[Tim C]

The timing of this post was excellent.

As I was clearing off my desk getting ready to leave work to work a game I read this perfect post.

Since I was going to work the dish at my game I decided to put ego aside and "really" pay attention to what I see and what I don't see when working the Davis stance.

For the last four years I have intoned over-and-over that from the Davis stance I can "always see the entire plate and the dirt between the plate and catcher!"

I have said this so many times I myself began to believe it.

Now let's set a few rules here for you to understand where I am coming from:

1) Not only do I ONLY work "Big Boy Ball" I seem to get a pretty strong share of the "better" quality teams. This means, in turn, that I see pretty good high school level catching.

2) I am 6' tall. Not sure if this is really important but it could be different if you are 5' 6" or 6' 5".

3) The most critical part of the stance is that you work "double wide" -- this means that your feet are placed WELL OUTSIDE your shoulder width.

4) Finally remember you still WORK IN THE SLOT!

Now my report:

My first point is that catchers are as different as the weather of a spring day in Oregon.

Last night is a great example. While both catchers were slim in build one was about 6' 2" and the other about 5' 7".

The larger issue is that one worked as "normally taught" (I think it is pretty universial that catchers are taught to place themselves 18" back from the back foot of the hitter and move forward and backward as an adjustment to the placement of the hitter) and one worked VERY close to the plate.

(Diary Entry) TOP OF THE FIRST:

First hitter is left handed. As always this causes a problem with setting up. In a conversation with MLB Umpire Mike Winters one night he noted, "there are two things that make this hard: first, he se fewer left handed hitters and therefore it is weird to begin with and second when a right handed hitter is at bat the catcher's glove is right in front of our face . . . it is easy to find references to make the call."

Pretty basic but true.

Knowing that I was going to explain what I was actually seeing I made some observations:

1) No matter how much I moved around I could not stay in the slot and see the pitcher through the batters hands. I could move back, forward, left or right -- but if I really wnated to stay in the slot I had to give up seeing the "release point" of the pitcher.

2) With this specific catcher I could see the entire plate -- looking across the plate from the slot.

3) I started 3' deep on this specific batter/catcher combo and I could see the plate and dirt. WOW! I proved my point, to all of you.

4) First pitch grounder to F4 who tosses to F3 for the out.

Cool!

Next hitter is a right handed hitter that stands pretty much well centered in the box.

Again, I can see the entire plate.

Now my first point is that during the first half inning I could see the entire plate on both left and right handed batters. The catcher was the 6' 2" kid. He didn't shift much after the pitcher started his motion and with good timing I was pretty much 100% correct on balls and strikes for the half inning.

I will be back in a little while for Part 2 which will discuss my other half inning actions with the smaller catcher and his placement.