Last night at a high school game a pitcher was working on a "no hitter" at the bottom of the 5th inning the coach changes hind catchers and it was down hill from there. The batting team scored 4 runs after the new catcher came in and the coach took the pitcher out of the game. So my question to you pitchers,, how important is the catcher to you?
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The pitcher/catcher relationship is huge and one that is often overlooked. Some pitchers are just more comfortable throwing to certain guys. This is especially true if the coach is letting the catcher call the game. A good catcher that knows how to call is game is a great asset to a pitcher.A catcher can help build a pitchers confidence in situations. For instance in my sons high school game today he called a 3-2 curve ball with runners on in a scoreless game. Walking off the field he told the pitcher he knew he was going to throw a strike in the spot and he did.
If your game was anything above a youth game not sure why you'd change catchers in that spot unless the game didn't really mean anything. But it always means something to the parents
Just exactly what do you think the 1st catcher did that the 2nd didn’t do? Chances are the coach was calling pitches, so its doubtful that suddenly the way the pitches being called changed. My guess is the batters finally got their timing, coupled with a few balls dropping in or sneaking through that didn’t before.
It can make a huge difference.
A quality catcher makes the borderline pitch a strike, while the poor receiver doesn't.
Even if he isn't calling the pitches, a good catcher knows how to make the pitches look as good as possible. The bad one will cost the pitcher strikes by not holding his glove properly, trying to "pull" pitches back into the strike zone, and not receiving pitches in the middle of his body.
With that said, in this particular case - we have no way of knowing if it made a difference or not. After five innings, the pitcher may have just run out of gas. It happens.
Regardless of how important the catcher is, still a very strange decision by the coach. No pitcher wants his "mojo" messed with in the middle of something like that!
Catchers are generally under appreciated when things go well and over criticized when things go south.
HUGE HUGE HUGE!
Sons current team has no #2 catcher and #1 can't work with all the pitchers all the time. Pitcher catcher connection MUST be there.
Son had a catcher that didn't want to call for a CU cause it made catcher look bad (lots of late movement - unpredictable). It was my son's #1 'out' pitch - especially after fastballs set it up. Made for a poor season.
Strange. Most coaches wouldn't want to take the risk of breaking the pitcher's rhythm by changing the catcher during a potential no hitter. I mean, you don't mess with a no hitter.
It's very huge. I can't imagine why a coach would take out a catcher in that situation unless:
1) Catcher had to leave
2) There was an injury
3) Something happened to a family member where he had to get pulled from the game
4) He mouthed off to the umpire or coach.
How important is a good catcher? It's huge. If I'm throwing to someone who doesn't have the greatest arm, then I'm really concerned about letting guys get on base - perhaps more than usual. For some pitchers, especially those who don't deal well with runners on base, this is huge.
I've had catchers that have come up to me before a game and say, "Yeah, I'm not wearing a nutcup," or, "I'm really tired, I'm not calling any offspeed today."
Well, congrats... guess you just wanna throw fastball all day? Useless.
Then you have catchers that can't call a game, don't know how to move around or work a batter, or they let everything in the dirt get by them. This can all affect a pitcher - and again, some more than others. But it's huge.
Edited: Noticed I used the word "huge" a lot. Well, screw it. IT'S HUGE!
having been around this game for many years it never ceases to smaze me as to what some coaches do
