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Prior to His Injury, Henry Davis Was Focusing on Managing a Pitching Staff

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Prior to his promotion to Double-A, and before landing on the IL with a fracture in his wrist, Henry Davis was focusing on his defense.

The catcher, drafted first overall in 2021, was sent to High-A Greensboro to start the season. The Pirates had two other legit catching prospects going to the same level, including top ten prospect in the system Endy Rodriguez.

In hindsight, it doesn’t seem like Davis needed the work offensively. He hit for a .342/.450/.585 line with five homers in 100 plate appearances with Greensboro. His offense wasn’t really the reason he was there.

“Henry performed well offensively, and he’s going to continue to work on his defensive game,” said Greensboro manager Callix Crabbe after the promotion.

The Pirates sent Davis to Greensboro to get some work on the defensive side. Davis was drafted first overall due to his elite power potential and the ability to stick behind the plate. The power is not in question, and has shown up at every limited sample sized stage so far, including one home run while playing hurt in his first two games in Altoona. Defensively, the Pirates have Davis focusing on his work with the pitchers.

“I think it’s just continuing to develop that pitcher-catcher relationship,” said Crabbe of the focus going forward for Davis. “That ability to move along with a pitcher who might not be commanding a particular pitch on that day, and helping them establish the strike zone with a pitch that they’re throwing well.”

Crabbe noted that Davis has also been working on framing at the bottom of the strike zone, noting that he’s “really good” at the top. Framing might eventually become irrelevant to balls and strikes with automated strike zones on the horizon. The Pirates do believe there is a positive reinforcement benefit to the pitcher in seeing a well-received, well-framed pitch, so I don’t think this skill is going to be de-emphasized.

The work Davis was doing was largely getting used to handling a pitching staff, something that will always be a huge responsibility of a catcher.

“I think early on, he was working through a new pitching staff, and he was working through the different pitchers who were struggling with their own command issues as well,” said Crabbe. “As time went on, he got a lot better.”

Davis essentially got a crash course in Greensboro with their pitching staff. When he returns from his injury, he will get the same thing all over again in Altoona. Perhaps the experience of having to learn two different pitching staffs in the same year will help him in the future when there’s a revolving door in and out of Pittsburgh. Crabbe was positive about the abilities he saw from Davis during this development.

“Henry is not short on confidence, but he’s also one of the hardest working people that I have personally seen in my time coaching,” said Crabbe.

THIS WEEKEND ON PIRATES PROSPECTS

Prior to His Injury, Henry Davis Was Focusing on Managing a Pitching Staff

Greensboro Catchers Adjusting To Life After Henry Davis

Matt Gorski Has Been Getting Work at First Base This Year

THIS WEEK ON PIRATES PROSPECTS

Williams: Jared Jones is a Familiar Story With Hopefully a Different Ending

Endy Rodriguez Gets Back on Track After Swing Issues in April

Matt Gorski: A More Consistent Swing and 17 Home Runs Later…

Prospect Roundtable: Which Greensboro Prospects Are Most Intriguing?

Maikol Escotto: “There’s a lot of thump in that bat”

Jacob Gonzalez: From Minor League Rule 5 to Minor League Video Game Numbers

Jack Carey: Stuff Playing More Than Numbers Showing

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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