Look, we’ve put it off lengthy sufficient. It’s time to dig in and reply as soon as and for all of the query that everybody has been asking: We’re going to find out conclusively which catcher squishes himself into the tiniest little ball when he will get into his crouch. As you could know, catchers today usually go down on one knee or stick their entire leg out to the facet as a way to get decrease to the bottom, as a result of getting decrease helps them earn referred to as strikes on the backside of the zone. These referred to as strikes are necessary. What’s much more necessary, although, is how cute it seems when a grown man in a go well with of armor crouches down and will get all tucked right into a teensy little ball like a five-year-old about to do a somersault. In the end, we’re going to do the one factor that is smart and discover out who’s greatest at turning their human physique right into a bony little sphere.
100 completely different gamers frolicked at catcher in 2024, far too large a pattern for me to research, so I ranked them by the variety of pitches caught and regarded on the prime 40. I watched catchers organising for sinkers and tender stuff on the backside of the strike zone, the place they’d be angling for a referred to as strike and subsequently making an attempt to get themselves as little as potential. One-knee down stances have been tremendous, however I threw out stances just like the one under, the place Adley Rutschman is not crouched in a ball. That’s the entire level of this train. In the event you’re not in a little bit ball, what are we even doing right here?
As a result of we’re doing this within the identify of science, I attempted to maintain the pattern circumstances as comparable as potential. With one exception, I solely watched pitches from video games in Baltimore and Atlanta, as these parks characteristic glorious and really comparable digital camera angles. For every catcher, I watched a number of pitches, paused the clips in the mean time after they regarded most like they’d been stuffed into an invisible trash can, then picked the one by which they received the smallest. The frames needed to be from earlier than the pitcher launched the ball, and when potential, I selected frames by which the catcher was presenting a goal. What we’re actually keen on is how teeny-tiny the catchers could make themselves throughout their regular crouch, quite than how small they occur to get whereas they’re making ready to catch the ball. Ideally, they’d be so compact and dense that their very own mass threatens to break down in on them like a black gap:
As soon as I had all my screengrabs, I arrange a 32-player March Insanity-style bracket in order that I may make the catchers face off one-on-one. I seeded the catchers by their top, as the larger you’re, the more durable it’s to crumple your self right into a tiny sphere of humanity. When two catchers have been the identical top, I gave the upper seed to the catcher whose identify had fewer characters, as a result of it’s necessary to credit score compactness in all kinds. Lastly, as a result of a stunning variety of catchers have been the identical top and had the identical variety of characters of their names (Pedro Páges, Jake Rogers, and Connor Wong), I used swing size as a last tiebreaker, because it was the one different measure of compactness I may consider. The 24 shortest catchers made it into the principle bracket mechanically, whereas the 16 über-catchers needed to do undergo a play-in spherical for the 2 last spots in every area:
Proper off the bat, our play-in spherical eradicated Rutschman, Carson Kelly, Cal Raleigh, Patrick Bailey, Jonah Heim (pictured above), Austin Wells, Yasmani Grandal, and Tyler Stephenson. In an enormous upset, the massive Salvador Perez made it previous Bailey, as a result of Bailey is a devoted member of Staff Stick Your Knee Means Out to the Facet. Certain, it helped him change into the most effective defender in baseball, nevertheless it additionally received him bounced from this competitors, as a result of spheres aren’t alleged to have legs protruding of them, Patrick. Of these first eight eradicated, Grandal stood out because the catcher who made the weakest try at remodeling himself right into a sphere. The 6-foot-5, Jacob Stallings is the tallest catcher on our record, however look how a lot smaller he makes himself than Grandal:
Severely, Grandal would possibly as nicely have been standing up. It’s virtually as if he had no concept that he would in the future be judged on his skill to look as if he’d been vacuum-sealed as a way to retain most freshness. Stallings, alternatively, did an unimaginable impression of a purple praying mantis. With the play-in spherical achieved, the 32-player bracket was lastly prepared:
The largest upset of the primary spherical was that Stallings stored proper on rolling. Because the tallest catcher within the discipline, he pulled the final word upset, taking down the 5-foot-8 Alejandro Kirk. Kirk’s crouch wasn’t even that dangerous. It’s simply that Stallings was extremely good at turtling. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, Elias Díaz merely didn’t perceive the task:
He’s on the left, and I swear that’s essentially the most compact shot I used to be capable of get of him. I’m not even positive you can name what he’s doing crouching. He’s simply taking a knee like an old-timey quarterback about to attract the game-winning play within the dust along with his finger. His head is towering above the strike zone. In no way coincidentally, Statcast says he was the second-worst framer in all of baseball on low pitches. He actually must get on the ball (by turning himself right into a ball).
