Wales posted: Straight from a College Coach:
Regarding calling the game – I call it, not the catcher. Ultimately the pitcher has the right to shake any pitch so if that’s the case, I think I should make the recommended pitch instead of the catcher. It just doesn’t make sense to me to have a lesser baseball person make suggestions.
Of course if you want to call the pitches, it’s entirely your prerogative. But I wonder if you’ve ever tested whether the opponent’s performance is better or worse if your catchers called the pitches or if you did, or seen any kind of study at all that proves what you believe is true.
Be that as it may, what is so complicated about calling pitches that you can’t teach it to the catchers? I’m not trying to start an argument or trying to be derisive in any way. I honestly fail to see what’s so difficult about it that with a little practice a catcher can’t do just as good at it as a coach who has a million other things on his mind, without nearly the advantage of seeing and feeling the pitches.