Catchers calling pitches

Although I too called  all my games, and loved it, my greatest fear is the unnecessary criticism a young catcher would receive when things go badly...Its the manager job to focus all "remarks"on him, never a player. Pro catchers get beat up all the time for calling the wrong pitch or being too predicable.

I believe all catchers should call their games BUT a manager MUST protect and insulate his catchers from pitchers, parents, and players who may attack their decisions.  Without support and nurturing, an inexperienced catcher may reject the responsibility and never learn!

Have a coach who has no clue how to call pitches. 

Really, on my son's team they had a "pitching coach" who called the pitches.  When he was frequently absent, the head coach was lazy and had no clue, so the kids called the game.  Makes a dad proud when the umpire comes up and says he has never seen a kid that young (12 yo) call a game as good as that. 

Good topic Stats4Gnats.....  I have always fought the idea of allowing catchers call games, and yet wanting them to make the giant leap of learning how to do so.  I think at the HS level it is easier to call a good game, than summer ball, since in HS the players are more constant, so you learn each pitcher (weakness / strength).

What I have seen are catchers become predictable with pitches they call in certain counts..just threw 0-2 pitch low and away, then automatically waste a pitch up in the zone...why not soft and away again??...there are times where you use a pitch to set up the next one, I understand that, but when it becomes such a constant routine, then you are essentially wasting a pitch, that does nothing to set up the next pitch, if anything it predicts it.  The other part is educating the catcher to learn his pitchers (strengths & weakness),  At some point this probably does not apply, however I tell my son, and pitchers that I work with, that he is responsible for whatever pitch he throws.  If he does not like the sign, or location, it is his responsibility to shake off.  If you (pitcher) cannot commit 100% to what you are throwing, don't throw it.  On travel / summer teams, catchers may not be as familiar with the pitcher, so it is important for a catcher to talk to each pitcher BEFORE they take the mound, and ask how he likes to pitch, ...which off speed are they comfortable throwing behind in the count, etc. 

Coach Rick,

I hear and understand what you’re saying, and I agree people can be real a$$***** when it comes to criticism of players. I also agree that getting verbally beat up too often and unnecessarily, will cause some catchers to “shut down” to the point where they give up on the position. But that’s true for any position isn’t it?

That raises another question in my mind. How has it come down to the catcher taking the brunt of criticism. I’m sure you like me and every other catcher has experienced a great pitch in a great place get clocked, and a rotten pitch in a rotten place get missed entirely. Then there’s always the paradigm of calling the perfect pitch and location, but having the pitcher fail to execute very well.

My point is, unless someone “in the loop” like the pitcher, catcher or MIfr who knew what was called said something, who would know what pitch or location was called, or whether or not the pitcher executed well. People in the stands simply don’t know what was called unless someone who knows for sure tells them. Of course they THINK they do, but when a catcher’s calling the game himself, its impossible for them to know. And even if they did know, unless they’re paying very very close attention, they can’t possible know if a pitcher has “shaken off” a sign, which then of course is not the catcher’s call.

Now if some jerk coach starts hollering at the catcher so everyone can hear him, of course people will blame the catcher because its obvious the coach does. But other than that, why would anyone think catchers were at fault for a pitch that got pounded. That’s just not how the game works because other than calling the pitch, its totally out of the catcher’s control.

I’m old and somewhat feeble minded now-a-daze, but I honestly can’t remember being “blamed” for calling a “wrong” pitch. Not that didn’t do it, but it sure seems as though there was a much better understanding about how the game worked back then, and everyone seemed  to understand that there was just as much likelihood of the pitcher screwing up or the hitter doing a great job, as the pitcher calling a bad pitch or location.

