Opinions on today's young catchers

Not to mention highly skilled former players who have been taught well, and coached "coaches" who know how to teach runners the ART of stealing bases as well! If you have been around the game long enuf and watched catchers diligently with a keen and discerning eye you can clearly tell which of those who are quick footed and receive the ball well and who can consistently throw the ball ON A LINE and accurately! Teaching baserunning and catching are HUGE if you want your program to have any chance of true success... JMHO 2 cents I honestly believe ther are many HS programs and would be coaches that perhaps fail to address this aspect of the game as well as coach it thoroughly by spending enuf time towaqrd it? I know it is difficult with so little time to prepaare prior to playing but it is HUGE and a MUST!

 

cbc pop

Most of the catchers I saw were 2.0 to 2.2. They were 15 to 18 years old. I was glad to see no-one jumping out for the ball. They all rec'd in a normal position and made the throw. That is as close to real as you can get without being a game situation.

 

Heart....

You can see it when it's there.... It makes every player on the field play harder if you Catcher is back there playing hard and taking a beating...
If a catch is lazy most often the team is also... The team feeds off the effort of the catcher.. Hard to measure heart but you sure can tell when it's there...

 

Catchers

Reported pop times are no different than reported gun readings on pitchers. Pop times are important because they are an indicator of arm strength , foot work , transfer - the ability to get the baseball to the bag quickly with accuracy. Yes you steal on the pitcher but you also can steal on the catcher if he cant get the ball to the bag within reason.

Game pops will be slower for most catchers because most catchers cheat on their non game throws. Some will be around the same time because they dont cheat.

Why do so many pitchers have pitching coaches and so few catchers have catching coaches? This has always perplexed me. Catchers that are serious about being the best they can be need a catching coach to work with them. Someone to help them refine their mechanics of receiving , blocking , throwing , manageing the game etc etc.

A kid has to want to be behind the plate and they have to have a burning desire to be the best they can be. I go to a ton of showcase events , tryouts , ID camps etc etc. 2.0 pop times that are accurate without the catcher cheating are very rare. As rare as seeing a pitcher throw 90. But they are out there. They are just not as common as reported and that should not surprise anyone that has been around the game for any period of time.

What I see in many of the catchers that I evaluate is

#1- A lack of receiving fundementals
#2- A lack of the proper understanding of how to block a baseball
#3- A lack of catchers flexibility
#4- A lack of understanding of how to properly set up to receive
#5- A lack of arm strength

Many would take a huge jump if they had a catching coach to work with them. Why do pitchers have pitching coaches? Catchers should be no different. Many times the catcher spends his whole hs practice catching up for the coach. Catching bull pens while the pitcher gets all the instruction. If your a catcher and your serious about getting better and being the best you can be find someone that instructs catchers and go to work.

And get you butt in tremendous shape physically. Get yourself as flexible as you possibly can and then continue to work on getting more flexible. Get stronger. Develop more arm strength. People that downplay arm strength do so because they lack it. There is no substitute for arm strength. You can say you overcome it with outstanding mechanics. Then how do you compete against the catcher with outstanding mechanics that also has a hose?

 

i think the best compliment for a catcher is He didn't hurt us tonight. what i mean by that: he didn't let the ball get to the backstop in a critical situation. he didn't let guys run rampant on the basepath. he didn't let guys move up on passed balls etc. if a catcher goes unoticed during a game (with the exception of throwing people out etc.) then has had a good game.

i have always thought the catcher is one of the most important positions on the field. we run all of our defensive signals etc through our catcher. he is the quarterback on the field. they have to receive well, handle pitchers well and also need to swing the bat well. not too much pressure

 

some information

Passing on some information that I got from a catching coach some years ago. Simply FYI no opinion from me

In-Flight Velocity

Once I get the players arm warmed up to game readiness, I have him make 6 throws from a crow hop. He can use whatever mechanics he likes to generate the maximum velocity he can. I time that on the Jugs gun. I get 6 readings; I throw out the fastest, and the slowest, and average the other 4. This gives me an average max velocity. I then have him get into his crouch. I throw him pitches down the middle and have him throw down full speed. I again have him do this 6 times and use the same method to determine his average maximum throw down velocity. After timing over 1000 catchers this way I have found that a drop in velocity of less then 3% from max velocity to throw down velocity is the goal. More of a drop then that and there is something in that player's mechanics of his throw to second base that is excessively “eating” velocity. At that point a close evaluation of those mechanics is needed.

