Catchers: 2nd Most Critical Skill, Blocking Pitches

It's number two on the list of "Most Important Skills To Have As A Catcher", BLOCKING THE BASEBALL. We consider it number two even though it has a fairly low frequency rate of happening -but when it happens, how it's handled will decide the outcome of a situation or the game itself.

First lets look at the potential results of a catcher that is an inferior blocking catcher. The most obvious thing is that unless the pitcher keeps the ball up all the time for him to catch, balls in the dirt will eventually kill you and the team. The trouble with keeping balls out of the dirt, is that your pitcher needs to be able to "dump" a curve ball on , or in front of the plate to get a strikeout at times. If the catcher is incapable of handling that pitch, we just took a bullet out of his gun and that speaks loud about who reallyeffected the outcome of the game. If the pitcher has absolute control of the breaking pitch but absolutely no faith in the catchers ability to block the ball down in the dirt, he's going to hang it and all we'll see is the back of our outfielders heads all day long! That becomes a real morale killer for the whole team, not just the pitcher. He's GOT to learn how to block pitches!

The next issue with a poor blocking catcher is the most obvious, advacing runners and allowing the man on third to score uncontested. Many a run has died at third because the catcher could handle the ball in the dirt and not give up cheap victories. What can be worse than to lose a game with the number 7,8,9 hitter up with two outs and the winning run on third and a passed ball wins the day for the otherside? Brutal, absolutely brutal.

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