IIRC, left-handed Raul Ibañez was a left-handed catcher when the Mariners drafted him, but they quickly converted him to an outfielder. In his first stint with the M’s (before being traded to KC), it was mentioned a few times that he was the team’s “emergency catcher”, prepared to put on the gear and catch in the unlikely event that both regular catchers were injured in the same game.
Lefty 1st basemen are simple common sense - they can stretch to catch a throw from another infielder while still keeping the runner in front of them/in sight. I righty 1B would have to turn his back to the runner.
Baseball is welded to the thinking of the past. Once the general belief is held that left handed catchers are the right thing to have, they will not change.
Ok, listen up. Yes, there is an advantage for a left to throw to first but it is outweighed by the necessity to protect third base. When do batters steal first? On any ball, the play is for the leading runner. So on a hit, wild pitch, steal, etc. the play is almost always to third.
Think about your example for a second, what is the purpose of a bunt? To advance another runner. It’ s a sacrifice play, used to get a runner into scoring position.
So…on a bunt, where do you think it is more important for the catcher to throw? First or Third?
This is absolutely untrue. It’s the geometry of the game which limits which hand is better at any position, not some antiquated general belief.
I mean come on, baseball has had some brilliant minds and great players in the millions of games played over the last 150 years. If you think there was any advantage at all of having a left-handed catcher someone would have exploited it by now?
Not to point out the obvious, but the throw the catcher makes more often than any other is back to the pitcher. Right-handed batters would be in the the way of a left-handed catcher all the freakin’ time.
(Well, they would be in the way if they weren’t always leaving the batter’s box between every pitch … )
Are there any stats on where catchers throw the ball? While I agree that plays at third are more important there are likely many more plays at first. If we include the advantage that left-handed catchers have in making snap-throws to first (and thus keeping runners a bit closer to the bag) I still think the overall advantage of a right-handed catcher is minimal.
I have suspicions that that right-handed advantage is like the hit-and-run: there is evidence that the hit-and-run is usually a statistical loser but managers still employ it.
I did a quick, very unscientific scan of some Major League rosters and the ratio of right-handed hitters to left/switch-hitters is near even (I’m assuming switch hitters take most of their at-bats left-handed). It’s a big jump to assume that the same ratio exists at the Little League level but if it’s the same then there’s little advantage at being right-handed.
He’s not telling a story, he’s describing how he, a left handed catcher who presumably had to do this more than once, handled the task. It’s not just an anecdote.
Tom, himself, did not play as a left-handed catcher nor did he experience the situation first hand. Come on, if he prefaced it with “A friend of mine…”, “Or my uncle once…”, or “I knew a guy in college…” you would see it as anecdotal evidence.
Did you actually read your own cite or should I cut and paste all the definitions that would apply to this anecdote?
Tom’s post is a secondary source. If he prefaced it with “A friend of mine who played catcher left-handed…”, “Or my uncle who played catcher left-handed …”, or “I knew a guy in college who played catcher left-handed…” it would still be a secondary source. The friend, uncle, or “guy he knew” would be a primary source.
And please note that he specifically asked his father about this, he isn’t recalling something his father said a few years ago. So really, the equivalent cases are more like “A friend of mine played catcher left-handed. I called him and asked about this…”, “Or my uncle played catcher left-handed. I called him and asked about this …”, or “I knew a guy in college who played catcher left-handed. I called him and asked about this…”.
Did you read the cite? Let’s do that cut and paste:
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “short account of an incident”? No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident”? No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “very short tale told by a character in a literary work”? No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “brief personal story used to illustrate a point”? No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “short accounts of an interesting or humorous incident used to add interest or examples to writing”. No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “personal account.”? Possibly, but that particular definition comes from the The ASAP Dictionary of Anxiety and Panic Disorders. It isn’t a general-use definition.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “short story about an incident or situation that shows rather than tells.”? No.
Is Tom’s post, or his father’s explanation, a “brief narrative offered in a text to capture the audience’s attention”, a “short and often personal story used to emphasize a point”, a “brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event”, a “short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event”, a “brief narrative which focuses on a particular incident or event”, a “short entertaining account of some happening”, or a “narratives of small incidents or events told for the purpose of information, entertainment, humour, malice, or to reveal character”? No, no, no, no, no, no, and no.
Stats!? For what? It is about the strategy of the game. It’s not where he throws it more often, it’s about where he needs to throw it the fastest and most accurately.
Snap throws to first are not as important as trying to catch someone stealing second or third. Besides the pitcher can check the runner.
There’s only one stat that matters…listen carefully…THERE ARE NO LEFT-HANDED CATCHERS!
What!? I think I’m actually dumber from having read this.:dubious:
Sorry, but unless you take a complete and accurate sampling of major and/or minor league players, you cannot draw any meaningful conclusions.
Also, you can’t assume most switch hitters will bat left-handed, the situation dictates it byt the pitcher, the base runners, or say in this case, the catcher is left-handed.
As a coach, I would exploit a left-handed catcher’s weaknesses at every chance.
Ridiculous… as you know, a case could be made for a couple of these definitions and others.
As this is a thread about baseball, I don’t care to argue semantics with you. I am not your high school english teacher and I have no interest in a Google competition to find the definition that suits your purposes.
Anyway,I said what I said, but the fact remains that the second-hand account of a city league left-handed catcher (someone’s father or not) is not a significant exception to the fact that there are no left handed catchers. Sorry, Tom.
Are you insinuating that baseball is not a stats-obsessed game? If we could determine the number of throws to first and third we’d have an idea of how important it is for a catcher to be right-handed.
It is possible, however, that the reasoning behind there being no left-handed catchers is faulty, just like the reasoning behind the hit-and-run is (usually) faulty.
Do you have a salient point or are you going to just continue to pretend to be smarter? It is perfectly legitimate to question longstanding baseball traditions–have you read Moneyball?
The data is definitely incomplete but is (I believe) indicative. If you have a link to more complete stats (I did a quick search and didn’t find any) then I’d love to see them. Otherwise it’s just your opinion that the small sampling is wrong.
A switch-hitter almost always bats depending on the pitcher (I’ve never heard of a switch-hitter doing otherwise). A majority of pitchers are right-handed.
Of course, but you’ve got to get a man to second base first and he’s gotta be someone who’s fast enough to threaten a stolen base.
I’ve coached Little League for 10 years and the ratios aren’t anywhere close to that. I have never had a kid who can switch hit (had a couple who played with it in practices, but most they could consistently do is wave the bat out there). And usually on a team of about 12 I have 2-3 lefties.
I could definitely believe that the left/right bias comes from earlier development where the far greater preponderance of right-handed batters actually does give right-handed catchers some slight advantage.
Out of curiosity, do you steer left-handed throwers away from being a catcher?
Nope. Honestly in Little League the goal is to get someone catching who will catch most pitches, block the really bad ones, and is able to throw the ball to second base reasonably accurately.
The number of kids who can do that consistently is small enough you really can’t be worrying about which hand is throwing the ball to second.
I will say I have a bias towards lefties for first base. Putting the correct foot on the base and stretching out for the throw is more natural for them.
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