Lucas Herbert was touted as a high schooler as being the "best catch and throw" catcher in the 2015 draft. The scouting report (or, one of them):
Herbert’s athleticism is most obvious when he puts on the tools of ignorance and starts catching the Rome staff. He has great lateral movement and even better ability to get into the dirt to block a ball with great flexibility. His arm isn’t elite, but he gets up very quickly, which makes up for it in the run game.
The biggest area I could see for improvement in Herbert’s game behind the plate would be his framing skills. He presents a good target, but he tends to sit narrow to remain able to be flexible in his movements, but getting wider would allow him to “steal” more pitches for his pitchers.
What MLB.com said the time:
"Lucas Herbert has excellent catch and throw skills to go along with the natural leadership teams covet in a catcher"
This season, at age 20, he was made the primary catcher at Rome. His backup was a revolving door of five other catchers, but Herbert has been a revelation, batting .354 in the second half after a .410 average in June.
Working with young pitchers, he took his lumps throwing out base stealers, but his and their improvements are dramatic.
In April, Herbert was only 3 of 20 throwing out runners
In May, Herbert was 12 of 33. Threw out 6 of 13 at the end of the month
Continued in June.
In June, Herbert was 7 of 15 with a pickoff
In July, teams are not running with nearly as much confidence, going 1 for 7 so far with another pickoff.
For the season, he's made four errors, three of them throwing.
With Cumberland trying to figure it out, with Jackson trying to figure it out, I want Herbert to be treated like the McCann-in-waiting by the Braves.
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Originally Posted by Knucksie
