— Catching mechanics.
You don’t read or hear too much about that part of the game, not nearly as much as you do the mechanics of hitting and pitching. But that doesn’t mean it is any less important. Improper mechanics behind the plate lead to extra bases, and extra bases lead to runs.
A catcher’s ability to softly block pitches in the dirt, even though it doesn’t happen with the same frequency in a game, is as important a skill as pitch-framing.
Which is why Tigers catcher James McCann gets up literally up at the crack of dawn during the early weeks of spring training to work on blocking balls.