Alright, so I decided to spend some time looking into Reese McGuire the other day. Wasn’t anything super formal, just something I wanted to check out myself.
I started off by just pulling up some recent game footage. You know, searched around online, found a few innings where he was catching. Didn’t need the whole game, just enough to get a feel for how he operates back there.
First thing I did was just watch. Didn’t take notes right away, just observed. How’s his setup? How does he receive the ball, especially on the edges of the plate? Watched that for maybe 15-20 minutes, across different pitchers and situations.
Then, I started paying closer attention to specific things.
- His stance with runners on base versus nobody on. Seemed pretty standard, but I watched how low he got.
- How he handled pitches in the dirt. His blocking technique. Tried to see how quick his reactions were.
- His throwing motion down to second. Quick release? Footwork looked pretty clean most times I saw.
Breaking it Down
After watching for a bit, I actually got up and kinda mimicked his basic receiving stance in my living room. Felt a bit silly, sure, but sometimes feeling the position helps you understand it, you know? Just trying to see how balanced it felt compared to how I remember setting up ages ago.
I also specifically looked for how he frames pitches. That’s always interesting to me. How subtle is he? Does he snatch at the ball or smoothly guide it? Found a few borderline pitches in the clips and replayed those a couple of times. Seemed pretty decent at making it look like a strike, didn’t see anything too exaggerated.
Took some mental notes, mostly. Didn’t write much down, wasn’t preparing a report or anything. Just things like “quick transfer on throws,” “quiet body when receiving,” “seems to anticipate the block well.” Stuff like that.
Spent maybe an hour total on this little exercise. It wasn’t some deep dive analysis, just a practical look at how a current catcher does his thing. It’s always good to see the little details in action rather than just reading about them. Gave me a few things to think about next time I’m watching a game.
