Catching

[Homedawg]

For discussion not a riot.
I'm not saying highfill isn't our future. And maybe sooner rather than later. Moreso bc we are better at first when he catches. And I get they have run on Luke more, Mostly bc of more opportunities, combined with poor times to the plate and other factors. With all that said Hancock has 5 starts one pb. Highfill has 3 starts and 5 pb. Again just food for thought.

[Commercecomet24]

Homedawg gets it! Highfill has a high ceiling and is gonna be good but he's still to jittery and not settled enough back there, yet. SEC pitchers a little different than high school pitchers. He'll adjust with time but once again more to catching than just throwing, way more! Luke's a better receiver and blocks better right now, but as Homedawg said Luke at first makes our defense better too. Great post!

[StarkVegasSteve]

Agree with all points. Luke started the season back there because he was a better receiver. Otherwise it would've been Highfill. Highfill needs to be catching one to two games a weekend still so that we can get him acclimated and continue to refine his receiving skills behind the plate so that hopefully by April he's our full-time guy back there and we can move Hancock to weekdays and maybe one game a weekend here and there.

Luke needs to stay in the lineup though. His bat has been great so far this year.

[Homedawg]

Agree with all points. Luke started the season back there because he was a better receiver. Otherwise it would've been Highfill. Highfill needs to be catching one to two games a weekend still so that we can get him acclimated and continue to refine his receiving skills behind the plate so that hopefully by April he's our full-time guy back there and we can move Hancock to weekdays and maybe one game a weekend here and there.

Luke needs to stay in the lineup though. His bat has been great so far this year.

I think splitting time is what they are gonna do or close. But that's my opinion. Pros and cons want way we go. Give up offense here. Get defense there. Give up defense here take it there. It's a puzzle. Who is pitching is important. For the opposing team and for us....

[Commercecomet24]

I think splitting time is what they are gonna do or close. But that's my opinion. Pros and cons want way we go. Give up offense here. Get defense there. Give up defense here take it there. It's a puzzle. Who is pitching is important. For the opposing team and for us....

Agree on all.

[AlSwearengen]

Back when Highfill flipped to us, the story was that he had tons of upside but was a late bloomer and had alot of work to do and polishing up before he would be ready. He is probably further along at this point that I was expecting though. Hopefully we have plenty of low pressure opportunities to get him time behind the plate.

[Todd4State]

I think ideally you would want Highfill and Hancock to split the load. We may have to match it up based on how much a team runs too. Catching in this league as a freshman is really tough.

Highfill has hit pretty well but I like our lineup better offensively with this group:

C- Hancock
1B- Hines- he needs to work on his defense anyway
2B- Larry
3B- Alford
SS- Forsythe
LF- Jordan
CF- Ledbetter
RF- Clark
DH- Chance

[Todd4State]

Didn't Luke throw some people out this weekend? Or am I making that up?

[StarkVegasSteve]

Didn't Luke throw some people out this weekend? Or am I making that up?

He technically threw 1 out, although it was a terrible decision because he let the run score on the 2 out double steal. Teams are 17-19 on SB attempts on him this year.

[Commercecomet24]

They said on the broadcast today no sec team has thrown out more than 2 base runners so far this year. Everyone's getting run on because pitchers aren't interested in holding runners only on how hard they can throw. Holding runners is becoming a lost art.

[Saltydog]

They said on the broadcast today no sec team has thrown out more than 2 base runners so far this year. Everyone's getting run on because pitchers aren't interested in holding runners only on how hard they can throw. Holding runners is becoming a lost art.

And yet another reason why the pitch clock isn't slowing the game down any. I think it's the exact opposite. You take the increased stealing and a tighter strike zone into account I could see the games being longer, not shorter. I'd like to see some stats.......

[Commercecomet24]

And yet another reason why the pitch clock isn't slowing the game down any. I think it's the exact opposite. You take the increased stealing and a tighter strike zone into account I could see the games being longer, not shorter. I'd like to see some stats.......

I 100% agree with this! College pitchers already struggle some with command but add the "hurry up and pitch" coupled with a minute strike zone=more baserunners=longer games and you're defeating the purpose of speeding up the games! I heard Charlie and Bart talking about this very thing this weekend. They should just leave the game alone! I hate Rob Manfred cause all his stupid ideas are trickling down to every level!

[DawgFromOxford]

And yet another reason why the pitch clock isn't slowing the game down any. I think it's the exact opposite. You take the increased stealing and a tighter strike zone into account I could see the games being longer, not shorter. I'd like to see some stats.......

