PitchCom has seemingly taken over baseball, with more and more teams not only using the electronic signal device to help pitchers and catchers communicate without signs, but allowing pitchers to call their own games on the mound.
The device has proven extraordinarily useful for some. There’s just one potentially huge problem teams are going to have to monitor: the volume level on the corresponding earpiece. Minnesota Twins starter Kenta Maeda learned this the hard way on Thursday in a spring exhibition against the Tampa Bay Rays — though it didn’t impact his performance.
Per the Associated Press:
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said the PitchCom device catcher Tony Wolters was using was loud enough for Tampa Bay Rays hitters to hear every pitch that was called. Plate umpire Brennan Miller heard them all through the wireless system used by pitchers and catchers to communicate.
Maeda still threw two scoreless innings, allowing two hits. He struck out two and walked one.
“I said, ‘Nicely done. By the way, something to note, they knew every pitch that was coming,”’ Baldelli said.
It’s probably not a great sign for the Rays that they still couldn’t manufacture any runs despite knowing what pitches were coming, but that also speaks to Maeda’s ability to work effectively.
PitchCom audibly tells the pitcher and catcher which pitch is coming next. It was theoretically meant to help cutdown on sign stealing across the game.
Now teams will have to worry about coms sharing instead.
Still, it’s much better to have this problem in March than April and beyond. Maybe it’ll even lead to fans trying to stay as quiet as possible when the home team is batting in order to help them hear better.
Or maybe players will just learn to turn down the volume next time.