During his playing days as a Major League catcher, John Baker noticed a trend. He noticed that his pitchers would throw with more conviction if the pitch was their idea, versus his idea.
“The turn that I made a long time ago in my own catching career is how do I make my idea, how do I make it seems like it was his idea,” Baker wondered.
Now, Baker finds himself borrowing a similar thought process as the Pirates’ Director of Coaching and Player Development.
Toward the end of former General Manager Neal Huntington’s tenure, it became clear that the Pirates could amass talent, but fell short in the development area.