In this video, I'm going to go over the catcher signs with a runner
on second base.
So in baseball, it's important to conceal your signs
with the runner on second, because the runner can steal the signs
by easily Staring in just the same as the pitcher to read what's coming.
So in a lot of times in youth baseball, at the younger levels.
Players are just. Giving one sign.
And they haven't yet learned how to give.
A series. Of signs to conceal.
What they're what they're. Doing. So in today's.
Video, we'll go over catcher's.
Signs with a runner on second base.
What's up!
I'm Coach Dan Blewett. Again, in today's video, we're in a cover.
Catcher's signs with the runner on second.
If you're new here. Definitely subscribe. To the channel.
Check out the links in the description.
There's other videos I've done on catcher's signs.
That go through all the basics different pitches,
pitch out, picks to first base, all that good stuff.
So check out the description.
Below where you can find that video on the basic catcher's signs.
If you're new to.
All this stuff, this is sort of. More advanced.
You've got to get the basics first before you start working.
On these series of signs.
To conceal what you're.
Throwing with a runner on second base. All right.
So the number one thing you need to understand,
when there's a runner on second, you.
Just need to give a series of.
Signs to conceal.
What the. True sign with the.
The active the live. Sign actually.
Is with these series of.
Signs, it's just going to look. Like this.
So it might be wiggle, wiggle to one, two, three, one.
And so for a runner on second base, they're not going to know
which is the live sign, right? They're not going to know.
But as a pitcher.
And a. Catcher, you have to be able to decode this. Right.
You have to say this is the.
Live sign when I give. This series.
So first.
Thing, you have to understand that the way you communicate.
This is the catchers.
You're going to go.
Out and talk to the pitcher and explain which is the live sign
before an inning starts or whenever that pitcher enters the game. Or.
It's going to be done in the dugout before that inning.
So if it's the starting pitcher, they'll go over signs before the game starts.
If it's a.
Relief pitcher that comes
in, the catch is going to have to go out and have a meeting and say, Hey,
we're going with Al's plus one, or we're going with third sign,
or We're going with first line after the two, or going at the pump
system, whatever it is, the catcher needs to
explain to the pitcher what sign system that they're using.
All right. So let's go over one of the first sign systems.
So this is just the number of the sign.
So it could be first sign.
It could be second sign. It could be third sign.
So let's do an example sequence with.
The third. Sign.
So if it's. Third sign and I go.
To two one wiggle, the the pitch.
Is going to be one because. It was two to.
One, because we're going with a third sign and then Wiggle is going after.
You always want to give more signs.
Then there are numbers.
So if it's like lat, if.
It's like second sign, you wouldn't just do two signs, right?
You have to make sure you do. At least like four or five so.
That in the sequence there's some room on.
Both sides.
In case they're trying to guess. Right.
So say it's. First sign we.
Go. Wiggle, wiggle.
Two, two, one, three.
It's wiggle because.
And which is a changeup because we went on first sign.
So this is one of the easiest ones.
And it's not necessarily again, you know, it doesn't have to be a really.
Complicated system for it to work, especially.
In amateur. Baseball.
So taking a number of signs.
So whether it's.
The first sign
or the second sign or the third sign or even the fourth sign or last sign.
That's a very easy way just to get.
A simple system in place with young pitchers.
All right.
Second system.
So this is after blank. So you could say.
First sign.
After the two or.
First sign after.
The wiggle or.
First sign after the one or anything like.
That.
So you just say.
It's following a sign or could be second sign after.
The two.
So let's go a. Second sign after the. Two.
So if I go.
One to.
Two to wiggle, it's a two.
It's a curveball.
If I go to.
One, one, wiggle one. What is it?
Leave it in the comments below.
Let me know what that sequence was.
But basically you can just pick any sign.
So, hey, first sign after the one one, one, one wiggle, wiggle.
It's a fastball because it was.
First sign after the first one.
Now, one thing you will do at times is say a pitcher shakes.
You might switch it up.
So a lot of times if it's, say, a say at second sign where it's wiggle.
Three, one, two, three.
That'd be a slider because the slider, the three was the second sign.
If they shake, you might say first.
Sign after the shake.
That's a common thing just to make it not take so darn long.
Because if you're always going
with these really long systems where you have to go through the full.
Sequence or. Whatever.
And you always need to go through the full sequence.
But if it just becomes.
Really dragged out, you might just say first sign after. The.
You know, after. You shake.
That's something you can do as well.
But again, this is a really simple one.
So first sign after the blank pitch.
All right. The next system is outs plus one.
I don't love this one because you have to remember
that the sign is going to change as the inning progresses.
But that added complexity is also.
Why it can be an effective defense against your signs being stolen.
So Al plus.
One means if there's no outs, it's the first sign in the sequence.
If there's two outs, it's the.
Third sign because it's. Outs.
So two, two outs plus one equals.
The third sign is live.
Obviously you wouldn't do just outs
because you can have zero outs or you can't have zero like.
A zero number sign.
So let's say it's Alex plus.
One and the inning has just started off.
So that means the first sign is live.
So I go, three, three, two, one, three.
It would be a three, a slider because that's the.
First sign outs +10 outs means the first sign is.
Live. The first sign I gave was a slider.
Now say. We get a groundball double play.
And now. There's two outs.
So now would be outs plus one.
So the third sign is live.
So now would be one.
To wiggle one three.
The third sign I gave was wiggle, which is.
A change changeup.
So that would be the sign.
So Alex. Plus one can be a. Very effective system.
It's definitely harder to decode.
Than something
and then a lot of other signs because it changes as the inning progresses.
But again, it's a good.
Way for your pitcher to also forget that.
It changes as it goes,
especially if you know you had no outs for and he gets a couple of runners on.
