Develpment+of+Catching

====The Catcher is probably the most important position on the field. Here are some statistics on how well they are paid: The average Catcher’s salary for 2010 was $2,084,179.69. The highest paid catcher in 2010 was Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees who is now very old and has converted to a Designated Hitter (he no longer plays catcher.) Jorge was paid a total of $ 13,100,000 . In second ==== place money-wise was Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins at $ 12,500,000. The lowest paid catcher in Major League Baseball was Drew Butera, Donny Lucy, Craig Tatum, and Matt Weiter all at $400,000, none of these guys actually start. Catching is a very dangerous position. First, you must sit in a squatting position for a very long time, sometimes for twenty minutes straight. This puts a tremendous amount of stress on your knees and leg muscles. There have been many, many injuries to catchers over the years due to the stress on the leg muscles. Also there are injury risks if you take a foul ball off of your body. This happens relatively often when a hitter ticks a ball and it hits a part of your body that isn't protected. Despite all of the padding catchers wear that no other player wears, catching is the by far the most dangerous position on the field. You are involved in every single pitch so have more opportunities to get hurt. Catchers also have to block balls in the dirt to prevent the ball from getting past them. Often times when the ball gets past the catcher, the pitcher is charged with a wild pitch. I asked my expert Geoff (he didn't use his full name) if the catcher is charged with an error if he is charged with a passed ball. Here's what he said:



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Hi Max, =====

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Thanks for writing. =====

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If the catcher doesn't catch a pitch, the official scorer calls it a wild pitch or if the official scorer thinks the catcher should have caught it, the catcher is charged with a passed ball. Neither of these is an error though. =====

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A catcher gets an error the same way any other fielder does: makes a bad throw to one of the bases, drops a pop-up that he should have caught. =====

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One unique way a catcher can be charged with an error is when he interferes with the batter - his glove hits the batter's bat. That's called catcher's interference and the batter is awarded first base and the catcher is charged with an error. =====

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Hope this helps. =====

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Best Wishes, =====

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Geoff =====