Lefty catchers

1 I wouldn't discourage him.

2 I would use him.

3 My money says nobody anywhere has comparative poptimes for lefthanded vs. righthanded catchers.

I found this interesting article:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08...eball/16catcher.html

I'm left-handed. I always wanted to play catcher, but there were no lh mitts. Found one my last year of little league. It was a lot of fun. Never understood why there were no lh catchers. (I don't agree with the rh batter argument, especially these days, with so many lh hitters)

The only position a lh fielder would be dis-advantaged, in my opinion, is second base.

I would discourage him. It greatly lowers his odds of playing at a high level.

If he were my best catcher I would use him.

We have thousands of pop times to 2B, as far as comparing pop times, not sure we have any from a LH catcher. The pop time to 3B left or right would depend on where the ball is received. Middle to glove side would give right handed catcher an advantage.

I assume you are talking about HS level.
We had to use one the first two years we took the program we coach now. The position is extremely important and there are a handful of things that you MUST have from your catcher. This lefty was the only one that could give us those things at the time. Meanwhile, we quickly got to work developing other catcher options.
I don't have a problem using a LH catcher at the HS level if he is the best one to do the job. If he has college aspirations, I would be sure to get him plenty of practice reps elsewhere. But you go where the team needs you.
Here's the biggest issue I have though... a lefty who throws hard enough to be a good catcher can probably help you as a P. And a lefty who knows what he is doing on the hill really helps shut down the running game, even more so than a good C. So, if you can use him as a P/OF or P/1b, that would be the preference as opposed to using him at C.
P/C is not a good combination from both a throwing motion and arm protection standpoint.

It seemed to work for Babe Ruth (at least when he was a teenager).

A lefthanded catcher doesn't make sense. The snap throw to third is far more difficult for a lefty. As the level of competition becomes more intense tenths of seconds start to matter.

My son has caught school ball and travel as a lefty...He has not caught the last two years on JV/Varsity because he has really come along as a pitcher...as RJM said the biggest concern is the throw to 3rd...I wuldnt discourage it at all...I also found my son seemed to hit a bit better when he caught...maybe it was just me but he sure seemed to knocked the snot out of it when he was catching...

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
A lefthanded catcher doesn't make sense. The snap throw to third is far more difficult for a lefty. As the level of competition becomes more intense tenths of seconds start to matter.

Is the snap throw to third by a left harder than a snap throw to first by a righty?

I love working behind left handed catchers.

Play the lefties in

Outfield
1b
on the bump.

There is only 7% of them around.

I raised lefthook to play every position as a kid, so in the long run he would understand where and why everyone has a place to be on every play. He fell in love with catcihng at around 10. He ias on the skinny side but is a spark plug, we all know thatt lefty's just aint right in the head, is a tremendous OF/P. He caught until high school ball started 2 yrs ago. Got shut down after that. Played in a tourny this past weekend with a throw-together team. He got the word he may need to catch, never seen him so excited. Watched him catch 2 games, after not catching in 2 years, and it was fun. Our V catcher was there and when he pitched my son caught. Lefthook ended up making the V guy look like a JV player behind the plate. Not 1 run scored on a passed ball. After the tourny he told me, "man I wish i was right handed so I can catch" I said so did I but the only way he would ever have a chance now is if all of a sudden he started raking like Bryce Harper at that age.

Varsity HC found out how good he did behind the dish, but told me that he was just to valuable running down balls in the outfield. That is what got me thinking, because our program is sooooo catcher poor that I would put him behind the plate and try to develop another outfielder.

Wishful thinking, but it sure was fun seeing him work behind the plate.

Thanks for all the responses....and btw, I am raising another lefty catcher son who is a spitting image of lefthook, maybe the "old school" way of thinking about catchers will change by the time he reaches high school, but I doubt it

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
A lefthanded catcher doesn't make sense. The snap throw to third is far more difficult for a lefty. As the level of competition becomes more intense tenths of seconds start to matter.

Is the snap throw to third by a left harder than a snap throw to first by a righty?

I love working behind left handed catchers.

How many runner steal first? A catcher better have a better success rate throwing out runbers at third than picking off runners at first. The percentage of picking off runners at first is very low.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
A lefthanded catcher doesn't make sense. The snap throw to third is far more difficult for a lefty. As the level of competition becomes more intense tenths of seconds start to matter.

Is the snap throw to third by a left harder than a snap throw to first by a righty?

I love working behind left handed catchers.

How many runner steal first? A catcher better have a better success rate throwing out runbers at third than picking off runners at first. The percentage of picking off runners at first is very low.

I see at least twice or three times the number of throws to first from catchers as I do throws to third. The frequency of throws to attempt a careless R1 wa the reason for a change in umpire mechanics in MiLB.

quote:

Originally posted by lefthookdad: .... maybe the "old school" way of thinking about catchers will change by the time he reaches high school, but I doubt it

Not letting lefties catch is new school. There were a handful of lefty catchers over history. The last lefty positioned as a catcher was in 1900. Jack Clements caught 1,000 games over seventeen years. The last lefty to catch was Benny Distefano. He caught in three games in 1989. He was a 1b/of by trade.