So he's had.
Like ten signs where it's all the same one and now you get an out and he just.
Forgets.
So it's it's. An extra thing for the pitcher to think about.
So just be careful when you use outs plus one, but it can be an effective sign
stealing system.
All right.
The next system for catchers signs with a runner
on second base is the first sign indicator.
So this one simply means that the first sign is a dummy sign that tells.
The pitcher.
Which sign is live.
So if I go. One to. Three.
One, the one was saying the first sign
after this first sign is the live sign.
So if I went one.
Three to.
One, that means.
Three, which was the first.
Sign after the dummies.
The indicator sign is the live sign.
So that pitch would be a slider. So if I. Went.
Three, 2 to 3, one, wiggle, it would also be a slider
because I went 3/1, which is the indicator says the third.
Sign is live.
And then I went something like one to.
Three wiggle.
Something else. Right.
I forgot, but I know the three. Was the.
Third sign.
So the indicator again, the first sign is the dummy.
This is the indicator. That says two is. The live sign.
Now it. Starts over three wiggle.
One one, two.
Wiggle was. The second sign.
That's the live sign.
So this is also a difficult to decode sign system.
But it can also be a little bit tougher sometimes on the pitcher.
But again, this one's not too hard.
It doesn't change as the inning goes on.
So the first sign indicator can be an.
Effective.
System to use with the runner on second base.
All right. The next one, this one is getting a little more complex.
This is the pump system.
So the pump system.
Is basically every.
Sign is a pump.
So you're just.
Assigning a number of pumps. To each pitch.
So might be four his fastball five is curveball.
Six is changeup, seven is slider.
So now. The.
Signs don't actually mean anything at all.
They all are just one pump.
So if I go for his fastball, five is curveball.
And six is changeup and I go pump one, pump.
Two pump three.
Pump 4.5, pump six, pump seven.
You'd say, okay, he gave seven pumps.
What I what I say seven was, I don't know, seven.
Was a cutter.
So it's a cutter. Right.
But if it's.
Four pumps. It's a fastball.
And I go, one, two, three, four.
That's a fastball.
Even though it looked like a slider sign on number four.
So the pump system is not super complicated.
Again, it. Just takes arithmetic, right.
We got to know that.
Hey, four is a fastball, five is a curveball.
Six six is a change up. Right?
So you have.
Those numbers and then the pitcher is just counting.
So one, two, three. Four.
And then the catcher stops. So we know it was four pumps.
So four pumps is a fastball.
I'm throwing a fastball.
But here's the thing with the pump system, you have to still mix up all the signs
because if you.
Go three, three, two, two,
and then you throw a fastball, they hit the if there's a runner.
On second base, which there would be, he's going to say, hey.
Something's up because the catcher gave two threes.
And two twos and then he threw a fastball,
and then they're going to be able to figure that out.
So you have to still mix up all the different types.
When you give the pump system.
Because otherwise, if he did like.
Change up, change up, change up slider and then threw.
A fastball.
There again, they're going to say that's strange.
Whatever their system is, it doesn't seem to matter what fingers they put down.
So the pump system can be really effective.
It can be good for some pitchers who think just the counting is easy,
but it can also take a lot more time because you have to give at least five
or six or seven signals sometimes depending on what you want to do,
because you would want to do the pump system with.
Just like three or just two.
Because then it'll be too. Easy to decode. All right, let's do.
One more signal system for catcher signs with a runner on second base.
And this is the TAP system.
So a catcher might start.
To give taps to different parts of his body.
And there's two ways you could do this.
You could do this.
Number one, saying that there's like an indicator.
So say. Anything after.
The elbow is the live. Sign.
So say this is fastball.
The bicep is curveball.
The knee is changeup.
So you could say. Anything after.
The bicep is the. Live sign.
So if it's.
Fastball, curveball, changeup, we could go
this would be fastball because I went fastball live like this is.
The indicator and then the fastball and then changeup.
So first one after the. Bicep which was fastball.
Means that's a fastball.
That's one way you can do it or you can do the pump system.
For the taps, which would.
Be you just assign a number of taps.
For each pitch.
So say four is a fastball.
That means fastball five.
Is a changeup.
That's a changeup.
Because it was five taps or five pumps.
So regardless of the exact way that you do the TAP system.
This is going to be used most of the time where a.
Pitcher says. That he can't see the catcher's signs.
And this can be a big problem depending on the lighting of the field.
The time of day.
So it just it just depends.
Now, a lot of. Catchers will put.
Tape around their fingers, around their.
Digits so that it's easier to see like white tape.
A lot of catchers will also paint their fingernails either with white paint
or with like high visibility.
Like neon green paint.
Those things can help.
But some days even those things just like don't help.
Because it just gets kind of shadowy.
Because again, the catcher is putting his.
His his.
Hands in his crotch to prevent other people from seeing his signs.
So like all the ballpark.
Light is not going to make it into.
This area. Necessarily.
So sometimes it can be really difficult to see signs.
And in that. Case, a TAP. System might need to be.
Used just.
So the catcher and pitcher can be on the same page. All right.
So hopefully this video is helpful.
There's a lot.
Of different systems you can use to give catcher's signs
when there's a runner on second. Base.
Obviously, this is a really important part of baseball.
And players need to get. Comfortable with this.
Even at the younger. Levels.
As soon as they start to be able to steal.
And then obviously when runners are on second base,
they've got to have a way to not give away every pitch they're throwing.
All right.
So thanks so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe.
Check out the resources.
And links in the description where you'll find more.
Pick. Off pitching videos.
Catcher Sign Videos.
Again, the fundamental videos in the description below.
And you can also support the channel through my books, online courses.
All that good stuff.
Thanks again. I'll see you in the next video.