One thing that we at LL noticed while watching the MLB playoffs this year was just how shockingly bad many catchers are at framing. We realized just how spoiled blessed we are that we get to watch Cal Raleigh behind the dish almost every game, and watching him steal strikes at an alarming rate. But exactly how good is the platinum glover is at framing? And what methods does he use to abuse umpire’s eyesight?
Framing is the act of lying to umpires, and pretending that a caught ball was actually a strike. For framing, we are mainly concerned with the so-called “shadow zone,” the area immediately around the strike zone.