Jorge Posada is entering his 16th season as a catcher for the New York Yankees. Over those years he has caught many different pitchers. Recently on Yahoo!Sports Posada provided his thoughts and rankings on the pitchers he has caught over the years.
Best fastball
Kyle Farnsworth or Scott Proctor. Proctor would throw 98, 99, 100. Farnsworth is 100-plus. That’s based on straight velocity.”
Best curveball
“Hideki Irabu had a very good curveball. Just a straight up and down, swing-and-miss curveball.
Best slider
“I would say Joba Chamberlain. Straight down, great velocity. Roger Clemens had a very good slider, too. I think Joba’s is better.”
Best changeup
"Probably Jimmy Key. CC Sabathia's got a very good changeup. It’s about arm speed and location.”
Best cutter
“Mariano.”
Best junk pitch
“Clemens’ splitter."
Smartest pitcher
“Mariano’s pretty smart. El Duque was very smart. So was Clemens."
Best big-game pitcher
“I would say Andy Pettitte. The way he took upon the challenge, the whole challenge. Getting ready, getting prepared, his focus. Really nothing gets in his way of what he wants to do.”Pitcher he best connected with
“David Wells. Yeah, that’s frightening. You know what, you’ve got to put him in the curveball category. He had one of the best curveballs. You have to include him in there. He never shook me off. And he said I would call pitches he wanted to throw. I don’t know how true this is. But, he would have the grip on the ball and I would call that pitch. It was kind of weird, you know? He’d go to that grip and then I’d be calling it.”
Pitcher he least connected with
“It was probably because I was intimidated by him – David Cone. I was a young guy, he was older. Nothing against the guy.
Funniest guy when he went to the mound
“Jon Lieber. He was hilarious. He was out there, just weird. I’d come out to the mound and if he had given up a home run, he’d say, ‘That was your fault.’ He was pretty good.” Scariest guy when he went to the mound
“David Cone. I was just intimidated. I would not even go to the mound. I was, like, scared, you know? He was the nicest guy in the world, but when he pitched, oof, don’t get near him. He was scary. He gave up a home run to Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle once. I wanted him to come in and he didn’t want to. He gave up a home run on a split. Probably hung in there and Griffey hit a home run. So, I go out there and he says, ‘How the hell would you pitch him?’ I said, ‘I think we gotta come in.’ Next time, Griffey comes up, we go in and he hits a double.’ I go back out and Cone says, ‘How the hell you gonna pitch him now?’ ”If he could take one pitch back
“Probably the pitch before Tony Womack hit that double in Arizona off Mariano [in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series]. And then we went back to that same pitch. The location of that second pitch, we needed it a little deeper probably, a little further inside. It kind of stayed in the middle of the plate a little bit. That’s the pitch. Both of them.”
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