What is framing and does it matter? What is selling and does it matter?

[Orange Socks]

I agree it's much easier for a catcher to turn a strike into a ball. A lot of umpires tend to hate when catchers flip their glove over when catching lower pitches; the same pitch caught without the glove flip would be a strike. Similar to dropped strikes sometimes getting called balls even if they were strikes, or when catchers don't set up close enough to the plate and let the ball get too deep leading to them being called balls when they wouldn't have been if they snagged it closer.

Some umpires don't care about the catcher's mechanics (and shouldn't), but there's a good amount that do, and will punish the pitcher because of it.

During DD's playing days, pitchers had certain catchers that were their favorites. Why? Some catchers couldn't "frame" and would turn strikes into balls because they couldn't stick the pitch and would let the ball take their glove outside of the zone. Pitchers need to be confident in who is receiving. I would hear it from the pitcher's parents when Catcher #2, or #3 was behind the dish. I would nod and tell them those catchers need innings too.

 

[Orange Socks]

Dave Weaver, Jay's dad was a very good man and friend.

What I have taught is that, for example, a pitch on the outside of the plate, if it is too far outside then don't try to frame it. If that pitch is borderline, attempt to catch the outside part of the ball beating it to the spot and then, rotate or bend the wrist toward the center of the plate. For the high pitch, attempt to get to the top of the pitch before the ball gets there and then catch it catching the "top part of the ball" and rotating or bending the wrist downward. Same for inside and low. The elbow should never move and there should not be any herking and jerking.

DD attended a Road Show Catcher's Camp and this ^^^^ set the foundation for the rest of her career. The earlier the better. There is a lot to do to hone your craft as a catcher and DD worked on this a lot. No one knows how much practice DD did outside of practices and games.

 

[PJR202]

I never cease to be amazed at the level of verbal abuse thrown at MLB umpires from players and coaches that often has no justification and apparently no consequence (like what's at the beginning of this video). It's no surprise that some take that horrible example to youth ball fields.

Calling the ump a POS was pretty rough, but I'm more surprised that he didn't get tossed for it. I guess I can understand players and coaches being more vocal with umps at that level because millions of dollars depend on batting average, wins, etc, but still...that's just too much. I know it's done, but toss 'em when they do it.

 

[marriard]

Once they reach about 12U size there is not a single strike a catcher cannot catch and keep a strike by setting up directly behind the point of the plate.

It also gives the catcher the ability to give the umpire a very good view of the pitch. The less movement a catcher makes, the better.

Had a catcher in a college game earlier this year who loved to set up in the inside slot the umpire uses - and then would rise up during the pitch. I did everything I could to move and find a view of the pitch, but I had no choice in some cases to call some close pitches balls since she completely blocked my view of the ball as it was crossing (or not crossing) the plate.

Also - umpires get good at calling balls and strikes by consistently calling from the same setup so you see the same thing over and over again. When you force the umpire to take a different eye angle, they are going to miss some. It just looks so different (and remember we are visualizing an imaginary box in mid air already)