Catcher-in-the-Rye posted:My son is a catcher for high school and a travel team. I asked him before what his opinion on robot umps was and he said he did not like it because it took away the catchers framing skills.
The number of high school catchers whose receiving skills increase the number of strike calls is pretty small.
It’s far more common for me to go out on a limb and call strikes so as not to punish pitchers for the catcher’s actions.
Too many yank the ball toward the zone even on borderline pitches (and remember, by rule, borderline is a strike), which tells the whole world they think the ball was out of the zone.
On occasion I have told catchers, “Look, I want strikes almost as much as you do. Stop yanking the ball in. My butt is more than 17” wide, so your best chance is to just stick it where it is, and you and I will be the only ones who know.”
The best high school receiver I’ve worked behind, a young man who has since played in Omaha, was great about sticking it only when it was a plausible strike. I worked about a half dozen of his games and gave him about 95% of his sticks. On occasion, he’d try to stretch it a couple inches but would cheerfully correct when I’d tell him that was a little too far.