Gman
04-21-2010, 08:10 AM
KB mentioned in last nights game thread about how McCann often gets overlooked and he's right. Even though he's highly regarded in baseball, all you ever hear about is his bat. It is pretty amazing what he did offensively despite his eye problems the last few years. Now with that hopefully forever behind him we're going to get to see what he can really do with the bat. He's become such a great hitter.
But if I was to pick one area of his game that gets overlooked and under-appreciated it's his pitch calling. That was never more evident to me than last night as I watched Javy Vazquez pitch against Oakland. You can tell Vazquez is frustrated with Posada's pitch calling just like AJ Burnett and Pettitte. How many times have we seen Pettitte glaring over his glove shaking of signs while he waits for Posada to put down the right fingers. Then there's the every other inning mound conference Posada does to get back on the same page as his pitcher. There's a lot of catchers like that. Who knows how much it affects a pitchers performance. I could tell by Vazquez demeanor that he is not even close to the same pitcher he was last year. You could also tell he was throwing pitches he didn't want to throw just because he was probably tired of shaking off Posada.
Having a catcher like McCann who pitchers are extremely confident in his game calling has to be a huge advantage for the pitcher. Especially for pitchers who don't have ace-like stuff. I don't think you can ever really measure a skill like that but I'd love to hear someone like Smoltz or Sutton get into the mental side of what it does for a pitcher.
Anyway, the Braves have a great one in McCann in my book. He's an MVP waiting to happen and I think this might be his year. And he's only 26!
But if I was to pick one area of his game that gets overlooked and under-appreciated it's his pitch calling. That was never more evident to me than last night as I watched Javy Vazquez pitch against Oakland. You can tell Vazquez is frustrated with Posada's pitch calling just like AJ Burnett and Pettitte. How many times have we seen Pettitte glaring over his glove shaking of signs while he waits for Posada to put down the right fingers. Then there's the every other inning mound conference Posada does to get back on the same page as his pitcher. There's a lot of catchers like that. Who knows how much it affects a pitchers performance. I could tell by Vazquez demeanor that he is not even close to the same pitcher he was last year. You could also tell he was throwing pitches he didn't want to throw just because he was probably tired of shaking off Posada.
Having a catcher like McCann who pitchers are extremely confident in his game calling has to be a huge advantage for the pitcher. Especially for pitchers who don't have ace-like stuff. I don't think you can ever really measure a skill like that but I'd love to hear someone like Smoltz or Sutton get into the mental side of what it does for a pitcher.
Anyway, the Braves have a great one in McCann in my book. He's an MVP waiting to happen and I think this might be his year. And he's only 26!