Pitch framing and the pitcher ability

[_Sir_Charles_]

Originally Posted by kpresidente

I was a catcher, and my thoughts are....it depends on how much he's missing and where. Framing pitches is mostly about how you position your glove as you catch the ball. Basically, all you're trying to do is curl your fingers over the ball as you catch it. You don't want to actually "move" the glove, that's too obvious (sometimes the umps would comment to me about it if I was too obvious). I don't want the ump to think that I think the pitch was a ball.

So if the pitch is outside part of the plate (RH batter), you want to catch it with your thumb pointing toward the ground and curl your fingers in. If it's inside, the opposite, thumb pointing toward the sky and curl your fingers in. High pitches thumb toward first base and curl down. Low and inside point your thumb at the batter, etc, etc.

I never really believed I was getting extra strikes, I was just trying not to LOSE strikes, because if your body's not in position, the pitch is going to want to push your glove off the plate.

Anyway, as far as the OP, it's definitely EASIER to frame the pitches when the guy's hitting his spots. Everything's easier then, you're more relaxed, clear mind, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, if the guy's all over the place, you're just trying to catch the ball, you're worried and stressed, and you're not even thinking about framing pitches. At least not much.

It's also a lot easier if nobody is on base, because your stance is different. When you're up on your haunches, it's harder to move around behind the plate. Plus, and probably more importantly, you're not worried about the baserunners and wild pitches. So you have to figure if the guy's pitching well, and guys aren't getting on base, you're going to be better at framing the pitches.

It's also harder to adjust to low pitches than high ones. Moving the glove from thumb toward the sky/thumb toward the ground to thumb toward first base is natural. Not so on low pitches. In fact, if the pitch is lower than you expected, you probably won't even try to really frame it much at all, you just want to catch it without your glove being driven into the ground. Oh, and if it crosses the plate? Again, then you're not so much worried about how your glove is positioned as you are trying to not let the pitch pull you out of the zone so it looks like a ball. Lastly, moving toward your glove hand is usually easier than moving away from it so that matters too.

The short end of it is...yeah, it probably matters quite a bit, but it depends on a lot of other things too, and quite a few of those other things (eg. men on base) matter a lot more.

Fantastic post. I love the insight of positions I never got to play.