Our fielders have to catch a lot of balls, or at least deflect them to someone who can.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
You have to have a catcher because if you don't you're likely to have a lot of passed balls.
I don't like the designated hitter. A guy who plays should be able to catch and hit.
A lot of these catchers don't understand that they are blocking the plate and they don't have the ball. You're not allowed to block the plate without the ball.
You fool around with different pitches playing catch, but it's not the same when you've got to face some guy with a bat in his hand.
Then there's Johnny Pesky, hit me countless number of ground balls and improved my fielding so much.
The great thing about catchers is that they do a lot of different things, and they're basically overlooked.
You gotta keep the ball off the fat part of the bat.
We want to play a really physical style ball, and so, for us tackling, we know we are shoulder-based tackling team, and we want to hit that strike zone just like you're throwing fastballs into that catchers' mitt just as hard as you can.
You're just trying to throw the best pitch you can and make sure you hit your spots. I don't have to force nobody.
When you have these big, strong power hitters who can hit the ball a country mile, and they're strong for a reason and able to do that, as a pitcher you have to keep up.