Batty is 100% correct. I gripe at my son if he picks a ball that clearly should have been a block. There are some that are border line and he will pick those. But there are catchers who will back hand pick cause they cannot block or are being lazy. I remind my son he's a catcher, not a first baseman. And if he does pick it is almost always with empty bases. He typically blocks everything, even when no one is on base. Guess it's habit but it also looks good if someone is watching.
As for coaches "penalizing" catchers for every ball..... I want my son to block every ball too. Is it realistic? No. Tell me how a catcher is to block a ball that is almost out of the batters box. T will try to flash out and just get his body in front of it almost like a goalie or more likely try to pick it. But there are some HORRIBLE fields out there where the ball doesn't bounce right or it hits the front of the raised home plate and bounces 8 feet in the air. Nothing you can do there. Officially any ball that hits the dirt is considered a wild pitch and is scored a wild pitch if a runner moves up or scores.A passed ball is on the catcher and is usually when it hits his glove and pops out if a normal effort would have caught it. A catcher getting part of his mitt on a ball 5 feet over his head or 3 feet behind a batter is not a passed ball. But a curve ball that gets under a catchers five hole allowing a runner at third to score or a batter to reach first on a strike three SHOULD be on the catcher. It will be a wild pitch but a good coach is gonna expect his catcher to stop those and a good catcher is going to own those mistakes if they get by.
Plus a pitcher knows if he has a blocking catcher back there and will feel more comfortable throwing a strike three in the dirt to get a batter to chase. When you see guys throwing 0-2 or 1-2 balls down the middle I think either he missed badly or he doesn't trust his catcher to block. Biggest pet peeve of mine is seeing a catcher set up down the middle when its 0-2 or 1-2 and then pitcher grooves a meatball. Irks the hell outta me!