DENVER – Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart has had to break in plenty of rookie pitchers the last two seasons. He can tell who is mentally cut out for the job of big-league pitcher and who isn’t, often without glancing at the stat sheet or the velocity readings on the scoreboard.
He can see it in their eyes and their body language.
“You can tell,” Barnhart said. “They get behind in the count and they kind of pitch a little scared. It starts to kind of snowball on them, and giving up one run turns into giving up four runs, and you’re not really in the game anymore at that point.