Things to look for when watching baseball on TV

Focus on the catcher...

Yesterday I asked readers to tell me what they liked reading and I’m still going through those responses. In the meantime, I promised to write something about baseball and this is it.

Last night I watched a Royals game on TV and the Fox Sports channel digitally added fake fans to Kauffman Stadium. Very weird and distracting, but maybe Fox needs the practice in case Donald Trump gets re-elected and they need to increase the size of the Inauguration crowd.

(Hey, I said I’d write about baseball; I never said I wouldn’t slip in some political opinion.)

On the other hand, they’ve been digitally adding advertisements to televised baseball games for years and this season they’ve added digital ads to the back of the pitcher’s mound. Maybe someday they’ll add a digital .400 hitter to your favorite team’s lineup – we can only live in hope.

In any case…

If you’re a baseball fan, this season you’ll have to watch your favorite team on TV, which isn’t all bad. Some things are easier to see when you’re there in person; other things are easier to see when you watch on TV.

Today – assuming there is a tomorrow – let’s focus on the catcher, which will help you get the most out of televised baseball.

The signs

Pretty much everybody knows the signs for calling pitches – one finger for a fastball, multiple fingers for anything off-speed. With a runner on second base the catcher will use multiple signs in a sequence – only one will be meaningful – and if you see a catcher use multiple signs without a runner on second base that means they think someone is cheating.

Last season, the first indication that something was up with the Houston Astros were opposition catchers using multiple signs without a runner on second base.

Cross-ups

Every pitcher has a sign sequence he likes to use with a runner on second base and when a reliever comes in the catcher will probably wait on the mound to confirm the sequence.

Here’s an example: first sign, shake, second.

That means the first sign in the sequence is the one that matters, but if the pitcher shakes that pitch off, the second sign will be the one that matters in the next sequence.

Cross-ups – pitcher missing the signs and throwing the wrong pitch – are a big deal. Big league pitchers throw so hard that a catcher expecting a slider away who gets an inside sinker instead will have his mitt in the wrong position and that sinker can tear every ligament in the catcher’s thumb.

That’s what happened to my Throwback co-author Jason Kendall and after that injury Jason says any power he had as a hitter was gone. One cross-up changed his career.

The other signs

In the big leagues, pitches are not called from the dugout. When a catcher looks in that direction he’s probably getting signs to control the running game; that’s done by a coach. Once the catcher gets the sign from the dugout he’ll relay that to the pitcher and here are some of the signs the catcher will use.

Sliding the hand down the inside of the thigh:

That’s the sign for a “slide step” and it’s just what it sounds like. The catcher is asking the pitcher to deliver the next pitch by barely lifting his front foot off the ground and sliding toward home plate.

That speeds up the pitcher’s delivery and makes it easier to throw out a runner.

But a slide step can mess up a pitcher’s release point; his timing is disrupted and he might let go of the ball too soon so the ball stays up in the zone. You’ll see a lot of baseballs hit a long way when the pitcher uses a slide step.

Flicking the thumb like a sideways coin flip:

That’s the sign for a pickoff. The runner on first base might be getting too big a lead or it’s a bunting situation and the defense wants to see if the hitter gives it away by moving into a bunting position too soon.

Shaking the head:

The catcher gives a sign while shaking his head because he wants the pitcher to pretend to shake off the pitch. Say the count is 2-0 and the likely pitch is a fastball (I’ll explain why in a minute), so the catcher calls the fastball while shaking his head.

The hitter knows a fastball is the percentage pitch and when the pitcher shakes his head, thinks the pitcher wants to throw something else…or at least that’s the plan. This trick has been around a while so veteran hitters might not fall for it.

Tapping the ground with a mitt

If the catcher gives a sign and then taps the ground with his mitt, he’s asking the pitcher to bounce the next pitch; the catcher thinks the hitter will chase it. If you see a catcher do this with a runner on third base, that’s a catcher very confident in his ability to block pitches.

There are way too many signs catchers use to list them all, but those are signs you’ll often see when watching a game on TV and now you know what they mean.

The catcher’s mitt

If a pitcher has good control the catcher’s mitt won’t move much. When a catcher receives a pitch and “sticks it” – holds it perfectly still – you know the pitch was exactly where the catcher wanted it.

If the catcher jerks his mitt around after receiving a pitch in an effort to make the pitch look like it was in the strike zone, that tells you the catcher didn’t think it was a strike and he’s trying to fool the umpire. Umpires know this and if they see a lame effort at “framing” a pitch, are less likely to call the pitch a strike.

The best catchers are quiet and subtle when receiving a pitch; the less-talented catchers are more obvious.

The count: the most important thing in baseball

Everything in baseball is dependent on the count and if you’re not paying attention to that, you’ll never understand the game.

Fastball counts are counts in which pitcher needs to throw a strike and a fastball is his best chance of doing so. That’s because fastballs are generally straight and easier to control, but that also makes fastballs easier to hit. Hitters want to get into a fastball count and then “zone down” – say middle of the plate in or middle of the plate away – and then hit the crap out of a fastball.

2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1 and – depending on the situation – 3-2 are generally considered fastball counts.

So pitchers need to avoid those counts or be able to throw something other than a fastball for a strike or be able to put a fastball in a hard-to-hit location, but if the pitcher could do that he probably wouldn’t be in a fastball count.

To give you some idea how important counts are: the Kansas City Royals overall team average is currently .251, in a 3-1 count it’s .429. Getting a fastball in a fastball count is what hitters dream about.

Those are the basics, but a thousand and one things can change the percentage pitch.

For instance: a 3-1 pitch to a power hitter with runners at second and third, first open, two outs and the game tied, can be a breaking ball count because the pitcher would rather walk the power hitter than have him hit the ball into general admission and have it digitally caught by a digital fan.

But a 3-1 pitch to a contact hitter with speed and nobody out in a tie game can be a fastball count because the pitcher doesn’t want to put a fast guy on base and have to worry about him stealing second, then scoring on a single. If all a contact hitter is going to do is single, throw a fastball and make him earn first base with a hit.

All these different combinations of circumstances are what make the game great – everything changes on every pitch – so if you’re not paying attention to this stuff, you’re missing the game.

According to my laptop I have already written over 1,300 words and we haven’t even scratched the surface of all the things you can watch a catcher do on TV. But if you didn’t already know this stuff, now you have something to look for next time you watch a game.

Meanwhile, I got another anti-Trump cartoon to work on.

Talk to you soon.