Opinions on today's young catchers

SO...

if leadership and other intangible traits are what really makes a great catcher ( in my opinion arm strength is a must) why do they only measure POP????? in most cases the teams that win have that intangible leader behind the plate..

Tell people to go see Freddy...

He will give you an insight to the true basics of catching..

If you are a young player it will be the best money you can spend..

 

Observations and opinions

Much of this will duplicate the thoughts of others, but here's my two cents.
Pop times seem to be important to catchers and cather dads, I don't think others get to caught up in them. It gave me (an untrained eye) the ability to keep up with my son's progress over the years. Pop times show arm strength, mechanics, and technique; all important to a catcher. I have seen many sub 2.0 pop times, go to a WWBA in Atlanta or Jupiter and see for yourself. I believe throwing accuracy is more important than throwing velocity. Steal Attempts / Caught Stealing tell the real story in game situations.

I like gkg's post, especially the "Ball control and release efficiency". I've always preached how important this is, but did not know how to measure it. Can't wait to try it out.

Coach27 hammers it out once again. I'm putting a book together with C27 comments and will have Platedad market it for me. These aren't copywrited, are they?

Dbacks20 sums it very well, showing the qualities needed to be a complete catcher. Adding one thing to "blocked balls", I look at how well a catcher blocks a ball in the dirt outside the knees or one that bounces in front of the plate. Those are the tough ones. Pitcher confidence "Priceless".

 

Stop Watches

I notice that the scouts and recruiters carry stop watches and time every throw.

 

We carry a watch for many reasons it is just a measuring tool with catchers but not nessary.

 

Maybe two or three throws down per game, but I haven't seen scouts / recruiters time every throw; not saying it doesn't happen but I haven't noticed it.

 

I know that not all catchers do this, but in the game, most coaches are calling the pitches. How are catchers going to learn what to call and what not to call if the coach is always calling the pitch? I know most of the coaches on here do not call their pitches and they let the catcher call the pitches because they are on the field and they can see what is going on. Thoughts????

 

It's about trust

if you have a good catcher teach him, trust him, let him control the game. I f you have a young catcher i can see calling pitches for a while but you should still try to let the player call the pitches.. if a coaches is calling all the pitches he doesn't trust the catcher and pitcher..

 

Agreed, as a catcher myself, and one who has called pitches since I was playing on 11u, to me it's almost a confidence buster, when a coach takes the game out of your hands so to speak. Catchers are the field general for a reason! I agree, if there is a young catcher, or one who isn't great at calling pitches, let the coach call them. But, in between innings teach him why. There's nothing more aggravating than watching a catcher sit behind the plate with his tongue tied because he doesn't know why the piches are being called. Tell me this, if baseball is a learning game, why aren't the coaches teaching the catchers, just like they teach the position players where to play in certain situations too?

 

Also, I have noticed that if your not great at calling the game and you want to learn. Watching a MLB or MiLB game, and calling them in scrimmages/live bp, is a GREAT place to start! That's how I learned! You would be surprised what you can learn about certain swing stances, and how to pitch them, from just a couple minutes of BP, or a 2 inning scrimmage!

 

calling pitches

I have watched diamond rat mature as a signal caller and running a defense. Many times he has called the defense before the coach signals it in. Seldom did they disagree.
The way he learned was by progression. At a young age location was all he could call. Pitchers mainly had just one pitch and more often than not couldn't hit their location anyway. He still studied the result of the pitch. As he got older he had 2 or 3 coaches that guided his pitch calling, only occasionly calling pitches, but discussing between innings what they did and did not agree with, and some plans for the upcoming hitters. This way they knew he was in the game and thinking, even if his ideas weren't the best. Their methods were the same and the most effective way to teach imo. They asked why he called pitches and then explained why they did or did not agree, asked what if situations when preparing for the next inning even asking what he would call as his teammates were hitting. These coaches are Jimmy Meadows of Mooresville (rec and all star coach) and TBR's own Derrick Shoe with David Darwin.
A good catchers coach can be more important than a good pitching coach. If the catcher is not completely involved he can lose focus and cause as much damage as the pitcher. I could go on forever in this thread, but y'all are bored by now.