57special posted: I'm with you.
Only thing that I might like to call is a pick off, or pitchout, if I smell something about to happen. In general, I like the boys to call their own game. The catcher has the best seat in the house for gauging the pitcher's stuff and making calls, IMO. If he can use a bit of coaching regarding strategy then you do it in between innings, at practice, or if there is an emergency at a mound meeting.
I used to love calling games as a catcher...to me, it's part of the position.
I’m with both of you. “Usually” in baseball, major changes in how the game is played are based on some kind of factual evidence. For example, the shift is employed more and more because it can be proved it works. But that’s not what happened with pitch calling moving from the catcher to the dugout.
As far as I know, there’s never been any kind of study done to use as a basis for calling pitches from the dugout. Instead, its assumed coaches calling pitches produce better results. But even if that were true, you’d think those brilliant coaches could teach catchers how to call pitches before they got to professional baseball. 