Some work to do
On Sunday, Yankee fans finally got to see Jesus start a game at Catcher for ourselves. We have long heard named and unnamed scouts refer to his ”big league ready bat” and poor defensive skills, some even saying he’s not a big league Catcher. We’ve seen that bat of his bat in recent days on glorious display, showing few holes in his offensive game (other than a mildly annoying tendency to be 0-2 seemingly every AB) and a wonderful ability to drive the ball to all fields, off varying types and locations of pitches. But the defensive questions persist, so on the occasion of Sunday’s debut behind the plate I wanted to see for myself if his catching liabilities were something you can live with, or if he is so bad back there that he will cost you runs. Here are my impressions of his initial game behind the dish:
Overall Technique-Doesn’t hide throwing hand much, if at all. Catchers will often do this to ‘cheat’ a bit on the ball to glove transfer when attempting to throw out base runners, especially with a man on 1B. But I didn’t see him hide his hand once all day, which exposes him to injury unnecessarily. Remember what happened to Jorge Posada last year? On July 5th, he sprained his ring finger by taking a foul ball off his hand. It was the 6th time in his career that he had sustained a hand injury, mostly due to foul balls off his exposed hand. Proper technique for Catchers is to tuck the throwing hand behind the leg just as the pitch comes in, which makes it almost impossible for foul balls to hit the hand. Many MLB Catchers will fail to tuck the hand on occasion, but Jesus doesn’t seem to make any attempt to follow this basic protocol. Another note, he’s a little ‘busy’ back there which most pitchers don’t like. Bobs up and down a bit, as if trying to gain forward momentum should he need to make a throw. Most pitchers like throwing to a completely still target. He’s not quite a dancing bear back there, but there’s more movement than you’d like to see.
Throwing out baserunners-He threw out the one of the three base runners who attempted to steal on him, though he only made one throw. One runner advanced as he lost the handle on a breaking ball. The one throw he made wasn’t exceptional, it was a bit high, Cano had to reach a bit, but overall it was strong and pretty accurate. Garcia paid a lot of attention to base runners on Sunday, so he helped the cause. Its way too small a sample to say anything definitive, other than Montero flashed some good skills with a strong arm on one play, and his shaky receiving skills cost him on another.
Passed Balls/Wild Pitches-The wild pitch/passed ball which allowed a run to score was a play where Jesus was clearly crossed up. He held the glove open and just under his chin as if expecting a fastball, then had to react to what appeared to be a splitter in the dirt. Whether he screwed up the sign, forgot which fingers he put down, or if Garcia was to blame we’ll never know. But it was obvious to me that he was expecting a different pitch than the one that was thrown, and most often that’s on the Catcher. He’s had a reputation in the minors for not always staying focused, and there were plenty of base runners out there distracting him at the time of the play. To be fair, he made a number of other nice blocks on splitters in the dirt and the splitter can dance in unpredictable ways. He will always be prone to the passed ball, mostly due to his size. He’s so big and he crouches with his legs wide apart in order to get his body into the strike zone. That means both legs have a long way to go when he wants to close them quickly. A better crouch would be leaning forward with his legs closed, but then his size would present problems to the home plate Umpire for getting the calls on low strikes. There really isn’t a good answer unless he finds a way to get more flexible back there and/or react more quickly.
Framing pitches-I’d say he was average. Not good, but not bad either. He moves the glove a little bit too often and too soon, as if unsure of his own ability to catch an errant pitch. He sets a target then starts to drift a bit, but its nothing major. Again, a good catcher is very still back there and makes subtle movements to squeeze out an extra strike here and there. I didn’t see Montero steal any 3rd strike calls, but didn’t find cause to blame him on the borderline pitches either.
Overall grade-C-minus. A lot of issues to work on, some that I’m not sure if he will ever fix. The lack of some easy, basic techniques lead me to wonder about his commitment to getting better. Getting replaced in the 7th inning by Austin Romine (who looked good) says a lot about what his coaches and manager thought of his performance.
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18 Responses to First impressions of Montero’s defense
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Steve how did Romine look is it also in question in your opinion? The Pitchers he caught are all primarily fastball pitchers (which I’m sure is far easier to catch), while Garcia is a junkballer who’s main focus is to get his pitches to flutter and dance.
