"Selling" marginal pitches

I'm not going to say I think pop times are over rated because this appears to be one of the main benchmarks coaches and scouts are looking for.  

In watching varsity baseball games for the first time this year there is a wide range of receiving ability.  Some are very good.  Many are not.  The second camp is much more full than the first one.

I have a much better appreciation for umpires and the difficulty they sometimes have calling a game.  There are lots more catchers out there making strikes look like balls vs. balls looking like strikes.

Great catchers have very strong hands and forearms. Work on those areas constantly as they take a lot of abuse, particularly at the HS Varsity level and above. Squeeze the ball rolling the hand in on the two sides and the top of the zone, at the bottom end get down low with glove always up, if you drop you will not get the important call at the bottom of the zone. If you are jumping around or get in the line of sigjt then it will not be a strike. DO NOT move the glove around, pretending to get the ball in the zone. I can't believe how many HS catchers do this. Do they think umpires are stupid. (Don't answer this please) There is nothing an umpire loves more than a great catcher with strong hands who frames the ball for him just long enough, but not too long, and squeezes borderline balls in.  Never show the ump up with long holds. If you do this you will get a lot more than 3-5 borderline calls. Remember umpires love strikes more than ANYONE on the field. 

no doubt good catchers get more strikes..........its my job to call strikes, and with the proper use of the skills, a good catcher gives me the look I need at that marginal pitch so that i can call it a strike....

first and foremost the catcher needs to receive the pitch correctly....glove work is important....might sound funny to say, but you have to catch the pitch first......and you should catch it correctly..... if they think of their mitt as a shield, its going to be a long day.....

as said above you cant pull pitches.......if you pull the ball into the zone after catching it, its a ball....if its not a strike to you, it cant be a strike to me.......if your LL coach taught you this.......immediately forget it......far better to stick it where it is, than pull it where it most certainly wasnt.

have strong legs.....dont sway or raise up.........stay as still as you can, if you stick it, its ok to hold it an instant...but if I ball the pitch, get it back to the pitcher......

working with your umpire, develping you skills.....will get your pitcher more strikes...... .    

To be perfectly honest (to me anyway) the only reason I would not put much faith in pop time is if a guy had a cannon.  At that point who cares what he does with his feet / transfer because he will make it up with arm.

What I teach my guys is to work around the outside of the ball and catch the outside half of the ball.  This helps to make borderline pitches look better because if you're not strong enough to stick the pitch it at least is moving in toward the zone rather than drifting to the spot and letting the ball take your mitt out of the zone.  Now if you're strong enough to stick the pitch then the movement toward the zone will carry the eyes of the ump to the zone.

All that being said if the ump is good it doesn't matter how much you move, stick the pitch or whatever - they will know if the ball was in the zone or not.  Framing, sticking or whatever you do is aimed at the average to not good ump.  Most umps are average or better (IMO) so you're not going to get many pitches but it's better to try just in case.

Also, not sure what you guys are meaning by swaying.  I teach my guys to sway slightly to help get the hand around the outside of the pitch to stick it.  But they need to stop the sway before they catch the ball.  When the ball is caught I want them small and quiet even if they are in position two (runners on).

I have always taught our guys to sway to the pitch and we have some pretty high level guys.  With that being said, you cannot change planes (raise up) when you sway.  The movement must be small and used to work around a pitch.

And pop times are not overrated, IMO.  If I see a 2.1 from a catcher, we are off to the races.  You just better hope your pitcher is a low 1's guy with a good move.

A good catcher can get his pitcher 3-5 strikes a game by the way they catch the ball . Watched a kid here in Tampa last year and did a great job of blocking ump's view ever so slightly and in turn got strikes that weren't strikes . IMO , pop times are important . Slow release time and my guys are gonna run . There's a reason you see alot of coaches with stop watches . 

Thanks for the replies. Seems like most responders agree with the importance of sticking pitches, staying low, and letting the umpire really see the pitch. And that framing, if done at all, must be minimal and part of sticking a pitch near the edges of the strikezone. As for swaying, of course all catcher will sway a bit to help stick the pitch and as part of setting inside or out (etc.); he meant excessive swaying when it is much better to have a "quiet" body whenever appropriate.

As for pop times, he strongly agreed that they are important and highly scrutinized, nevertheless, he thought such scrutiny and emphasis to the extent that it dwarfs receiving/defensive ability and ability to call a game and bring out the best in pitchers was a bad thing.