I don't know if it translates the same to the college level but at least in the minor league and spring training it's working really well at speeding up the games.

"Over the first weekend of spring training games, the average game time was 2:38. That’s down 23 minutes from last year’s spring training average. When pitch clocks were tested in the minors last year, the average game time dropped by 25 minutes," https://espnswfl.com/2023/02/27/base...-games-faster/

[Randolph Dupree]

I don't know if it translates the same to the college level but at least in the minor league and spring training it's working really well at speeding up the games.

"Over the first weekend of spring training games, the average game time was 2:38. That?s down 23 minutes from last year?s spring training average. When pitch clocks were tested in the minors last year, the average game time dropped by 25 minutes," https://espnswfl.com/2023/02/27/base...-games-faster/

I hate the pitch clock, BUT don't disagree that there is a lot of time wasted while guys step out of the box and readjust everything for every pitch. There has to be a better way to regulate that than a pitch clock though. One thing that chaps me though is that we can watch football for 3 hours and nobody has an issue but a 3 hour baseball game is too long? MLB wants to get more eyes on baseball? End the stupid blackout and make more games accessible to people ($$).



Really great thread!

[Lord McBuckethead]

Look, in SEC world, every single is going to be a double. Runners will take third if there is less than one out. Hancock hasn?t been close in 17 of 19 throws. Hasn?t sniffed the panties of throwing someone out.

[BrunswickDawg]

They said on the broadcast today no sec team has thrown out more than 2 base runners so far this year. Everyone's getting run on because pitchers aren't interested in holding runners only on how hard they can throw. Holding runners is becoming a lost art.

The pitch clock is giving any decent runner an advantage. Pitchers are focusing on that instead of runners and they are getting better leads and jumps. Catchers stand no chance. Steals are up across the board and as you said, no SEC team has more than 2 CS by catchers.

[Commercecomet24]

The pitch clock is giving any decent runner an advantage. Pitchers are focusing on that instead of runners and they are getting better leads and jumps. Catchers stand no chance. Steals are up across the board and as you said, no SEC team has more than 2 CS by catchers.

I think this is a HUGE issue, everyone has the stupid pitch clock on the brain now and its not helping the game at any level! I looked at caught stealing across the country and stolen base percentages are astronomically high. No one is throwing our base runners with any consistency. I mean how many times how we been caught stealing this year? Once? You combine pitchers only focused on their velo and spin rate and not worrying about keeping runners close(slide step, varying deliveries, good pickoff moves,etc..) with the stupid pitch clock and teams are taking advantage. It's really leaving catchers no margin for error.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I think this is a HUGE issue, everyone has the stupid pitch clock on the brain now and its not helping the game at any level! I looked at caught stealing across the country and stolen base percentages are astronomically high. No one is throwing our base runners with any consistency. I mean how many times how we been caught stealing this year? Once? You combine pitchers only focused on their velo and spin rate and not worrying about keeping runners close(slide step, varying deliveries, good pickoff moves,etc..) with the stupid pitch clock and teams are taking advantage. It's really leaving catchers no margin for error.

Didn't realize how good our steal numbers were til I went and looked last night. We're 15-15. Ledbetter already has 7, Larry has 4, and Lane has 3. To put that into perspective we were 44-54 ALL of last year and 74-92 ALL of 2021. If we even stay close to our current pace we'll probably steal somewhere between 60-75 bases just in the regular season.

[Commercecomet24]

Didn't realize how good our steal numbers were til I went and looked last night. We're 15-15. Ledbetter already has 7, Larry has 4, and Lane has 3. To put that into perspective we were 44-54 ALL of last year and 74-92 ALL of 2021. If we even stay close to our current pace we'll probably steal somewhere between 60-75 bases just in the regular season.

I love the running game! I used to run teams ragged! When you get a reputation as a running team other teams infield, pitchers and catchers get jittery when you get runners on!

[BrunswickDawg]

I love the running game! I used to run teams ragged! When you get a reputation as a running team other teams infield, pitchers and catchers get jittery when you get runners on!

I'd be running like the early 80s Cards!! It's going to be interesting watching both college and MLB as they adjust to these clocks. I know advance stats say that stealing is pointless. However, if the odds of advancing a base or 2 are 100%, then you are stupid not to do it. The by product is that you will constantly put pitchers and defenses on edge. When they are on edge they make more mistakes (defensively and in pitch location)