Catching Ettiquette

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Nonsense. You track a pitch through the zone. You don't have to see it or follow it after that ... kind of what Josh said. And he said he used the slap of the mitt as a timing mechanism. That isn't mine, but what's wrong with doing that?

Where the catcher catches the ball is evidence of the path of the pitch. Why not consider all the evidence? Maybe you thought the pitch missed the zone, but the catcher caught it waist high over the middle of the plate. If you don't consider that evidence, you will call that pitch a ball (erroneously).

Timing is proper use of the eyes, period. Waiting for the slap of the mitt, counting, and other such "mechanisms" may serve to delay the call, but they have nothing to do with timing.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

Where the catcher catches the ball is evidence of the path of the pitch. Why not consider all the evidence? Maybe you thought the pitch missed the zone, but the catcher caught it waist high over the middle of the plate. If you don't consider that evidence, you will call that pitch a ball (erroneously).

What? If the pitch missed the zone, and the catcher catches it waist high over the middle of the plate, it was a ball. Where it is caught is completely irrelevant. Just like Davidson's fair ball last week - what happens AFTERward doesn't tell you anything about what happened before.

Timing is proper use of the eyes, period. Waiting for the slap of the mitt, counting, and other such "mechanisms" may serve to delay the call, but they have nothing to do with timing.

Again... what? Timing is timing. Proper use of the eyes is crucial, but has nothing to do with timing. I don't use the slap of the mitt ... but so often the cause of missing pitches is calling them to quickly. ANY mechanism that makes you wait gives you that split second to confirm that your mouth is about to say what your eyes saw.