I have been around a few games myself, and have on rare occasion heard the catcher called out on calling the wrong pitch...this was never from fellow team members or folks in the stands, but from the coach...I never understood the benefit from humiliating a player.  In talking about catchers calling games, and who is to blame if a pitcher gets hit, was it the pitcher executing, or the catcher calling the wrong pitch, here are some interesting facts about pitchers ability to accurately throw the pitch that is called:

"the average pitcher can locate the ball with an accuracy of eight or nine inches, each, for the horizontal and vertical directions. We can see what this means with a specific example. Let's say the pitcher decides to throw a fastball near the outside corner, but he does not want to throw a ball. So, maybe he aims his pitch to pass over the outer third of home plate—about seven inches from the center of the plate and three inches from the edge of the strike zone. How often will he hit his spot? Well, the chance of the pitch going over the outer third of the plate (i.e. between 3 1/3 and 10 inches from the center) is about 34 percent and there is a 20 percent chance that the pitch will pass over the inner half of the plate, a true mistake pitch.

It's actually very easy to see this while watching a game on TV — just watch where the catcher sets up for the pitch and note how often he must move his glove a significant amount to receive the pitch.

Based on the PITCHf/x results it appears that a fastball thrown at a dartboard placed over home plate will hit the bulls-eye with some part of the ball a little less than 1.5 percent of the time. Fully 46 percent of these pitches would miss the dartboard completely. Just think of that when they tell you about somebody's pinpoint control"

I agree with you BUT its numbers game. 

NO POSITION has the day-after-day, pitch-after-pitch exposure of the catcher.  In this topic, a catcher has 100 to 200 opportunities. No shortstop, etc has that exposure in any game. Today's pitcher is NOT tomorrow's pitcher BUT today's catcher is probably tomorrows catcher. 

Having said that, a great pitcher once told me,"What ever pitch you call when thrown properly (location) is the RIGHT pitch!! "

Catchers, I am going to go with the 13/14 yr old range, need to be "taught" how to call games, that it's not all about what the count is.  They need to be taught how to read a batter, his stance, his load, his swing, his set-up in the box etc...I think every catcher should be given a chance, you can't learn unless given the opportunity, and make a few mistakes.  I would much prefer to watch my sons HS game game called by the catcher than the coach, or any HS game for that reason

Back foot slider,

What I think some people forget is, the lower the level, the better for learning new things and refining old ones because there’s really very little other than ego riding on any game. I’m not saying the games have no meaning because they do, but I am saying there’s really no better time for learning how to call a game.

I don’t know if calling a game during the regular HS season would be an easier or not, but I do know its pretty rare in either case.

I agree whole heartedly that some catchers do get predictable. But, predictability isn’t confined to catchers. There’s a heap o’coaches that are pretty darn predictable too, but then again there’s really only so many things that can happen on any given pitch, and more often than not I’m guessing more is dependent on the pitcher ability than the catcher’s skills at calling pitches.

I also agree that a lot of it is learning the pitcher’s strengths & weaknesses, but don’t you think when they have no responsibility for what happens, it takes longer to learn those things?

Originally Posted by Back foot slider:  …It's actually very easy to see this while watching a game on TV — just watch where the catcher sets up for the pitch and note how often he must move his glove a significant amount to receive the pitch. …

What people really need to understand is, those pitchers seen on TV are supposedly the best pitchers in the entire world. When you start going down the level ladder, the ability to execute is reduced and the accuracy is as well.

Originally Posted by lefthookdad:

Catchers, I am going to go with the 13/14 yr old range, need to be "taught" how to call games, that it's not all about what the count is.  They need to be taught how to read a batter, his stance, his load, his swing, his set-up in the box etc...I think every catcher should be given a chance, you can't learn unless given the opportunity, and make a few mistakes.  I would much prefer to watch my sons HS game game called by the catcher than the coach, or any HS game for that reason

You don’t have to pick and age range. All catchers need to be taught how to call games to some degree. Heck, even in MLB there are catchers still learning. Logic tells me that the sooner they learn how to do it, the better.

