Who Calls the Pitches?

[mudcat14]

I'm curious if someone in the dugout is calling pitches for the Twins hurlers.  I find it curious that in Santiago's last six starts for the Angels, he surrendered a total of 8 earned runs.  In his first three with the Twins, he's allowed 15.  Poor execution by our starting pitchers can't completely explain their overall suckitude.  Does coaching or scouting bear an equal amount of the weight?

[jorgenswest]

Today's outfield did not help. Rosario was lost in CF twice leading to several earned runs. Santiago still needs to pick up the poor play behind him.

[mikelink45]

I think this is a two year issue that needs to be addressed by some real changes in leadership.  Whether it is coming by trade and going backward or coming from the minors and regressing, we have a very poor record with all our pitches. 

[ShouldaCouldaWoulda]

Yeah, I have made a handful of comments about personally feeling that Suzuki was not only a poor framer, but also appears to be a poor pitch sequence and location game-caller on the whole. Just seems extremely predictable at times, or extremely head-scratching, but never seem to find myself saying great call there. 

 

Honestly, no one has ever replied to any of my comments about it, nor have I even read any BP or Fangraphs articles about catcher pitch sequence/location calling. Other than a blip comment of being a good game-caller.

 

I know nothing though.

[Willihammer]

There was an article posted by THT or someone around the time we initially signed Suzuki that showed he called more fastballs than just about anyone, can't find the link tho.

 

IMO Suzuki is an old school "establish the fastball" emphasizer. I remember a Berrios start recently, he didn't call for a changeup until pitch #33 or so, even though the fastball was getting hammered and Berrios changeup is a swing and miss pitch. I wonder if he worked a little more backwards in hitters counts, early in games, Berrios would be able to go deeper.

 

Didn't see today's game.

[Seth Stohs]

To answer the original question: The catchers call the game, and obviously the pitcher can call him off. 

 

Obviously the pitch calls are based on:

 

1.) scouting reports, and 

2.) pitcher strengths

 

and other things like situation, etc.

 

 

I would be shocked if that wasn't the case with all 30 major league teams... and probably all of their affiliates.

 

I know that in the minor leagues, it's part of the player development. I've talked to Jake Mauer about it a few times. They talk before the series and before games... They allow catchers (with pitchers) to call the game, and then they have discussions between innings about pitch selection, location, etc. It's how they learn.

[DJSim22]

I know our high school kids call their own games, and are talked to much like Seth stated.  Actually, I don't remember calling any sort of a pitch for anyone after the age of 12. 

[mudcat14]

When I caught in High School, our Coach relayed every pitch to me from the dugout.  My son is as Prep now and his coach calls them too. 

[DJSim22]

 

When I caught in High School, our Coach relayed every pitch to me from the dugout.  My son is as Prep now and his coach calls them too. 

 

Interesting.  My 16 year old calls his own game.