Quote:
Originally Posted by DeezNutz
No. This all reads nicely and applies logic, but no.
If you struggle to receive a pitch in general, I guess your odds of catching a foul tip are lesser, but this fits the overall narrative; the player cannot ****ing catch.
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Well Tony Cruz cannot ****ing catch.
I guess I just disagree with the idea that all foul tips are truly random. If you're righty throwing a changeup to a lefty on the outer third, the odds are pretty good that any foul tip is going to go down because the ball is going to tail that way and the hitter's probably going to be coming up and out on his swing plane (if he's ahead of a the pitch, as is the point with the change). As a good pitch framer you're going to smoothly be going with the ball and you should probably in a slightly better position to catch that ball than a bad pitch framer. If it's a fastball up and in, that ball is probably going to be tipped up and back.
It doesn't mean you saw the tip and moved your glove up to catch it (because that's not possible) but if you're a catcher like Molina that's done this for 20 years now, there's no way you don't develop an instinct for how certain pitches tend to be fought off.
You're not seeing and reacting to it, but by being smarter about tendencies you're simply slightly increasing your odds of being in the right place at the right time.