I honestly believe there are just as many players who want no part of catching because they have little or no control over what they do, as there are players who leave the position because they’re being blamed for things that take place. Personally I loved having the responsibility, and frankly, if I didn’t have that kind of control, I doubt I’d have caught. There has to be some mental reward for being willing to come home black and blue after every game, having fingers that are smashed, or an aching thumb that hurts so bad its sometimes goes numb.

Couldn't agree more Stats...just picked that age range because that seems to be where the pitchers start maturing a little better.   To me there is no better position than that of C....and you are most definitely right in the fact that it takes a special person

Excellent points... I'll take it further.  The catchers education expands to knowledge of the opposing team not merely today's game!  The more atbats, more games the deeper the knowledge becomes; who runs, hit&runs, bunts, pitch/ count tendencies, etc.

As the competition/ age advances, pitcher's focus on today and their current capabilities (whats working/ not working ).  Catchers must think as a hitter; considering his strengths/ tendencies along with his pitcher... this pitch and the next few pitches.  Its a CHESS game.

I think there is so much at stake with HS varsity & up, in terms of winning, that coaches just don't want to leave that responsibility up to anyone but themselves.  That's the problem.  Ideally, it would be nice to see the catcher - and pitcher - call the game themselves, but I think it is a theoretical discussion, at least in terms of some coaches.

My son is a pitcher - a sophomore in college - and I don't think I have ever heard him blame pitch selection on a big hit.  Any time I ask him what happened on a big hit, his response is always about how he did not execute the pitch.  "I left a fast ball belt high, down the middle", "I hung a breaking ball", "It was a change up I left up", etc... 

Just some thoughts on the subject.

Another issue to consider at the HS level is that these kids have competed against one another at an early age with youth and travel baseball.  Many times, the pitchers and catchers know the hitters' weaknesses and tendancies much better than the coaches. 

This is interesting.  My son was the catcher in HS is sophomore year before moving to 3B (junior yr) and then 1B (senior year).  He occasionally caught his junior and senior year.  He also played catcher in legion and is now in his 2nd year at a D2 Juco as a 1B.

Anyway, throughout his HS career the coach always called the pitches regardless of who was catching.  The legion coach pretty much let the catchers call the game.  In college the coach called the pitches.

Catcher should be calling pitches around HS if not a bit earlier. Pitcher also should know what he wants to throw in certain situations, so he and catcher work together.

My 14 YO Freshman son has been a primary catcher for about 4 years. He's played 5 seasons on the big diamond and has varied from calling all of the pitches to none of the pitches. His catching "instructor" is a HUGE proponent of the catcher charting all his pitchers and working as a de facto on-field pitching instructor to help get the best out of them.

Originally Posted by Batty67:

My 14 YO Freshman son has been a primary catcher for about 4 years. He's played 5 seasons on the big diamond and has varied from calling all of the pitches to none of the pitches. His catching "instructor" is a HUGE proponent of the catcher charting all his pitchers and working as a de facto on-field pitching instructor to help get the best out of them.

Could you explain a bit more about what goes into that chart? The reason I ask is, when my kid was taking pitching lessons more than 10 years ago, his pitching coach of course used catchers. All during the lesson he would be coaching the catchers as well as the pitchers, and one of the things he would tell both of them is that they should keep some form of a notebook in the dugout so they could make notes about themselves and opponents, and chart pitches as well.

I of course offered to give them something they could use to put their notes/charts in so they could review them effectively. Coming up with a way to collate and present notes was pretty simple, but we never could figure out how either a pitcher or catcher could chart pitches. The best we could come up with was having a parent or another player do it, but that idea never worked.

Originally Posted by FoxDad:

…Anyway, throughout his HS career the coach always called the pitches regardless of who was catching.  The legion coach pretty much let the catchers call the game.  In college the coach called the pitches.