As you said, different types of pitchers caught, but I LOVED what little I saw. Stark contrast to the previous innings with Montero.
Romine looked like a cigar store indian, completely still back there. No unneccessary glove movement, which is also good. Standard knee bent crouch, which should help minimize PB. When he had to reach for a pitch, he didn’t stab at the ball. Really like him a lot, he’s a textbook Catcher.
I’ve heard Romine is a lot shorter than Montero as well, does that allow him (Romine) certain advantages at the position over larger men such as Montero?
No doubt. If you’re big, you need to be very nimble back there
agree with the analysis but overall i think way too harsh on montero. i dont know how you see some basic technique flaws (exposed throwing hand) and deduce that you dont know if he has the commitment to improving himself defensively. it was his first ever big league start and he knows the criticism. chalking it up to nerves would be more appropriate.
It wasn’t based on just that, he’s had other incidents where his effort has been questioned. But that does bug me, that I didn’t see him tuck the hand even once. That’s very basic, there’s no reason to ‘cheat’ with the throwing hand (you simply move the glove toward your shoulder as you come up) and I guantee his coaches have told him about it a million times.
Saying that Montero’s throw was high said enough in that your overanalyzing his performance from one start. I’ve seen most of his starts in the minors and majors and he’s better than what he’s given credit for. Is he an all-star defensive catcher? No. He has more to learn but this post by Steve is simply overanalyzing. The throw from Montero was at his numbers and it wasn’t even an easy pitch to throw on either. As for the other stuff such as moving around and framing, he was fine on both of those. Definitely better than Cervelli in framing pitches.
Saying that Montero’s throw was high said enough in that your overanalyzing his performance from one start.
I agree.
The title of the piece is..?
If you don’t see why he’s going to have a persistent problem on passed balls, then maybe I should have analyzed that further. :)
What if the Yankees taught Montero RF? Swisher will be brought back for next year which will be his walk year.
He’s too slow and lacks any type of lateral movement speed wise to move in RF.
Nonsense. He is a catcher and the Rockies showed interest in him being a 1B if not the 1B after Helton, so he be a RF.
‘Can’t play C, the bases, SS, LF, or CF? Then maybe you can play RF the easiest position on the field unless you’re playing in Fenway Park half the year.
What if Montero isn’t good enough to be an everyday C? He’s gonna be a career DH?
DH or First is the only other two options. I don’t see why he can’t catch. He let a ball go through his legs. That happens. If everyone lowers their expectations then he’ll be perfectly okay back there. An okay defensive catcher with a tremendous bat. I’ll take it.
I’m not saying he can’t catch, I’m saying what if he was taught RF?
Forget 1B with Teixiera and 1B is much, much more difficult to learn and play competently at than RF.
DH for the Yanks should be a primary guy and the regulars getting rest. If you give the regulars say 54 starts (the bulk of them to A-Rod), Montero starts only 108 games if he doesn’t play the field and he becomes deadweight on the bench in games he doesn’t DH.
You’re shortchanging him to think all he can do is be a lousy or so-so catcher or a full-time DH.
Even if Montero learned RF, he’ll be subpar out there. He doesn’t have the speed to play the outfield. Could he catch the ball if it was hit near him? Yea. But if a ball is hit into the CF/RF gap at Yankees Stadium with Montero in right, the runner will most likely end up at third base.
This commentator brings nothing new to the Montero defensive discussion. And as such offers little or no new insights into how Montero can improve. I find it hard to believe that Romine is flawless back there. In any event Montero simply needs to be serviceable back there and before long his persistent thumping of American League pitchers will have everyone, inclusive of this commentator, anointing him as an All-star catcher.
Good post. I think the author tried his best to offer an analysis of Montero in the first game but it’s way too quick to analyze him. He’s a 21 year old catcher who is put into a position where he really shouldn’t be (only due to injuries). Steve never said Montero can’t catch so he isn’t saying that his career behind the plate is finished. I agree with some of his statements such as leaving the throwing hand exposed, he does that in the minors too.
I would perfectly be happy with him being slightly better than Posada. Posada wasn’t a good catcher early in his career either (passed ball city). Montero has a better arm than Posada has ever had. You’ll see many more blunders from Montero, all catchers have them. Even Romine who has his own flaws from what I’ve seen of him will have those WTF moments.
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