Catchers … at the knees!

The photo below shows another one of my pet-peeves when I watch young kids play baseball.  Unfortunately, it reaches into the high school level once in a while too.  See if you can figure it out.

Answer:  The target is too high.

Every hitter in the known universe likes the pitch out over the plate and belt high.  So why on earth would a catcher put his mitt belt high in the center of the plate?  Does he really want the pitcher to throw it there?  Does he hate the pitcher?  Did the pitcher steal his girlfriend or something?

Catchers … please … your number one job is to try and get the pitcher to throw strikes down in the zone.  Virtually no hitters like the ball down there which is the whole point of the exercise.

The general rule is … unless you are purposely throwing up in the zone to get the batter to swing at a bad pitch, just about every other location for every other pitch should be at the knees.  To help the pitcher with that, a catchers mitt should not be positioned higher than the catcher’s own knees.  Doing so will always give the pitcher a low target to focus on.