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Reply to "Coaches... If you have several great catchers on your team... which one do you start?"

Btw in mlb it is different, teams almost entirely focus on framing and tend to focus much less on blocking and arm than a decade ago.

But you also have to consider that the base level is much higher in mlb. There are simply no catchers with a 70 mph fastball velo (if they pitched) or being super terrible at blocking so a little more or less doesn't matter to the teams in these days. 

But in hs the differences are so big, you will find some noddle arm guys and some guys who can't hold on to the ball and stop it.

Same applies to range. Sabermetrics guys say errors don't matter and it is all about range in mlb and that is true but if you boot 30% of the fielding chances or air mail 30% of the throws your range doesn't matter and thus a HS coach will play a guy who fields and throws to the base everything in a 10 foot radius and doesn't get to anything else over an athletic guy who makes an error half of the time.

But in mlb even the worst fielders have a fielding percentage of way over .900 (usually even 950) because they have a good baseline competence so in mlb it is really all about range.

That is also why the "fundamentally sound steady eddy" who the youth coach loved despite not being a great athlete because he would execute the routine plays is not super sought after by college coaches because all their guys can catch a ball and thus range becomes the deciding factor.

Can't always compare different levels and say "sabermetrics says this so we need to play like this in hs ball".

 

 

 

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