Wild pitches with a runner on 3rd are bound to happen.
How should a catcher retrieve a wild pitch to give himself the best chance for an out?
That answer coming up next.
In this video we will cover the best way for a catcher to retrieve and throw out a runner
on a wild pitch as well as how the rest of the team should be moving on this play rather
than just standing still being spectators.
Catchers can prevent passed balls.
A passed ball is any ball that the catcher should have reasonably caught.
There really shouldn’t be any passed balls in a game, but the catcher can’t control
the pitcher throwing a pitch in the dirt or way off target, and so no matter how good
he is, wild pitches will still need to be retrieved.
When getting to a wild pitch that has gone to the back stop or is a good distance away,
a catcher should get to it as quickly as possible and slide on his knees.
He can either slide on both knees or just his left knee depending on the situation..
The throw back to the pitcher should be quick so the pitcher can catch the ball on the run
and have it before he crosses into foul territory or is in the path of the runner.
The throw ought to be waist high to the pitcher, but it’s better to miss high rather than
low.
Low throws get dropped and put the pitcher in an awkward position to make a tag.
Throws should be like darts, straight and level.
Throws that change height are difficult to judge especially throws that go from high
to low.
A catcher should not stand to throw nor throw underhand.
Rather he should make his throw with a low elbow and more side arm from his knees or
off his right foot.
The further the throw the more over the top the throw will be, but getting rid of the
ball quickly on a straight path to the pitcher is key.
Wild pitches that are close to the plate wouldn’t require a knee slide.
There are techniques for back hand flipping balls near the 3rd base line and making kneeling
throws on balls near the 1st base line that are too close to require a slide, but we will
have to cover those in another video.
These retrievals should be practiced often and typically catchers enjoy these drills
as they are challenging and fun to practice.
You can start by having balls already in place and the catcher in his stance.
Then on signal he will run to retrieve that ball and make his throw.
Since he already knows where the ball is and it’s stationary, this will provide him a
chance to work on his approach and basic mechanics so he is in the best position to make a good
throw quickly from different locations.
It will take some practice to judge how to best get to the ball and be in a good spot
to throw.
When picking up the ball in this situation, the catcher should use the ground to push
the ball into his hand rather than just trying to grab at it.
This will insure he has a good grip when he does go to throw.
It’s generally a good idea for a catcher to practice this a couple times before each
game on the new field when warming up a pitcher or before the game if possible.
Wet fields without a lot of clay will not slide.
The catcher’s knee will stick and he’ll fall overtop of himself.
It’s actually quite funny to see your catcher slam into the fence in shock.
Too bad it wasn’t caught on video.
You can see these catchers during the LLWS trying to get to the ball correctly and struggling
with slipping or getting stuck.
This field is likely much nicer than what they are used to and it has a grass area where
most these catchers likely never had that before.
These teams do infield/outfield before games, although they don’t televise it, and that
would be a good time for catchers to get at least a few practices before each game to
know how the field will work on knee slides for a wild pitch.
One run off a wild pitch can be the difference between a win and loss.
Finally, one more point.
On any wild pitch with more than one runner on base and a runner on 3rd, the first baseman
needs to be backing up the throw to the pitcher.
The 3rd baseman covers 3rd, short stop backs up 3rd.
The second baseman covers 2nd.
The first baseman shouldn’t get too close when backing up lest the ball get past him
too.
His only job is to keep the following runners from advancing on the overthrow to the pitcher.
This is routinely misplayed in youth baseball.
Usually the 1st baseman is standing still being a spectator and the shortstop rarely
backs up the 3rd baseman.
Let’s take a closer look at this play by South Korea during the LLWS championship game.
Now, I am not a fan of pointing out mistakes by youth players publically, but this play
is simply too perfect to demonstrate what happens in most youth games and how to fix
it.
First we see the catcher retrieving and throwing this ball wrong.
The mechanics of bending over and standing up to throw simply take too long.
But it gets worse.
From this overhead view at the time of the catcher’s throw our first baseman is being
a statue.
The short stop is covering 2nd rather than backing up a potential throw to 3rd.
Runners can retreat, flowing runners can get caught up.
Throws to 3rd are not uncommon and missed throws allow multiple runs to score in these
situations.
Here is a perfect example of what I mean.
In another All Star game, runners on 1st and 3rd.
The runner on 3rd scores easily, but when we pause the play we again see that our first
baseman is spectating, our shortstop and 2nd baseman are also standing by watching.
The only one anticipating the throw to 3rd is our field umpire, god bless him, getting
into position to make a good call.
And we do see a throw to 3rd that is missed and that second runner, all the way from 1st
base, scores on a passed ball.
Back to our original game.
Here is the correct positions these players should be in and in both of our examples had
players practiced this situation and been taught their roles, the second runs wouldn’t
have scored.