If you happen to’re not aware of Jerry Weinstein, you need to be. He’s a catching coach legend. After a long time with the Rockies, he lately jumped to the Cubs, and fortunate for us, he’s fairly lively on-line speaking about catching philosophies and coaching. One factor he has mentioned lately is “slam dunk” framing.
Some cues in baseball are common, and slam dunk framing is one among them. It seems identical to the way it sounds: Catchers take their glove and shortly snap it down as in the event that they had been dunking a basketball. What’s the intention? By shifting their glove down in a fast, fluid movement on pitches on the prime of the zone, they’re trying to offer the impression that these pitches are decrease than the place they really crossed the plate.
Whereas this might simply simply be one other solo Patrick Bailey framing publish, there may be one different man specifically, Cal Raleigh, who deserves to squat within the highlight. To set the stage, listed below are the leaders in Strike% in Zone 12 (the higher third within the shadow zone) final season:
Zone 12 2024 Strike% Leaders
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
Every of those gamers excels at framing the highest of the zone. Bailey is the king of framing breaking balls on the exact level of their sharp trajectories that they look like strikes even once they aren’t, whereas Raleigh shines together with his potential to push higher third heaters down into the zone. Let’s begin our evaluation with Raleigh, who on Tuesday agreed to a six-year, $105 million extension with the Mariners:
Raleigh’s framing of heaters on the prime of the zone stands out from a mechanical perspective. Fortunate for the Mariners, this is a perfect trait for his or her catcher to have, as a result of their pitching employees loves to focus on the highest of the zone. In truth, Seattle threw pitches to that location at the next price than all however one staff in baseball final season. Contemplating this, let’s stroll by means of the basics of slam dunk framing to grasp how Raleigh does it.
Relying on the mix of a pitcher’s arm angle and method angle, the mechanics of dunking fastballs on the prime of the zone have some slight variations. For George Kirby’s heater on the nook, Raleigh hundreds up with 1 / 4 flip from the left-handed batter’s field. To higher management how he receives the pitch, Raleigh assaults it from the angle reverse the place the ball enters the zone, ensuring that his glove will get to the spot the place the pitch is headed earlier than the ball arrives. That is essential: If he doesn’t beat the pitch to the placement the place he desires to border it, the momentum and motion of the pitch will drag his glove with it on its present trajectory. Any noticeable glove motion after the catcher receives the pitch dangers alerting the umpire to the phantasm.
A unique instance of that’s the heater from Luis Castillo. His sidearm angle with a flat method angle means the pitch is staying on an identical aircraft the complete time (and even rising, from Raleigh’s perspective). Due to that, Raleigh by no means lets his glove go beneath the center of his chest protector when Castillo is concentrating on up within the zone. If he begins too low on these excessive fastballs that maintain their planes, he has to cowl more room together with his glove to catch it; more room to cowl means extra time to get there, and taking extra time may end in getting beat to the spot. Right here, although, Raleigh begins together with his glove increased, beats the pitch to the placement, and dunks in fantastically.
It’s vital to level out Raleigh’s mixture of posture and finish level. He stands tall on these pitches to make sure that he catches the ball beneath his face — a visible cue for umpires to find out if a excessive pitch is a strike. Alongside the identical strains, he all the time makes positive he finishes his dunk beneath the aircraft of his face masks. That mixture helps him deceive the umpire into pondering the pitch is a strike. Raleigh’s framing is all about small, refined actions, harking back to the best way Carmelo Anthony would place the ball into the rim quite than jam it by means of. The following slam dunk framing we’ll spotlight requires a special method.
Bailey is the most effective defensive catcher in baseball, to the purpose that in a current piece about how the implementation of an automatic ball-strike problem system would have an effect on Bailey’s worth, Michael Baumann wrote, “I don’t assume it’s even a bit of hyperbolic to name him the most effective pitch-framing catcher who ever lived.” No surprise he’s the man who most stands out to me on the subject of stealing breaking balls on the prime of the zone, amongst them: backup sliders, rainbow curves, or sweepers coming across the zone. Listed here are examples Bailey dunking every of these pitches:
Masterful work, actually. Receiving backup sliders easily may be very tough. If you’re arrange on the alternative aspect of the plate, essentially the most tough location to regulate is up on the glove aspect. On prime of that, the spin is misleading even to you because the catcher, making it more durable to establish the aircraft of motion. It doesn’t have an effect on Bailey, although. He’s as affected person as potential, and due to that, his forearm and glove by no means journey farther than his elbow, giving the picture to the umpire that the pitch is a straightforward strike. Not like Raleigh’s Carmelo dunks, what Bailey does right here is extra like a basketball participant who, needing to keep away from a defender whereas within the air, slams it on an acute angle. To complete off the sharp angle of the pitch’s trajectory, he has to make a pointy motion to cease it in its tracks.
The persistence Bailey exhibits in that first clip can be obvious within the second, when he receives Blake Snell’s crazy curve. Since Bailey’s posture isn’t upright, he has to let the ball journey far sufficient that he catches it beneath his face however not exterior the width of his physique. This slam dunk is to verify it solely goes so far as his inside leg.
On the sweeper coming across the nook, Bailey makes use of a extra noticeable dunk, albeit one that’s nonetheless tough for an umpire to acknowledge. One other factor to notice: Bailey primarily dunks together with his wrist; in doing so, he avoids any louder actions that might alert an umpire that he’s trying to make a ball appear like a strike. As a catcher, the extra that you simply transfer your arm, the better it’s to detect the deception. Bailey maintains quiet actions whilst he covers a number of area to get his glove in an optimum place for his slight of hand.
The unbelievable factor about catchers like Bailey and Raleigh is that they’re darn close to elite in nearly each space of the strike zone on the subject of receiving. To me, the highest of the zone has all the time been tough to grasp as a result of catchers someway have to make a loud motion quiet. The truth that they will do this whereas nonetheless commanding different elements of the zone is what makes them two of the most effective defenders within the sport.