The Catching Crisis: How Neglecting Catchers is Hurting Your Team

Baseball is a complex and strategic game that relies on every position to contribute to the success of the team. However, one position stands out in terms of overall impact: the catcher.

Despite being the most important position on the field, catchers are often overlooked, under-coached, and misunderstood.

If you don’t know who I am, my name is Anj Bourgeois and I’m the founder of Catching Made Simple. I transitioned from infield to catcher my Junior year of college, having never caught before, and now have a passion for teaching other catchers the fundamentals of the game.

I’ve helped thousands of catchers get into a better stance, learn the fundamentals of the game, and get their mindset right.

In this article, we'll explore what makes a position important, why catchers are so crucial to the success of a team, the issues facing catchers today, and how coaches can better prepare their catchers for the game.

(And check out the full podcast here:)

How Do You Choose Which Position is the Most Important?

To understand why catchers are the most important position on the field, we need to look at what makes a position important.

A position is important based on 2 things:

1. IMPACT: How much influence they have on the game
2. FREQUENCY: How often that influence is exerted

So you can use the equation: Importance = Impact x Frequency

Influence can be defined on the amount of sway, impact, and change a player can have on a game.

How often that influence is exerted is defined as the amount of time a player has a chance to influence the game.

For example, a shortstop has more influence over a game than the right fielder because they touch the ball more often than the right fielder and the plays are arguably more important because they can often get two outs on one play.

Now, every position is vitally important, but we can look at each position through the lens of importance based on the two factors: How much influence, and how often the influence is used.

Pitchers Really Play the Most Important Position

One of the main reasons why catchers play the most important position is because of their influence on pitching.

You see, pitchers actually play the most important position on the field because they initiate every play.

Aka - they touch the ball more than anyone and set the tone for every pitch.

So… they have a lot of influence and use it very often… in fact, every pitch.

However, pitchers come out and can only throw so often.

Which means that catchers actually have the most important position.

5 Reasons Catchers Play the Most Important Position on the Field

1. They Influence a Pitcher’s Individual Performance

Catchers influence how well pitchers perform more than any other position.

Some pitchers won’t even throw unless they have their catcher. (Clayton Kershaw was like with for a bit with AJ Ellis, as was Jon Lester with David Ross).

Since the catcher has such a powerful influence on another crucial position’s performance, their importance grows even beyond the amount of times they touch the ball.

2. Catchers Influence the Entire Pitching Staff

While Pitchers come out of the game, Catchers do not.

They stay in the game and have an influence over all of the pitchers.

They're involved in calling pitches, running the strategy of the game, and managing the pitcher’s confidence and mindset.

(If you’ve worked with pitchers, especially lefty pitchers, you know how hard this can be 😉)

They're also in charge of managing the staff of pitchers and often help managers make bullpen changes based off of how that pitcher is doing, what the matchups look like, and who’s available (and fresh) in the pen.

As a result, catchers have a ton of influence over the game, over the season, and over the pitching staff.

Because catchers influence pitchers (the most important position) more than anyone else, they therefore have the most influence.

But catcher’s don’t just influence pitchers, they influence their own team’s defense and the other team’s offense.

3. Catchers Create Major Micro Swings

What’s the difference in batting average between a 2-1 count and a 1-2 count?

In a 2-1 count, hitters hit .344

In a 1-2 count, hitters hit .166

So, the difference is approximately .178 based on batting average stats from 2015-2017 (yes, I know these stats are a little old, but I imagine they’re still pretty accurate).

So a minor change in the count has a major impact on a hitter’s batting average.

Let’s bring this back to catchers.

A good catcher wins you those borderline pitches.

And how many of those borderline pitches do we have in a game?

Well, the legend catching coach Jerry Weinstein says there’s about 18-36 “Stri-Balls” a game. A Stri-Ball is a pitch that could be called either a ball or strike depending on how the catcher receives it.

So take 18-36 Stri-Balls a game and multiply that by 162 (the number of games played in a MLB season) and you get 2,916-5,832 Stri-Balls over a season.

I’m not sure quite how to quantify the impact 3,000-5,000 borderline pitches over a season, but I know it’s a lot.

Remember, we’re measuring how important a position is based on:

1. How impactful the position is
2. How often the impact happens

As you can tell by the numbers, catchers have a major impact on the batting average (and therefore runs scored) of the other team when they win those close pitches. On top of that, it happens 3,000-6,000 times over the course of a season.

So, catchers have a major impact the other team’s offense, and the confidence of the pitcher through many ‘micro’ moments when receiving.

4. More Touches, More Influence

Since Catchers touch the ball more than any other position (remember, pitchers come out of the game), they have more influence on the outcome of the game than any other position.

They're in every pitch, calling pitches, working with the pitchers, re-adjusting the field. All that stuff.

And the more opportunities you have to influence the game, the more important your position is.

That's why positions up the middle, like pitchers, catchers, shortstops, center field are so important, because they touch the ball more than the people on the corners.