Its pretty much pot luck as to whether a coach will or won’t allow catchers and pitchers the freedom to learn by doing. I honestly believe that if all catchers and pitchers were given the trust to call pitches by themselves, there wouldn’t be any noticeable effects, other than the coaches would have more time to concentrate on other things.

Apologize in advance for taking this a bit off topic.  Do your high school coaches give their pitchers the latitude to shake-off without retribution?

Originally Posted by Marklaker:

Apologize in advance for taking this a bit off topic.  Do your high school coaches give their pitchers the latitude to shake-off without retribution?

That’s another crap-shoot. When my son played Fr ball, the HC was an ex-catcher and he was allowed to shake and the catcher called the game. When he was on the JV the same year, his coach was an ex-pitcher who called pitches, but the pitchers were allowed to shake whenever they wanted. When he made the V as a So, his coach was an ex-catcher who called all the pitches, if a pitcher shook he’d be warned, and the 2^nd time he’d be yanked, no exceptions. As a Sr, he was given permission to shake IF he didn’t catch the sign.

10 years later at a different school with a different coach, the coach calls all the pitches but pitchers are allowed to shake. The new sign has to come from the coach.

It all depends on the HC coach and his beliefs. I’m hoping the tide is changing and more coaches will concede calling pitches to the catcher. That seems to be the “trend”, but its subject to change in a heartbeat.

Honestly, my son has not started to "chart his pitchers" yet due to the time of year and because his coach's statements to that effect have not really been explained in any kind of detail. My limited understanding as of now is that he's supposed to qualitatively record his observations on his pitching, how did his curve ball work, where was it missing, FB placement, etc., so he can track these observations over time and figure out what works, what doesn't, and changes that can be made in-game if there are warning signs. Share with pitcher. So again, qualitative summary post-game while memory/experience is fresh. 

My son is a 14 y/o (5 year vet catcher), who began to call his own games last year during travel ball.  Why not let them?  Especially at that age.  Agree that the pitching starts to get more consistent at 13-14 y/o, and allows this age to become the time to start cutting the catcher loose.  Coaching would occur between innings.  Maybe try this with that guy next time.  Did you notice this about his swing?  Those types of things.  A catcher is a student of the game.  Most difficult position on the field.  Let them learn early.  HS ball in our area is far from great, nor is the coaching.  I would much rather he call his own games when he is a freshman, than most of the coaches in our are calling the game.  No disrespect intended.  Agree also, that there is rarely an instance that it really makes a huge difference (at this age especially).  Lastly, agree that most mistakes are not the pitch called, but rather the lack of throwing the pitch as intended. 

Originally Posted by Batty67:

Honestly, my son has not started to "chart his pitchers" yet due to the time of year and because his coach's statements to that effect have not really been explained in any kind of detail. My limited understanding as of now is that he's supposed to qualitatively record his observations on his pitching, how did his curve ball work, where was it missing, FB placement, etc., so he can track these observations over time and figure out what works, what doesn't, and changes that can be made in-game if there are warning signs. Share with pitcher. So again, qualitative summary post-game while memory/experience is fresh. 

It always breaks my heart when someone comes up with some way that’s supposedly going to benefit players, but doesn’t or can’t explain it. As I was reading your post, I was trying to picture in my mind how I’d do that, and I was getting a picture of something very complicated.

Its not that I don’t think it couldn’t be a great benefit and learning tool, But here’s what I see as “getting in the way”. I’ll limit what I’m saying to HSV. What’s the 1^st thing a catcher does at many HSs in this country immediately after a game? Most often it’s the ceremony of shaking hands with the opponent, followed by the catcher prepping the home plate area. Yes, there are schools where the players don’t have to do that and I am jealous, but trust me, if they don’t have to do that at your school, than your lucky stars.

Then, more often than not, there’s that team meeting either before or after the field prep. That’s where the coaches conduct their “critique”. Sometimes that only takes a minute or two, but sometimes it can take several minutes. So when is the catcher gonna have the time to devote his entire attention to going over what took place during the game? It sounds so simple, but I’m afraid it isn’t for a lot of kids.

