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Adam Rubin catches up with C Josh Thole from the Arizona Fall League. Here’s the most important part:
Q: You had been primarily a first baseman with the Mets before ‘08, no?
A: “This last year was the first tine that I did a lot of catching. I think I caught about 70 games. That’s the most I’ve ever caught. I was drafted as a catcher. Then when I got to the Mets I caught a little bit - in the Gulf Coast, Kingsport and then Savannah just a handful of games. I mainly played first base. Getting back into the catching, it’s a lot different here than what I had to go through in high school. It’s kind of like starting from scratch. I kind of redid everything, from the stance to throwing to second base to blocking. Everything has just been a whole big change for me. Bobby Nadal, our catching coordinator, really has been putting in a lot of time with me.”
Bobby Nadal is a tireless worker and a funny dude. “It’s kinda like starting from scratch” tells you everything you need to know about just how hard it is to play catcher at the professional level.




This probably explains the trend to move catchers to 1B/DH and then moving them back to C. They don’t know how to play the position when they are drafted…