The more touches you have, the more influence you have.

Catchers touch the ball more than anyone else besides the pitcher.

5. The Unique Vantage Point of the Catcher

In addition to their impact on pitching and defense, catchers have a unique role in the game.

They're the only ones who can see the whole field.

This gives them a bird's-eye view of the game and allows them to make strategic decisions impacting the entire team.

However, the fact that catchers can see the whole field doesn't mean they're inherently more important.

Importance is truly defined by impact and frequency, and catchers have more impact over the game than any other position because of how often they touch the ball and the influence they have on the pitchers.

The Catching Crisis - 3 Reasons Why Catchers are Neglected

Despite their importance, catching is often misunderstood, under-coached, and mismeasured.

These issues have led to what is known as the "catching crisis" in baseball, where catchers are not getting the attention they deserve.

And because they don’t get the attention they deserve, it’s hurting your team.

Let’s dive in deeper to the 3 reasons why catchers are neglected.

1. Misunderstanding of Catching

One of the main issues facing catchers today is a lack of understanding of the position.

Catching is a complex position that requires a unique set of skills, including receiving, blocking, and throwing.

However, catchers don't always get the attention they deserve at practice, and they're often neglected by coaches.

This can lead to a lack of development in crucial skills and a misunderstanding of the position.

Coaches don’t understand how important catching is. Nor do they know how to train them, so they don’t train them at all.

2. Under-Coaching of Catchers

Another issue facing catchers is a lack of coaching.

Catchers are often neglected by coaches, who may not understand the position themselves.

This is no fault of the coaches, they were never taught.

How can they teach something they don’t know?

However… this can lead to a lack of development in crucial skills and a further neglect of the position.

Coaches need to understand how important the catcher is to their success and provide them with the tools they need to succeed.

This includes teaching catchers how to manage the staff of pitchers, help develop a game plan for the team, and work on the skills that are most important for their position.

3. Mismeasurement of Catching

Finally, catching is often mismeasured, with coaches focusing on the wrong metrics when evaluating catchers.

The most common metric used to measure catching performance is the pop time, which is the time it takes for a catcher to catch the ball and throw it to second base.

However, other skills, such as receiving and blocking, are more important for catchers. This is because of frequency (number of times it happens in a game) and impact (the influence it has on the potential to score runs).

Most catchers have game numbers similar to this:

• Throwing: 3-8 times
• Blocking: 10-30 times
• Receiving: 100-140 times
• Stances: 300-350 times

Coaches need to focus not just on measuring things that are easy to measure (like a pop time), and also focus on the key skills that are truly most important: getting into a great stance, receiving Stri-Balls really well, and controlling the baseball with blocking.

How to Teach Catching

To address the catching crisis, coaches need to do 3 main things better:

1. Understand the main goals of each component of the position
2. Be able to identify “good” vs “bad” and explain why
3. Know enough to teach and coach their catchers

This includes understanding the unique role of catchers and providing them with the tools they need to succeed. Coaches should focus on teaching catchers how to manage the staff of pitchers, help develop a game plan for the team, and work on the skills that are most important for their position.

They should also be aware of common misconceptions about catching, such as the belief that catchers play the most important position on the field because they're the only ones who can see the whole field.

In reality, catchers have more influence over the game because they touch the ball more than any other position besides the pitcher, highly influence not just one pitcher but all of the pitchers, and can make major minor swings based on how they receive and block.

Tips and Tricks for Coaches

Coaches can better prepare their catchers for the game by focusing on the following:

• Getting their catchers into a good stance
• Learning the process of skill development
• Developing skills in receiving, blocking, and throwing
• Teaching catchers how to manage the staff of pitchers
• Helping catchers develop a game plan for the team
• Providing catchers with the tools they need to succeed
• Focusing on the right metrics when evaluating catchers

Recapping The Catching Crisis

Whew. That was a big one. Good job hanging in there with me.

Let’s recap:

• Importance = impact x frequency
• Pitchers are the most important… but they come out of the game
• So catchers are really the most important because:
  • They highly influence a pitcher’s performance
  • They help manage an entire pitching staff and game strategy
  • They influence “major micro swings” like the .148 batting average difference between a 2-1 and 1-2 count
  • They touch the ball more than any other position (besides pitchers)
  • They can see the whole field (which is not as important as people make it out to be)
• But… most coaches don’t pay attention to catchers because of
  • Misunderstanding - not realizing how important catchers are
  • Under-coaching - not knowing how to coach catchers
  • Mis-measurement - focusing on the wrong things

If you want to check out the podcast, take a look on YouTube, and Spotify.

If your son is a catcher and you want coaching, book a 15 min Catching Consultation with me.

If you liked this and want more catching content like it, check out:

• 7 Day Stance Challenge - Get a Stance Like the Pros in 5 Min a Day
• Episode 1 of the Catching Made Simple Podcast
• 4 Steps to Choosing a Catching Coach