I’ve had the chance to watch several entire games this year thanks to YouTube and one thing that has really stuck out in my mind is how bad the fielding has been so far in this young season.

The pitching has looked good and most teams have been beating the heck out of the softball but a lot of the fielding has looked really shaky. So far this season SEC teams have made a total of 263 errors with Auburn and Tennessee tied for the lead with 29 team errors each. Sun Belt Conference teams have committed 199 errors with South Alabama leading the way with a whopping 43 of them. Big Ten team Michigan State leads their conference with 28 errors. Oregon State leads the PAC 12 with 26. And Texas leads the Big 12 Conference with 28 team errors.

Some of these errors can be attributed to teams giving new players a early season look and others from veteran players being used at different positions but I've also seen previously rock steady fielding players making more errors this year then in the past.

It doesn’t matter how many runs you put up on the scoreboard and how good your pitching is, unless they are strikeout artist, you need to have good fielding in games to win consistently. Texas who has been tearing things up so far this season with both their hitting and pitching but their fielding has been terrible. So far they have been able to overcome it unlike most of the other teams listed above, but as the season progresses it could become a big problem for them and other teams with similar fielding problems.