Pitch-framing: The art of getting a strike call

The game within the game for a catcher involves a critical skill: the ability to frame pitches in a way to set the strike zone to benefit your pitcher.

Pitch-framing depends on many factors involving the pitcher, the catcher, the umpire and the game situation.

This is part one in our series on the art of the game: catchers and pitch-framing.

Some of the best in the business at "stealing strikes" for their pitchers are 30-year-old and five-time All-Star Buster Posey and 34-year-old eight-time All-Star Yadier Molina.

"Yeah, you can work on anything, as long as you are willing to work on it," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "I'm sure Buster, he wasn't like that in the beginning. How long has Buster been in the big leagues? (Nine) years now?

"Buster was probably pretty good at it coming out of college. He got the Johnny Bench Award out of college (2008 winner out of Florida State), and there's only one. He's probably one of the best at the young age when he first came out of college."

Baker said pitch-framing is not the first thing a catcher should try to master. He needs to hone and refine the skill with hours and hours of practice.

"When you first come up, most times you're just trying to catch, (much) less frame it," Baker said. "And trying to block it. Yeah, it's a valuable skill. (current Nationals assistant general manager and vice president of player development, and former major league catcher and manager) Bob Boone was one of the best.

"We have (Jose) Lobaton that's known to steal a strike - whether it's down, in or out, or whatever. But you have to really work on it or you're going to have a lot of passed balls in the process of trying to frame it."

The 32-year-old Nationals catcher has studied the way backstops like Posey and Yadier Molina set up and frame pitches, and takes pointers from their work behind the plate.

Lobaton leaned on Yadier's older brother, 42-year-old Jose Molina, while they were teammates with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2012 to 2013.

"I feel like you see those guys doing that and it look like it's so easy for them (but they) make us work harder to try to do the same," Lobaton said. "I feel that for Yadier (Molina) it's so easy with the hands, and (Buster) Posey is the same. (They) make everything look better. One thing that Jose Molina teach me one time when I play with him in Tampa was you got to relax your hands when you catch. Because when you catch a ball hard you are going to drop it. You want to make everything smooth."

Similar to a starting pitcher working on holding runners or a hitter attempting to bunt, the skill of using soft hands to catch a pitch and using that skill to pitch-frame begins in the bullpen.

"Working in the 'pen. It's a lot of drills to make you feel better," Lobaton said. "I feel that the guys who play every day, it can be easy for them because they do it every day. For me to get better I got to work in pain, I got to work when I'm not playing. I've seen those guys doing that. Made me feel like I wanted to do that too. I want to be better and better. I want to be like them one day. Maybe be as good as they are."

Lobaton says another major factor in establishing the strike zone early is finding out how the home plate umpire is going to call the game.

"As soon as you see the umpire calling some pitches, you kind of figure out how it's going to be the strike zone that day," Lobaton said. "Because you see a lot of guys that are really tight, have a really tight strike zone and nothing you can do. Sometimes it's a pitch that is that much (over) and they call a ball and you throw the ball right in the corner and they call it a strike. You got to work with them.

"(I) feel like I got a pretty good relations with the umpires. I always ask about pitches: how they doing? If that was a ball, 'OK, you think that was too much? Or was that up or away?' It depends. Sometimes they call up but they don't call away.

"I try to be careful how (I talk to the home plate umpire). I try to be smart in that moment. I want to say (to the umpire) that 'you are not calling this, I just want to know if that's a ball, why is that a ball? Just because it's high, just because it's low, in or away?' So now I have something in my mind. That's the way I move. I feel like most of the catchers do that. They try to move, depending on the umpire."

Lobaton says what he does and what the umpire calls are two major factors in pitch-framing. But the pitcher, obviously, determines where each pitch lands, and that dictates how it is subsequently framed.

"A pitcher who has a two-seamer, they don't want to miss the two-seamer in the middle," Lobaton said. "They want you to start in the corner for a ball and make them swing. But some pitchers got a pretty good sinker, they want you to stay more in the middle and let that thing go down. That's how it works, it depends on the pitcher, it depends on the umpire and we move depending on what they give you that day."

"Some guys, they give you a little bit more and you can steal some balls. I've been there sometimes I catch a good pitch right there and I'm like 'Where's that pitch?' (Umpire says) 'Oh, that's a ball, that's away.' I know it's away, but I'm like 'Oh! That's really close!' It's a ball. I know it's a ball. Sometimes I catch a pitch and I know it's a ball and they call strike. OK, now you know they give you that pitch. So, you got to frame it better. You can get that pitch all game."

"Sometimes it depends on the pitcher. Some pitches are hard for the umpire to see because the way they break. But some guys they throw it right there (the pitch moves across the strike zone). It's kind of easy for them to see the location quick and they don't give in."

Next in the series: How difficult is it to catch and pitch-frame for a 99 mph sinker like the one Lobaton's teammate Blake Treinen delivers? And, why backup catchers are sometimes the best at pitch-framing.