It’s not just Giants fans who have been singing the praises of Patrick Bailey, all of the Giants’ pitchers seem to love throwing to him.
As a receiver, Bailey was always considered to have elite potential. That potential seems to be manifesting itself, with KNBR’s Greg Papa going so far as to say that Bailey might be a better defensive catcher than Buster Posey was at this point in his career.
So, what makes him so good? Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly pointed to three things when he joined Tolbert & Kolsky on Tuesday.
“I think the number one thing is I think he’s pretty good at framing,” Baggs said. “He can pull strikes back in the zone, that’s always something that pitchers appreciate.”
He’s only played 10 games, but Twitter is already chock full of videos of Bailey stealing strikes for his pitchers.
“He seems to have a good pace,” Baggs continued. “He knows when to go out for a mound visit, he knows when he does have an idea for a pitch to call, he’s not afraid to interject.
“Mostly I think it’s a lot of demeanor. Just a really sort of laid back demeanor. There are catchers who will try and pump you up, but most of the time you want a catcher who will put out the fire.”
That maturity does remind one of Posey, who seemed like a veteran the second he was called up. It also makes him unique when compared to the Giants’ other catchers.
“That might be one of the toughest things for Blake Sabol catching,” Baggarly said. “We’ve seen when an inning starts to go sideways, it’s really gone sideways. It’s a tough thing to ask a catcher to do, and I don’t really know how much a catcher has to do with it. Cause and effect is a little bit murky there. There’s something to having a catcher that just has that poise and can find a way to pace a tough inning and get a pitcher through it.”
At 24 years old, it’s pretty incredible how comfortable all the of the Giants’ pitchers are throwing to Bailey already.
“I think he’s showing that he’s smart back there and he’s not easily flustered,” Baggarly concluded. “That’s probably the most important thing for a catcher to have from an intangible standpoint.”