It would be great if it were like FB where there was a lot of video or film footage that could be studied at one’s leisure, but that’s pretty rare in baseball, at least at the HS level. The only way I can see it making sense, would be if the coach makes sure the catcher has time between innings(if possible) to make his notes/observations. Other ways would work to some degree, but I’m afraid that the longer the separation from the event and the more information trying to be sifted through, the less effective it would be.

What would be great, is the catcher wearing a microphone and recording his observations immediately after they took place. The same for a pitcher or really any other player. Trouble is, who’d have the time to go through it all? Oh-woe-is-me. So much to do, so little time to do it.

Honestly, I can't speak for other coaches and don't know what they do.  For my program, we had pitchers throw to hitters every practice.  It was a part of their bullpen.  So, on to the field for maybe 20 throw, face 4 batters, ...  or whatever was the plan for that day.  At the same time, I rotated catchers in and used our signal method for the catcher to call pitches.  When we flipped pitchers and catcher, I called the catcher over by me and signed to the other catcher.  Then, I had a dialogue going with the catcher standing next to me as to why I called certain pitches.  If I went to the mound both catchers went out to hear what I had to say.  Then, as they progressed, I turned games over to catchers.  In saying that, we had signals between us with one being, "coach, I don't know what to call here so would you call this pitch."  When they were learning, I had the same signal to the catch which was me saying, "hey, take charge of this at bat and call the game."  By the time a year has completed, catchers at all levels were exposed to this and we continued as they went through the program.  You know you have it right when, in between innings, you see the catcher and pitcher get together and talk about hitters and what they need to do.

CoachB25,

Oh what I’d give for all amateur coaches everywhere to do what you described. Unfortunately, its not a perfect world or anything close to it, and that means there’s gonna be all kinds coaches with all kinds of different abilities in all kinds of situations.

What seems to be “normal” to me, is that coaches only have a finite amount of time to do what seems to be an infinite number of tasks. So, they do what anyone would likely do in a job they were given. They prioritize what needs to be done, then devote their time accordingly. The problem seems to be that even if teaching catchers how to call games was a high priority, its so much easier to just do it themselves and hope the catchers learn by osmosis.

But even if they don’t, I think a lot of people innately understand that how games are called doesn’t impact winning or losing a whole lot compared to other things like hitting, fielding, and pitching. After all, catching is only a subset of defense, and calling the game only a subset of that subset.

I’ve always seen it as a way to give catcher the opportunity to become the de facto team leader, and that may well be why some coaches won’t allow them to call games. I’m guessing it would be more likely for a coach who has the confidence in himself to know he will always be the primary authority figure on the team to allow it, than a coach who doesn’t have that confidence and feels he can’t relinquish even the smallest amount of control.

Originally Posted by springer80:

A number of great points especially protecting the catcher especially with a handful of parents who search to critic everything they can.  One comment in this thread seems a bit contradictory though...if calling pitches is not a meaningful factor in the outcome of the game, why do coaches insist on calling pitches (unless the only reasons are to protect the catcher and the coach lacks confidence in empowering his players as stated in other posts)?

1^st things 1^st. Trying to protect players from that handful of parents who criticize almost everything is a non-starter to me. If that’s happening, all the coach has to do is deal with the parents and make them stop or suffer the repercussions.

Now for the next thing. I don’t think anyone said calling pitches wasn’t a meaningful factor in the outcome of a game. At least I didn’t that I’m aware of. What I said was: I think a lot of people innately understand that how games are called doesn’t impact winning or losing a whole lot compared to other things like hitting, fielding, and pitching.

What that means, is there are other things that impact the outcome of the game a lot more. But to answer your question, I’m sure there are a lot of coaches who do it trying to protect the players, but there are some who do it for reasons not so altruistic.

