Something new.. Transfer Time

I hear you on "transfer" practice. An easy drill that I started with my son a few years ago. We have about a 1/2 drive to school in the am. He sits in the passenger seat of course, w/ mitt and ball and practices just transfers. He got a new mitt so it's very important he gets used to transferring with it. If he does it for 5-10 minutes each day in the car he's practicing a components of hi pop time. 

Domingo Ayala does not play baseball.

But he is funny as heck!!!!!!

But he did... college and pro... point was that cheating your pop time is easy to do

Transfer is easy to do in the winter and even in the spring when simply playing catch.  It just takes focus.

 

As for timing it with a stopwatch, I've seen many guys who can't properly time a pop time.  If the transfer times average between .65-.85, I don't trust many people to accurately get this time (not saying you can't, Chris).  Heck, being off 0.10 could mean as much as a 15% error.

always room for error.. until they have laser gridsl that gets the split second it touches the glove to the time it crosses over 2nd base they will always be off... its why i focus on game situation and basically tell catchers that you are one of 2 types of catchers... you're either over 2.00 or under 2.00... not a real big difference when you are talking .10 but the kids think there is... the main reason i try to time their transfer times indoors is to create urgency in getting rid of the ball as quick as they can... plus the group has 5 kids in it who are all competitive and solid.. so they love talking a bunch of smack to each other.. this is just a tool for me to stir the pot with them!

Hey guys, 

 

I'm actually releasing an article about this very thing at the end of the month. 

 

We've been timing the release for the better part of the last 10 years (1-2K times recorded at every level of baseball and softball) and have used it to show our students improvement over the offseason. However, with the amount of time we're dealing with so finite, each time is relevant only in the eye of the one who holds the stopwatch. There is so much variance between individual times that this measurement had to be standardized for it to mean anything. So a couple fo years ago, we did just that. 

 

Using a 30 fps HD camera, or a standard HD cable broadcast, we can find out exactly how quick the ball got from the glove to the air. We measure from the frame the ball disappears from sight when the glove completely covers the ball (this is the point where I have found that sound of the ball hitting the glove matches up with what our eyes see in real time, thus signaling the instructor/coach/scout to start the watch) to the point at which the ball is completely out of hand. If the ball is more than a foot out of the hand on the first frame showing release, we count that as a half frame. 

 

Here are some averages of MLB throws for you. 

 

Yadier Molina - Consistently .64-.67 or 19-20 frames. I have had him as low as 18.5 frames or .62

 

Joe Mauer - Consistently .75-.80 or 22.5-24 frames. 

 

Buster Posey - Consistently .65-.70 or 19.5-21 frames.

 

Matt Wieters - Consistently .65-.70 or 19.5-21 frames. Wieters throws have a ton of variance., though. Occasionally he'll be up near Mauer in terms of release and yet still spike one into the ground.

 

Pudge Rodriguez - Consistently .63-.70 or 19-20 frames. 

 

 

Fastest I have ever seen actually took place a couple of weeks ago after a few friends in the Red Sox organization asked me if I had heard of Christian Vazquez. Knew about him, but didn't "KNOW" about him. 

 

The link below is to the only in-game release I have ever timed under .60 (.58 or 17.5 frames). Throw was 1.77 to the bag. These types of throws do NOT happen on a regular basis in the MLBs. This kid is special. 

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl...ews_bos&c_id=bos

 

The fact is that video is the only way to accurately offer students comparative results over the course of the offseason. If you are looking to compare, all vids on MLB.com are 30 fps - using the Firefox browser and the Download helper plug-in, you can rip videos off the site. Just search video section for "Molina throws" etc. and a bunch of clips will come up Press play and when the DownloadHelper icon starts spinning, just click it. I have a couple 1TB hard drives filled with just catcher's throws. 

 

If anyone has any questions on what other catchers are throwing, let me know. 

That video was awesome.. not many who can do that in a game compared to all the cheating that goes on in showcases... had a sophomore text me today that they did pop times today and he went from a 2.68 last year to a 2.27 this year...