J. Posada
October 22, 2009Hasn’t this postseason been fantastic so far? I’m having a lot of fun watching. Some of these battles make me very proud to have been a player.
Today I want to talk a little bit about Jorge Posada since we’re getting to see so much of him lately. First off, let me make it clear that I really, really respect the guy. He suits up, plays hard, and throws his act out on the field everyday…and I have the utmost respect for anyone who can do that. Jorge is a decent defensive catcher and an outstanding offensive catcher.
Let’s talk about his defense for a moment. More specifically, let’s discuss his issues receiving the ball and the reasons why he doesn’t always catch the ball cleanly. Again, this is just my opinion, and I don’t mean to bash the guy in any way. To be honest, I think I could clean him up and make his job a million times easier and it would only take a few minutes. In other words, for me, he’s not that far off.
So here’s what I see. First, notice his set-up (stance) and his target. Both excellent. He uses excellent Art of Catching posture with his back fairly perpendicular to the ground – he’s balanced and “stacked.” His target is large with his fingers pointed straight up, and his elbow is below his glove. All good so far.
Then the pitch is thrown, and that’s when things go a little haywire. First, he has a tendency to squeeze his glove as some kind of timing mechanism. This is a no-no. Like a hitter with a big hitch, this is a timing device that’ll sometimes work and sometimes won’t. In other words, it’s inconsistent…which is fine for a hitter, but no good for a catcher.
Secondly, and most importantly, he’s got a bad habit of receiving the ball with his elbow above the glove. In my book, we call this “chicken winging”. The funny thing is, if he would simply receive the ball from the way he is set up, he’d be great. But he goes from correct to incorrect and causes himself a ton of issues.
For him to start from such a solid position only to come undone is unfortunate and really hard for me to watch, especially when I know it would only take about ten minuets to fix him. Once again, he does a lot of things right. I like his stance, his target, and the way his lower body initiates movement towards an incoming pitch. From there, however, it goes downhill. If you’re trying to learn from watching him, watch everything until the ball is about five feet out of the pitcher’s hand, then close your eyes.
So that’s it. That’s my synopsis of Jorge Posada’s issues clanking the ball. If anyone knows him, give him my number. I’ll be in NYC in a couple weeks and be happy to help him out….pro bono no less!
You're receiving the ball from a compromised position when the left elbow gets higher than the glove. Here, J Posada goes about as far as you can go without "chicken winging."
