Who Should Call Pitches? The Coach, Pitcher Or Catcher?

I've discussed this before on my blog. But as the baseball season is now getting underway throughout most of the country, I thought I'd bring it up again.

Calling pitches is a 50/50 gig for me. As a coach, you need to develop your catcher for the next level in which reading hitters and gaining the confidence of pitchers will be critical. Part of that development will be in giving him input. One way to do this is to start out the season with a "once through the line-up" approach, meaning that as a coach you give some suggestions (pitch calls) to the catcher and pitcher before handing it over.

More importantly, it is already established that the pitcher should know what he wants to go with prior to any signal. The pitcher will ultimately always call the pitch and have the understanding if both the catcher or coach are right in the suggestion.

Remember this, "The right pitch with doubt is not nearly as good as the wrong one with confidence and commitment."