How deep

Pretty much the same... catcher's glove to back leg thigh of RH hitter

Coach,

Generally I teach all my students that if they can reach their hand out and they aren't able to touch the batter's back knee, they are far enough away. Any closer and you risk getting nailed. Any further back and you may prevent yourself from receiving a low pitch while it is still in the strike zone.

This answer, though, is fairly age-dependent. With some of the younger catchers who are smaller in stature, that may not be far enough back. At the younger ages, some hitters have trouble not letting the bat fall during their swing, and because of their size, it is very common to see that bat fall right onto the catcher's hand or even sometimes the mask. If I am working with a youngster, I will have him set his feet 2-4 inches behind the spot where he feels he loses the ability to touch the batter's back knee just to be safe.

This also doesn't account for field conditions. Very often, catchers aren't given any other choice but the two huge holes in the ground behind homeplate. Usually, setting their feet directly in the middle of those holes should keep the catcher far enough away, as to avoid injury. But it can be somewhat problematic if the batter is way back in the box and the catcher is forced to stay put because of the slope of the hole in the ground.

If the field is decent, as long as the catcher's glove just misses the back knee, they are far enough back and should be able to keep the strikes his pitcher throws looking like strikes.

Thanks guys for the input and glad that I'm right there with you as to where to put the catcher. Still wonder why the Dodgers catcher was so deep. I haven't had the chance to pay attention in other MLB games to see where they are. Sad part is I watched some of the Reds / Braves game tonight and never occured to me to pay attention.

Sometimes a catcher will play a little deeper when there is a base stealer at second base. Playing deeper allows the catcher to clear a right handed batter better on throws to third base. I actually wrote a post about it the other day. Here's the link.

http://baseballbytheyard.blogs...s-to-third-base.html


BaseballByTheYard