Coach Fletcher,
My son is a pitcher and it is obvious that for a pitcher to pitch to their full potential they have to have a competent catcher back there that they trust. Son keeps the ball low and will bounce a few during the game. If he has a sub-standard catcher back there he worries too much about bouncing a pitch and passed balls that he tightens up and elevates the ball and starts getting hammered or missing the plate. Talk to him after and ask him if he trusted the catcher or not and 9 out of 10 times the bad performance was partly due to no trust in his catcher. To pitch well you need to just let it fly and trust that your partner behind the plate will have your back if you bounce one.
Another thing that will make it tough is a catcher that can't frame a pitch. Son is a lefty so his ball has some serious late movement on it and some kids will take a strike and slide their glove out of the zone when catching it and end up with the ump calling it a ball. A good solid catcher will have strong command of his glove and catch the ball and frame the pitch in the zone. (Hopefully that made sense...lol)
I believe that it is true that a catcher can make a difference in a pitcher's performance.
Many times I've seen a pitcher lose a ball game, because he walked three kids, and they stole a base and advanced on a pass ball and end up scoring and the pitcher loses the game 3 to 2. When our best catcher is in the game we always get allot more strike calls on boarderline pitches. framing pitches isn't about stealing a call from the umpire. It's about making strikes look like strikes.
Trinity's Nick Nallette is solid. Believe he is a 2 Time All State selection as a sophomore & junior.
I have had the pleasure of working behind BOTH Jeff Fisher and Nick Nalette. Both catchers are solid walls behind the plate AND really give the blue guys a great look at pitches to get more strikes. They both show confidence with the "close" ones by not moving their glove.
I am not going to get into who's the best because there is no point to that as far as I am concerned. They BOTH talk to their guy on the mound keeping him in the game and focused.
Both are quality players and will be great assets to their respective coaches and teams in the spring.
I am not going to get into who's the best because there is no point to that as far as I am concerned. They BOTH talk to their guy on the mound keeping him in the game and focused.
Both are quality players and will be great assets to their respective coaches and teams in the spring.
