Clubhouse Gas
Casey: Today on Clubhouse Gas we talked with a professional catcher about the relationship he keeps with the pitching staff. How he manages them and how important it is to understand each individual pitcher right here on Clubhouse Gas.
We’re joined now by Tony Maccani, hey you’re a professional catcher what’s that like?
Tony: (Tony Maccani, C Savannah Sand Gnats) Oh it’s great and it’s great to be a professional now after playing in high school and college and just get the opportunity to have with Mets.
Casey: You’ve been catching since you were 7 years old and now somebody is paying you to catch.
Tony: Yeah.
Casey: Tell me first of why is it that you are a catcher. How did you end up being behind the dish and would you like to go play anywhere else or is it just catcher for you?
Tony: Well I ended up behind the dish; it was a suggestion really when I was coming up and T ball and Middle League to catch. Actually my next door neighborhood was the head coach you know since I was a little guy. I thought I would make a great catcher just because I was slow, not in— but the characteristic.
Casey: Seven years old it was just because you were slow.
Tony: Alright, alright. Well just he actually wrote me a little letter about it after he finished coaching me of you know leadership and controlling the game and that kind of stuff so that he’s still on me when I was little and decided to throw me behind the plate and I haven’t you know got me out from behind the plates since I was little and I don’t want to either even though I’ve thought about doing some other positions you know but I’m not a short side, not a first base and catcher.
Casey: Talk about handling pitchers. How do you as a catcher now and single baseball go about handling a pitcher and calling a baseball game?
Tony: Handling the pitcher I think the rapport builds more off the field in the locker room and the clubhouse hanging out with them and getting to know you know what buttons they don’t like pushed and what buttons you can push again going. So in the bullpen really it’s just getting to know what pitchers work for them whether their 2-seamer, a dominant seamer or if they have a good slider change up, curve ball whatever it might be and I’ll work with that in bullpen but you know besides it’s important to get to know the pitcher as a person and you know what I can do to get them relax and ready to go.
Casey: What age did a coach first allow you to call a game?
Tony: You know it started— they were allowing us to call games but I don’t really think I got a hang of calling game until high school where you know you had 3 or 4 pitches to choose from and then you know the coaches worked with me on calling the right pitches at the right time and why you call that pitch at that time so I would say high school is where you know junior high they kind of called the pitches and I saw what they were doing in the accounts and stuff so high school is where I started calling my own pitches.
Casey: So at this level now what do you think about when you’re going after about it what’s right in your head?
Tony: First of all what the pitcher’s strengths are so if a pitcher has a good 2-seam or a good fastball you want to establish that fastball right off the bat and then start getting the curve ball over for a strike. And once we can strike having the batter’s think about you know the curve ball or maybe that change up then that fastball seems even faster and when you start going through that lineup.
Casey: So you even started setting up the number 6 batter with the lead off guy. It’s just what you’re thinking about as a catcher in order to set this guy up we got to do this now?
Tony: Right and going through the line up you know maybe first and second guy lead off first with fastballs and then that 3rd guy maybe throwing the curve ball first pitch. Whether the ball strike okay, let’s try to get to that one-one count. But if we throw you know all first fish fastballs then we let that 6, 7, 8, 9th guy come up and they’re sitting on that first fish fastball and their percentages go up.
Casey: Are there any behaviors that batters have that may lead you to call a certain pitcher location or a certain pitch or something that you’re looking for in an opponent?
Tony: Yes, some of the things that I watch for is when, not so much on deck but when they’re coming up to the batters box they’ll practice swings before they get in the box. If I see a swing that’s long and you know the barrel is taking a while to get through the zone or to the zone then I know fastballs inside are going to get him. So I might set him up and throw that fastball early inside and then you know maybe throw a curve or 2 not for a strike because that’s his— is going to let him catch up to that curve ball so maybe set him up with a curve ball and then come back with that fastball inside and then put him away whether it’s ground ball or strikeout.
Casey: The catcher, what would you rather have is it the ground ball, or the strike?
Tony: Ground ball.
Casey: Really. I have always thought that maybe catchers took as much pride in a strike out as the pitchers do because their calling the pitcher it’s not that way for you to calling pitchers to induce the groundball is that why?
Tony: Yeah, and I would want our pitchers to come right after guys and I don’t want the 3, 4, 5, pitch out back, I want the 1 or 2 pitch to that groundball. Keep their pitch count low and maybe with the games so I don’t have to come in and pitch in 13.
Casey: I think that’s a perfect place to end it man. Thank you so much. Go eyes front, arms down that’s going to do it for us today. We look forward to seeing you right back here next time for another great edition of Clubhouse Gas.
Tony: I gave away a catchers mitt and I traded it for a— glove
Casey: Did that come in handy? Tell us why that came in handy for you last night here at Grayson Stadium?
Tony: Oh man they threw me in there to pitch and 13 inning so it was a lot of fun but unfortunately I didn’t come out with a win or I came out on the losing side but it was a blast it was a lot of fun.
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