Velocity is all over the map for me when I look at the database of kids I have timed. If I look at the High School Max-velocity kids as a group the low side is in the low 60’s. Good for HS would be low-mid 70’s, excellent would be 78-82. In the College group the low side is 70-74, good would fall in 75-79, excellent would be 80-84, 85+ would be a serious prospect as far as velocity goes.

Ball Control & Release Efficiency.

To evaluate this component I use the following technique. I position the player in front of the black Jugs tarp that hangs behind home plate in our batting cage. I measure out 10 feet and draw a line. It must always be 10 feet. The player puts his toes on the line facing the black screen. The coach kneels in front of the catcher, slightly off center. The player gets into his secondary receiving position. The coach throws the “pitch”. Player completes a full speed throw into the screen. The stopwatch is started when the ball hits glove and stopped when the ball hits the screen. The player must sit on the strike and not move until the ball hits his glove as if it were an 0-2 count late in the game. Because the catcher is releasing the ball about 5 feet in front of the screen, arm strength has little to do with the time recorded on the stopwatch. The drill gives an accurate measurement of how fast the athlete gets it in the air. You can also have the catcher throw directly into the fence backstop, but I find the tarp makes a more precise sound when hit, making it easier to ensure a good clocking.

Ave release times for High School players would be under .85 down to .78, good would be .78 down to .70, and excellent would be .69 down to .65. Below .65 is very fast for HS. For the College players in my database the average release times would be under .78 down to .70, good would be .70 down to .65, and excellent would be .65 down to .59. Below .59 is really moving.

Should the focus be on POP time - I remember a coach from the Dodgers who spoke at one of Whitfields clinics (think name was Tracy - former ECU player). Believe he got fed up with questions on throw downs (POP time) and asked this question - does the catcher have more opportunities to get border strikes called in a game or throwing out base runners ? He stated his frustration with so many catchers not being able to receive the pitch.

Adding to Coach May's good suggestion concerning a catching coach - try to get one who is also good at throwing different types of pitches - makes a difference in receiving and blocking.

Also get the player to contact pitching instructors to see if he can catch their lessons. Not only can they work pitchers with different strengths in type of pitch, they also can pick up tips on calling game, etc (plus earn a little money)

 

Coach27 is a coaches coach.

Coach27 you really laid it down again. This is superb.

A "catchers coach." Got it! Lots of "hitters and pitchers coaches" out there.

Yep. Need to look at getting/developing a "catchers coach." That would add another demension. Someone working with the catchers on that positions fundamentals. If we pay that close attention to that position as we do pitchers and hitters well I can just see the pay offs.

Thanks again Coach27.

 

Lumberton's catcher in 2005 when they went 27-3 (with two of the losses on the final day to DH Conley) was an interesting study. He became a catcher because he was tough, smart kid and his HS and travel team just didn't have a good one. He was not particularly athletic and his arm strength was average at best, probably a little below avg. Funny thing is that NOBODY stole on him. He went to work with the tools he had and figured out how to get it down there quick enough to stop the running game. He was excellent handling pitchers and blocking. He was an extremely key cog in a great team. He is now catching for the UNC-CH club team and I suspect doing his usual great job. I can guarantee that not one scout ever wrote his name down as a prospect to follow. But to his team, he was indispensible.

 

I have to agree with most posts in that I think there are many things that make a good young catcher other than "pop" times. Here are a few things I like to look for:

1. Is he a leader, does he take charge on the field
2. How does he recieve the ball
3. How well does he block pitches in the dirt
4. Do the pitchers have confidence in him
5. Does he have confidence to make snap throws to 1st or 3rd

 

Excellent post, I have to say that being a leader is most important. But just as important as that is, the pitcher must have confidence in him, being a catcher, thebest compliment you can ever get, is when you over hear your pitcher asking your coach if he can have you behind the plate because he feels more comfortable. I will tell you from experience, a pitcher WILL throw better if he has confidence in his catcher. Coming from a P/C myself, I know this for a fact. A pitcher will throw one in the dirt to get a guy to chase instead of leaving one in a 'reachable zone' for the hitter, but only if he has confidence in his catcher. But, as we all have figured out from reading this post, it all revolves around his leadership, as well as his ability to block the ball. Just food for though, especially for young catchers, work on these two, then throwing. You may only get stolen on once or maybe twice in a game. But you can't count how many dirtballs you'll have to block. Basically, you can't teach athleticism to block a baseball, however you can improve it and work on technique. Work on these two the most, esecially until your around middle school. JMO. Anyone else think you should try to revolve your game around that? Then work up? Or vise-versa?