What are the defensive responsibilities of a catcher in baseball?

What are the defensive responsibilities of a catcher in baseball?

Alan Jaeger (Pitching Coach / Founder) gives expert video advice on: What is a 'catcher' in baseball?; What are the defensive responsibilities of a catcher in baseball?; What are some tips for a catcher to achieve the ideal stance in baseball? and more...

The defensive responsibility for a catcher is baseball are many. First of all, it's his job to help guide the pitcher through the entire game. He's the one in charge of calling the pitches and helping to steer the pitcher to do the things that he feels are necessary, maybe based on what he sees the hitter doing or not doing. Secondly, his defensive responsibilities are the running game. When there's runners on base, he's in charge of doing his best to try to insure the pitcher speeds the ball to him to the plate as efficiently as possible. And then it's his responsibility, obviously, to throw to the base to try to throw the runners out. Thirdly, a big responsibility is, invariably there are wild pitches in the game and he's got to learn how to block the ball very well. The ability to block a ball that's in the dirt, so to speak, from the pitcher so a runner can't advance, is a very big deal in baseball.