James McCann: A Tigers Catcher on his Craft

James McCann remains a work in progress, but he’s established himself as more than Detroit’s catcher of the future. The 26-year-old University of Arkansas product is entrenched as the Tigers’ primary backstop, having earned the lion’s share of playing time thanks to solid defense and strong leadership skills.

The one thing McCann hasn’t been providing is offense. The second-year player is slashing just .208/.259/.324, with five home runs. Those numbers have come over 53 games, as McCann missed three weeks in April with an ankle injury. Last season, he logged a .683 OPS in 114 games of big-league action.

McCann talked about his defensive game, including his game-calling and improved framing, earlier in the season.

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McCann on processing information and reading hitters: “There’s a stat for everything. You can look up what guys are hitting on 1-1 counts against sliders, and probably even what they’re doing in long sleeves versus short sleeves. That’s how crazy it gets. The information available to us is endless.

“There’s a fine line, because when you get too much information, you start overthinking. But at the end of the day, a catcher needs to be prepared. You have to know what guys are doing in certain situations. What are they looking for on the first pitch? Are they usually taking? What is their swing percentage? What about with runners in scoring position?

“You also need to trust your eyes. You can have all the information in the world — you can have it all in your head — but if you don’t pay attention to what the hitter is doing, you can get in trouble. A lot of times, the hitter is going to tell you what he’s looking to do. Sometimes a guy will move up in the box, or he’ll move off the plate. Little things like that you can pick up on.

“As a catcher, you can tell from the corner of your eye if a guy is on a pitch or not. A lot of hitters will foul a ball off and it looks like they’re on it, but in reality they’re a tick late. When that happens, you might want to stick with the heater. When they’re a tick early, you may want to stick to the offspeed. If a guy is a good offspeed hitter who handles the ball away, and doesn’t handle the ball in, and all of a sudden he turns on 96 and hooks it foul, you know he’s ready for the fastball.”

On improving his pitch framing: “I did a lot of work on that over the offseason and continued to work on it during spring training. So far, it’s paid off. I definitely feel like I’ve improved in that area.

“There are certain aspects to framing that are… there are a lot of variables. Different umpires have different zones. If you get an umpire who’s tight on a given day, it doesn’t matter who you are as a catcher; you’re probably not getting many borderline strikes. If you get an umpire who is giving a little bit — his zone is a bigger — you’re going to grade out a little better.

“Another aspect is who is on the mound. A guy like Dallas Keuchel is constantly hitting his spots — corner, corner, bottom, bottom, up — so the umpire is more likely to give him calls. Some pitchers aren’t hitting spots with any consistency. So there are variables. But at the end of the day I know exactly where I stand. Last year I didn’t grade out well, so I’ve worked my butt off to improve as much as I can.

“I’ve watched film on the guys who graded out the best. I’ve paid attention to what they do and tried to see what I could take from their games and apply to mine. The best are the ones who are quietest behind the plate. There’s not a lot of movement. There are other little things, but that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed.”

On developing relationships and being a field general: “Justin Verlander is a guy who is going to know a lot of things. He’s going to know what a hitter’s swing-and-miss percentage is. A young pitcher, like a Daniel Norris, might want to know the bare minimum. He doesn’t want to overthink, he just wants to trust his stuff and trust the catcher.

“Something good catchers are able to do is have a different relationship with each guy who takes the mound. I hate to use the word ‘babysitter,’ but that’s almost what a catcher is in a sense. You have to know the character and makeup of your pitchers. Some guys need a pat on the rear end and others need to be pushed when things are going bad.

“I’ve put in my homework. Yes, I’m just a second-year player, but between the white lines we all have the same goal. We all want to win games and ultimately the World Series. When you look at it that way, it doesn’t matter whether you have 10 years in the big leagues or 10 days. The catcher is the field general. He’s a position player, but he works closely with the pitchers. He’s sort of the glue between the two.

“A catcher’s most important job is defense. You have pitchers who want to talk about an inning, and you might be leading off the bottom half of that inning. You’re getting ready to hit while the pitcher is reliving what just happened. There’s a fine line there. You want to focus (when you’re hitting), but the pitcher is your first priority. Any offense you provide is icing on the cake.”