Look at it this way. Assume a pitcher made an attempt to throw every pitch at the exact same speed, same movement, and same location. Does that mean every batter would hit every pitch over the fence, hit the ball solidly, or even hit every pitch? Of course not! So any attempt to make it harder for the hitter after that would only make it more difficult for the hitters, but there’s gonna be a point where the law of diminishing returns makes it so that doing more and more things to fool the batter don’t produce better results.

In order for calling pitches to have much of an effect, a couple things must take place. There has to be a pitcher who can execute whatever pitch is called consistently well, and hitters must have some kind of “plan” that tricking them will foil. Since all players differ in varying manners, the amount of difference calling pitches is going to make is going to vary. It will have the most effect where the skills are the highest(MLB), and the effect will lessen as you go down the ladder.

Folks:

A few thoughts on this topic. Less on the value of the catcher calling the game. More on the reality of pitch calling.

Relative to catcher's calling their own games :If  they do not, it is the coach's responsibility to review the game pitch by pitch after the game Ultimately, if the catcher learns how to call the game as well as the coach, you will have a better game(tempo) & have a better chance of winning.

1. The primary responsibility on the type of pitch thrown & the location of that pitch should be on the pitcher. The catcher &/or coach merely SUGGEST the pitch.

2. There is no one pitch that must be thrown in a particular situation. There is an "option line" of pitches for every situation. The pitcher should be allowed to select the pitch that he has trust & confidence in throwing. The so called  "right pitch" that is thrown with doubt is not as good as the so called "wrong pitch" thrown with confidence.

3. In the majority of situations you get beat by poor execution/location as opposed to pitch type. Please quit obsessing on the type of pitch. Case in point. Albert Puljos is/was the best fastball hitter is baseball.60% of his outs were on fastballs.(ML pitchers only hit their target 24% time on fastballs. A miss is when the catcher has to move his glove 6" or more to catch the pitch.)

The following is a paragraph I extracted from a book on catching that I just finished. This addresses a prevalent disfunctional scenario when the catcher calls all or most of the pitches. ( It will be released after the1st of the year.)

NOTE TO COACHES AND PITCHERS RELATIVE TO DEALING WITH CATCHERS

Please do not misconstrue this section as a paranoid and overly sensitive catching coach blowing off steam. Unfortunately the catcher is often the number one target when the outcome of a particular pitch is negative. The most frequently asked question given a negative outcome is "why did you call that pitch" or something along those lines. Whether it's a pitching coach, manager, coach, or pitcher asking that question, in my opinion it is inappropriate. It is a form of transfer of blame that is counterproductive to a winning effort. Firstly you win or lose as a team and no one pitch type or one player wins or loses a game. Secondly, you get beat by poor location/execution over pitch type ten times over. Thirdly, the so called right pitch that is well executed gets hit at times. Fourthly, the pitch that the catcher puts down is merely a suggestion to the pitcher. The pitcher is responsible for selecting the pitch he wants to throw. Usually it is the pitch that he has confidence and trusts relative to the situation. This is where the second most frequent verbiage comes in to play.  "We're not on the same page." I'm not totally sure what that means. I guess it means that the pitcher and catcher were not thinking about throwing the same pitch. Seems like that is easy to fix. Have the pitcher rub to the pitch and/or location that he wants. Secondly do a better job of preparing and communicating before the game so that you are both on the same page. That is not to say that there is not going to be some disconnect during a game relative to what is being thrown. Those conversation are easy to have in the dugout between innings to assess everyone's thinking/opinions on the particular pitch or situation as long as it is not an exercise in finger pointing. There is nothing stopping the pitching coach or manager from calling(suggesting) pitches in particular situations. Ultimately it is the pitcher's responsibility to throw the pitch that he deems is the best pitch for HIM to throw in the situation.

