While everyone is busy with football playoffs you will frequently hear a devoted baseball fan counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report. Normally pitchers and catchers would report to spring training locations about 5 days ahead of traditional position players, but do you know why? Lets find out!
A sure sign that the baseball season is almost here is when you hear those worlds “pitchers and catchers report for spring training”. This means that the first players are making their way to various locations to start working on their game and practicing for the upcoming season. And even though pre-season games won’t start for a couple of weeks after, it still gives a lot of us baseball fans hope that the season is right around the corner.
One of the main reasons for pitchers and catchers to get there early is so that they can start to work together. The pitcher and the catcher need to work together in a way that other position players don’t need to. Catchers need to understand how a pitcher works, what his mannerisms are, what his approach is, how his ball moves through the air, and how he reacts to certain situations.
By having the pitchers and catchers working together as early as possible it makes sure a much-needed bond is formed before any games begin. A good catcher is aware of his pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses and will be able to call certain pitches during certain situations that will work to those strengths.
The ability for a pitcher and a catcher to work well together is an important part of the game of baseball. By being able to see pitchers for a week or so ahead of the rest of the players, it gives coaches an opportunity to evaluate them without having to worry about the rest of the team. You also can’t get as many pitchers into a spring training game as you can other players, so this gives coaches the ability to observe more pitchers.
Pitchers and catchers report to their spring training homes on or about Feb 14. Let’s play baseball!