses leather lacing to connect a leather strip. The main difference in this model is going to be this stability. They use a leather strip at the top to stabilize the overall web type. This is great for any player that’s playing infield, outfield, or pitcher, so it’s a perfect utility model.

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Unlike bats, gloves make it easy to help determine quality. The more you’re willing to invest in a glove, the better overall durability and consistency it’ll provide. The lone downside to a high-end glove is going to be the break-in period though. If you’re having any troubles breaking in a model, feel free to check out our glove care kit that’s sold directly from justgloves.com. Lower-end gloves are going to have a shorter time to break them in, so they’re going to be more game-ready; however, they’re going to last fewer seasons over the long haul.

Finding the correct fit for a glove is extremely important. After all, it is an extension of your hand while on defense. Manufacturers have taken notice of this, and they’ve started to make adjustments to allow for gloves to fit either small, standard, or large hands. It comes with an I-web and an 11.50″ size. It’s a perfect glove for a second baseman or a shortstop. What we see here is the exact same glove. It’s got the A2000 pro stock leather, 11.50″ size, and an I-web. The difference is the fit. This is a Dustin Pedroia fit. It’s smaller and a twist opening to allow players on the middle infield to have better control. You’ll also notice that there are youth gloves. Youth clubs are going to have smaller wrist openings, and shorter finger stalls to allow players with smaller hands, better control across the diamond.

So those are a few of the main factors to help you determine the correct glove for you.

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Video Tutorial: My Thoughts On All The Different Glove Leathers


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Steve Coltharp

Hello, my name is Steve and I’m an author of the blog “Leather Toolkits“, sharing everything related to leather and leather care. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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