Having to block TOO MANY pitches in the dirt

[halskinner]

OK. You are the catcher. Your pitcher starts off the game throwing 2 out 0f 5 balls into the dirt 4 or 5 feet in front of home plate. You block and stop them as best you can. However, the majority of those wild pitches are veering to the right or left and you miss a few and are gettin the crap beat out of you.

This pitcher is terrible. But, your coach doesnt think so at all and is yelling at you to block the ball, very vocal about it and angry too.

At what point do you take a stand against the coach and pitcher and tell the coach to pull her or get someone else to catch all the ricochets?

I saw this happen at a 14u game some years ago. It brought the catcher to tears because rhe coach was blaming passed balls on her.

I know what would have happened to me, as an adult male pitcher, if I did that to a catcher, I would have a fight on my hands about the 3rd or 4th one.

I really felt for this catcher, she was doing great to keep as many in control as she did.

 

[amanda_cake]

That's a tough situation. We've faced that before at school ball. Pitcher was the coach's favorite and all of the passed balls got blamed on the catcher, naturally. She never said anything, however, even if she had I don't think it would have done any good. It's definitely something that you should talk about, however.

 

[SnocatzDad]

Had that issue on a 14B team a few years back, without the yelling at the catcher. Catcher(s) knew that pitcher was terrible and they would take a beating. Turned out to be great practice at blocking for the catchers and I started a 10 blocks = DQ system that kept the pitcher alive. Catchers also got plenty of opportunities to take cracks at kids on the bases.

 

[mrslug01]

I don't think you take a stand against the coach, especially in a game. My older DD had some yellers and screamers. Sometimes other girls were brought to tears. I coached her for a few years and stopped after 14U. My answer was always the same. Listen to the coach. Grin and bear it. Move on. I think we need to teach girls to have athicker skin. I also think that they need to realize coaches are wrong at times but it's not up to them to point it out during the game. Try find anything constructive if possible, and just take it for what it's worth. If this is constant, the time to address it is after a game in private. As we all know, this may or may not accomplish anything.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

OK. You are the catcher. Your pitcher starts off the game throwing 2 out 0f 5 balls into the dirt 4 or 5 feet in front of home plate. You block and stop them as best you can. However, the majority of those wild pitches are veering to the right or left and you miss a few and are gettin the crap beat out of you.

This pitcher is terrible. But, your coach doesnt think so at all and is yelling at you to block the ball, very vocal about it and angry too.

At what point do you take a stand against the coach and pitcher and tell the coach to pull her or get someone else to catch all the ricochets?

I saw this happen at a 14u game some years ago. It brought the catcher to tears because rhe coach was blaming passed balls on her.

I know what would have happened to me, as an adult male pitcher, if I did that to a catcher, I would have a fight on my hands about the 3rd or 4th one.

I really felt for this catcher, she was doing great to keep as many in control as she did.

We will experience the exact opposite this year in HS ball. We have dominate pitching but below average catching. ( we lost our great varsity catcher to graduation )

So what do you do? How do you approach that situation mentally for the pitcher? She knows that the pressure will be on her. The new catcher couldn't 'track' the breaking balls. Too many dropped 3rd strikes. ( this was my observation watching her play JV last year )

And we all know.......a pitcher is only as good as her catcher. A great pitcher will look like a dang fool if the catcher can't handle her best breaking pitches.