JW

2014Prospect,

You’ve said something that intrigues me because its something I’ve tried to do many times and haven’t been able to. How does your boy find out anything about batting order from MaxPreps? I put the data in for our team and as far as I know there’s nothing that indicates batting position.

Its also interesting that he values BA and SlgP more than OPS. Do you know why? The reason I ask is that I’m always looking for reasons to use or not use metrics, and so far the coaches, players, and parents looking at our stats place little value on those things compared to OBP.

Would you mind giving an opinion as to whether just about any starting HSV catcher should or shouldn’t be allowed to call games. MHO is that it isn’t brain surgery, and that any player who works on it as much as they’d work on any other baseball skill can do it quite well.

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Exactly.  It would be optimal for the pitcher and catcher to be on the same page (prior to the game) discussing the lineup.   The Lord gave baseball players the ability to move their heads from side to side for the sole purpose of changing the pitch.

So what the deuce happened between the time when catchers called pitches at every level, and now when so many coaches feel it necessary to be calling the pitches from the dugout with the pitcher not having the choice?

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I'd like to believe that every coach could have an instrument to chart all the pitches in a game.If this is a true teaching/learning environment this is imperative..Otherwise you continue to read the same book over & over.It's like studying for a test, taking the test & then never reviewing the answers. I think that you owe it to your players to do this.Secondly, relative to being in the dugout.It's virtually impossible to coach the bases & teach the game. The coach needs to be in the dugout.As a matter of fact it will help their players become better base runners. The best base runners coach themselves & do not rely on base coaches with the exception of scoring from 3rd base. You can greatly enhance the teaching process & game focus by being in the dugout. That way the actual game can be the kind of teaching lesson it's meant to be.

Originally Posted by jerry weinstein:

I'd like to believe that every coach could have an instrument to chart all the pitches in a game.If this is a true teaching/learning environment this is imperative..Otherwise you continue to read the same book over & over.It's like studying for a test, taking the test & then never reviewing the answers. I think that you owe it to your players to do this.Secondly, relative to being in the dugout.It's virtually impossible to coach the bases & teach the game. The coach needs to be in the dugout.As a matter of fact it will help their players become better base runners. The best base runners coach themselves & do not rely on base coaches with the exception of scoring from 3rd base. You can greatly enhance the teaching process & game focus by being in the dugout. That way the actual game can be the kind of teaching lesson it's meant to be.

Heck, I know every HC could and should have an instrument to chart pitches. Sadly though, at the HSV level, its not something that’s “normal”.

As you might imagine, scoring and doing the stats for a DI school in Elk Grove for well over 10 years now, I’ve seen quite a few really good coaches, programs, and systems. What I see as being “normal, is that even if the program has a way to chart pitches, its not exactly a snap to get that information into a piece of software that will generate the reports necessary for the coach to analyze what’s going on. But even if it does, just having that information is only a very small part of what it takes to use it.

The good news is, its becoming more and more “common” to have that instrument because technology is making it easier. But technology hasn’t come up with a way to do that hard work of analysis, yet.

Of all the teams we play every season, the only HSV HC I can think of that doesn’t coach bases, is Joe over at Jesuit. And to be honest, I have seen him many times in the dugout talking to different players, sometimes with papers or charts, sometimes pointing to someplace on the field and demonstrating what did or should have happened. IOW, he’s a very proactive HC, and BTW one of the most successful in all of NorCal.

The fellow I score for is pretty typical. He’s in total control and stays on top of it very well indeed. He too “coaches” players during games, but its very different because half the time he’s coaching 3^rd base, so its very difficult to do a lot of work with P’s and C’s about what’s taking place on defense.

I guess what I’m saying is, the way things are today, its really tough. There are HS programs that are set up much more along the lines of a college program, but it just isn’t normal. What I’ve always found strange is, by letting the battery take care of the pitches, it gives the coach a lot more time to concentrate on other things. And that’s the problem in a nut shell. Too many things to do and not enough people to get them done well.

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