Over on the suitable, Perez actually did attempt his greatest, however he’s simply such a big human being. He seems like he’s in that scene from the children’ film the place the principle character’s big robotic buddy is about to be found, so the enormous robotic bends over and the principle character throws a checkered blanket over him and pretends that he’s a desk.
The opposite large upset was Jose Trevino getting knocked out within the first spherical. Not solely is Trevino one of many smaller catchers within the sport at 5-foot-10, however he’s the most effective framers round. He does get himself small, usually angling his physique barely each to current a smaller goal and provides the umpire a greater view of the pitch. Nevertheless, it additionally makes him a lot much less symmetrical:
At this level, possibly I ought to point out that though I’m the choose of this all-important competitors, I’m unable to stay in a catcher’s crouch for quite a lot of seconds. Because of soccer accidents, I’ve had 5 knee surgical procedures. I nonetheless jog and play softball, however I do know that I may get damage once more and that even when I don’t, I’m the world’s most definitely candidate to want a knee substitute or two at a really younger age. I fear about it on a regular basis, and I fear concerning the knees of all these catchers. I might kill to have the ability to do what they do, in order I sit right here, I’m doing my greatest to evaluate them with compassion. However anyone’s received to win, and meaning all people else has received to lose:
Stallings stored rolling within the Candy 16. It didn’t damage that his competitors, Páges, didn’t even get right into a crouch in any of the clips I may discover. He roughly simply sat on his again leg along with his hand on his hip:
As soon as we received to the Elite Eight, nearly everybody who received eradicated was a baller (actually). On the left, James McCann, who began out by eliminating his teammate Rutschman within the play-in spherical, lastly bowed out. Within the center, Logan O’Hoppe received extraordinarily small, however was in the end betrayed by his wayward left leg. He’s mainly formed like an uppercase Q. The true shock for me was Will Smith. He’s the rationale this text exists within the first place. Sooner or later in the course of the World Sequence, I seen how tiny he made himself when he received into his crouch. As soon as I did, it was onerous to note anything. He’s one of many shortest catchers in baseball and I actually thought he’d make all of it the way in which, however Freddy Fermin took him down:
That brings us to the Ultimate 4, the place Stallings’ charmed run lastly ended by the hands of J.T. Realmuto. On the opposite facet of the bracket, Fermin handed Ryan Jeffers to make it into the ultimate. Jeffers is 6-foot-4, very tall for a catcher (and a human), however he actually did handle to get very tiny. There he’s on the suitable doing his greatest impression of a man who isn’t the identical top as Anthony Edwards. Nonetheless, it’s not simply sufficient to compete with Fermin on the left. Fermin is possibly the most effective framer in baseball on the backside of the zone, and when he actually will get down there, he seems like he’s making an attempt to cover his entire physique behind his catcher’s mitt:
If not for the truth that his left leg was splayed out a bit too removed from his physique, Fermin would’ve taken the entire ball of wax. As a substitute, he bumped into a wonderfully proportioned buzzsaw within the type of our champion of champions — Realmuto:
Look how completely symmetrical he’s. His knees are pulled in tight. His proper hand is tucked in near his physique. He’s even tucking his chin into his chest. Realmuto is an ideal little sphere of a catcher. I wish to assume that when the Phillies go on street journeys, he will get down into his crouch and the clubhouse attendants simply roll him onto the workforce airplane. The one query left is whether or not Realmuto will be capable of defend his title subsequent season:
