'In the Dugout' is a monthly column written by a local youth, travel, high school or collegiate coach about a specific aspect of the game. This month's guest columnists are Herndon head coach Mark Rueffert, Osbourn Park head coach Jack Ferrick, Madison assistant coach Justin Counts, and Sammy Serrano, the former head coach at Patriot.
Rueffert and Counts were both All-ACC catchers at the University of Virginia before playing professionally in the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees organizations, respectively. Ferrick caught at the Naval Academy and runs Catchers U out of Complete Game in Manassas. Serrano was a two-time All-American at Stetson University and played in the San Francisco Giants system, has coached collegiately at Stetson and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, as a catching instructor and coach with USA Baseball, and operates Serrano Catching.
The four coaches write this month on catchers improving their ability to throw out base runners.
Accuracy trumps pop times on catcher's throws to second base
By Justin Counts
At Madison, we focus on five areas of defensive work for catchers: framing, blocking, throwing, fielding our position, and plays at the plate.
I think throwing is a minor part of a catcher’s responsibilities. I believe that pop times are important, but that accuracy is more important. It does us no good to get the ball there quickly if it is not on the bag or in a place where the fielder can tag the runner out. In high school, if you can be accurate with your throws, you will be very successful with a pop time in the 2.2 second range. I think in college you want to be closer to 2.0 and in the pros you want to be in the 1.8 or better range. Again, stressing accuracy with those times.
We begin by focusing on having a very short glove action from catching the ball to bringing it to out throwing hand. We focus on turning the glove so the back of the glove is facing the pitcher while we take it directly toward our right ear. By bringing the glove to the right ear, it forces us to close our front shoulder and get it pointed at the target.
We work on the transfer with the mesh point of our glove and throwing hand being at the ear, taking the ball out of the glove while leading with the elbow. Once we are comfortable with the upper body portion of the movement, we incorporate the feet. We want to take our right foot and move it to our left heel and we turn, focusing on getting our momentum moving toward the direction we are throwing the ball. The focus here is on staying low and keeping our head over the center of our body.
For drills, we do the following: ball in glove: start in a catching position with ball in a glove, with the main focus on having a short glove-to-ear and quick feet. Don’t have to throw; coach pitch: from a close distance, the coach throws with high velocity, and the catcher focuses on quick release and good footwork.
Showcase focus on pop times hurting development of high school catchers
By Jack Ferrick
The quest for a 2.0 pop time has become a major obstacle in today’s catcher development. This stems from a showcase culture which focuses on quantitative metrics for coaches.
Showcase events will normally have catchers throw to second and third base for time. Most catchers believe that whether or not they will be recruited is based off of these times. This becomes a problem when a catcher lets the stopwatch affect other aspects of their defensive game.
Classic pop time cheating techniques are becoming more of the norm like starting too close to the plate, starting footwork prematurely, and starting in a stance that a catcher cannot receive from i.e. too high or too turned to their glove side. This may help shave a tenth of a second from their pop time, but is unusable in a game setting. This thought process is corrupting our catching community just as much as the radar gun corrupts our pitching community.
A catcher’s pop time is an important part of their game, however, for that to be their main focus is short-sighted. In talking to college recruiters and catching coaches, I know that they are not easily fooled by an incomplete catcher. Catchers who take the time to learn the entire position give their team a much higher chance to win. Too many catchers rely on their arm to make or break their pop time, and neglect the little things that allow you to be faster and get the ball out earlier.
Common little things that are neglected are hip mobility, building leg strength, allowing the ball to travel the correct depth, hand transfer paths on different pitch locations, and maintaining direction to second base during the entire throwing motion. Catchers need to break down the throwing motion into a progression where they work on one aspect at a time, instead of trying to tackle everything all at once.
Creating a progression that allows you to build up to your entire throwing motion will give a catcher an understanding of what their body is doing. This understanding and body control will allow a catcher to apply their mechanics athletically in a game setting. Progressions are nothing new in baseball as hitters do one-hand drills, infielders do short-hop drills, pitchers do balance drills, and outfielders do drop-step drills.
To throw faster and more accurate pop times, catchers need to take the time to perfecting their process and be less concerned with their time. Your pop time will take care of itself if you are willing to put the work in developing your entire game.
Alignment, getting to correct checkpoints important in throwing out base runners
By Mark Rueffert
Here is the approach I take with teaching catchers how to throw to second base.
I start with alignment. When you have to throw 127 feet, 3 3/8 inches, and you have to do it as fast as you possibly can, you have to be aligned with your target to give you the best chance for an accurate throw. When I teach alignment, I am also showing them proper footwork through the alignment drills we do. Once they understand proper alignment and footwork, I move on to the next step.
That step in the progression is working the hands together to transfer the ball while the feet are moving. There are certain positions I like to see catchers have their hands throughout the transfer, especially as it relates to where their feet are in the process. I use a lot of slow-motion drills and ‘checkpoints’ to make sure the hands and feet are working together. Once they understand the relationship between the hands and feet, we focus on having them execute those movements as fast as possible.
We slowly build up speed through a variety of drills, starting from slow-motion throws all the way to using a pitching machine to simulate game-speed situations.
I think pop times to second can be misleading. You don’t have to have the best pop time to throw runners out. It’s similar to pitching. Just because you throw hard and your numbers look great on a radar gun, that doesn’t mean you are an effective pitcher. I like to see catchers who are mechanically sound and can make consistent, accurate throws.
Here is the pop time range I think can be effective at each level: 2.3-2.5 for junior varsity players, 2.1-2.3 for varsity players, 2.0-2.1 for Division I-level collegiate players, and 1.8-2.0 for professional players.
Focus on stance, footwork and exchange key in catcher shutting down running game
By Sammy Serrano
There are several components that go into a catcher’s ability to throw well to the bases.
Proper Stance: Feet should be slightly outside of shoulder width and offset with the right foot in line with the instep of the left foot. At no time should the feet be in the parallel position. In order for the stance to be both comfortable and athletic, the feet should be slightly ducked out, with the heels tucked underneath the body line (shoulders). The feet should be ‘grounded’ with the entire foot dissipating the weight of the body. In an athletic position, the weight will be 60/40 or 70/30 on the inside ball of the foot with the heel still engaged. When down in the crouch, knees need to track over toes and the chin needs to be, even with, or slightly in front of the knees. Elbows are always outside the framework. Quads are as close to parallel with the ground as possible, as long as, an athletic stance is attainable. In order to engage the hips and remain athletic, the butt can be lower than parallel.
Glove and hand placement: Looking at the catching hand, the index finger should point to 1 o’clock. This will put the thumb in a parallel position to the ground and ensure an open target. The glove should be placed right off of the knee, at the lowest position where you are able to receive a pitch for strike presentation. Bare hand placement in this position should be anywhere from 6-8 inches from the glove with the thumb covered by the other fingers in a fist position.
Footwork: In order to be a good thrower, you must anticipate. Whenever the opportunity arises, you have to have your feet moving in advance of receiving the ball. As a pitch is coming in, you will need to transfer weight to your left side to free your right foot for a jab step. A jab step is important to get you online and to gain ground towards second base. The quicker you can get your right foot on line, while gaining ground, the quicker you will be able to execute the throw.
Glove rip leads to exchange and transfer: While footwork begins the process of getting you online, the glove rip finishes that process. In order to fully get your hips and shoulders squared up to the bag, your glove has to get back to the midline of your body as quickly as possible. In this process, you will begin to exchange/transfer the ball to the throwing hand. The further away your bare hand is in this process, the longer the exchange/transfer will take. By the time that the glove passes in front of the left chest, the ball should be in hand to continue the momentum into the throwing action. The reason I say the left chest is this gives you the most amount of time to continue to grip the baseball without getting ‘stuck’ and not being able to secure a grip as your glove and bare hand move past the midline.
Arm action: We are looking for a short and efficient arm action. The arm action of a catcher, closely resembles, the arm action of a middle infielder. The ball needs to continue moving throughout the motion. I teach catchers how to make circles with their elbow and hand so they understand the concept of being short and continue to keep moving. In the game, these circles will tighten up and come in quick bursts. It is important to be in a stacked position at all times and to finish every throw online. We move north and south on every throw, meaning lead arm and throwing arm interchange in straight lines. Our lead arm/throwing arm cannot work in an east-and-west relationship, meaning the front side spins off the ball allowing the brunt of the throw to fall on the elbow/shoulder.
Another valuable throwing skill is a catcher’s ability to back pick to bases. First and foremost, any bunted through sacrifice bunt should be an automatic back pick situation. Baserunners typically are over-aggressive in bunt situations. With the mindset of an ‘automatic pick’ in these situations, you are setting yourself up to be successful and react to the play. With a runner at first base only, I am a proponent of back picking runners with a left-handed hitter at the plate. For me, this was a called play where the baserunner was getting an aggressive lead without returning to the bag with intent. To set it up, I would call a fastball in, that would allow me to get into position to use the hitter as a shield and back pick directly to the bag. To back pick at second base, you need to have a special arm!
To be a Division I catcher, you have to be special. You have to understand that the typical pop times for that population are in the 1.95-2.05 range, consistently, with a majority of those throws being in the 2.0-2.05 range. With that being said, the arm velocity for that same group is between 77-83 mph. I would love to say that there are pop times that I truly look for in high school aged catchers, but there are too many factors that disqualify throws for me; where catchers are set up? Are they too high in their stance? Where is the middle infielder catching the ball at the bag?
Those are all real issues in the pop time debate. A qualified catching instructor can look at the tools and see if he is going to have an ‘shutdown’ type thrower. For the most part, I would rather have a catcher that sacrifices arm strength for quickness and accuracy. If I have a guy back there that is always quick and accurate, we are going to be more successful at throwing guys out. Arm strength just allows catchers to make mistakes and still have the ability to throw a few more runners out.
And as a huge reminder, receiving is the most important component in this catching equation. If you have a catcher that can’t catch, then he can’t play the position!
