Major League Catcher Forgets How to Throw

May 21, 2010— -- Throwing the ball back to the pitching mound may be the simplest part of a catcher's job, but it's got former Texas Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia stumped.

Since shoulder surgery late last season, Saltalamacchia can catch a pitch at 90 miles an hour, he can hit it out of the park, but ask him to return the ball 60 feet to the mound and things go awry.

Physically, he can make the toss, but something in his psyche is tripping him up, says Dr. Michael Lardon, who is a psychological consultant for Major League Baseball.

"When you first start off playing a sport, it's physical -- but at the higher level it becomes disproportionally mental," he said.

A mechanical glitch like this can become a persistent unconscious resposne.

"What's frustrating me the most is this is the only thing keeping me from being back in the big leagues," Saltalamacchia told ESPN. "I'm hitting. I'm catching. The only one thing is a simple throw back to the pitcher."

Playing for Triple-A Oklahoma Redhawks this season, Saltalamacchia was off to a rocky start last week when he had a dozen wild throws in a single game.

But Salty -- as the catcher is often called -- has got a new game plan.

In addition to working with sports psychologists, Saltalamacchia has changed his grip on the baseball and is using a tap-tap-throw rhythm for his tosses to the mound, tapping the ball twice against his glove before the throw, according to the Associated Press.

So far, so good. The catcher made it through an entire game with only one inaccurate throw on Monday when he tested out his new system for the first time.

"Hopefully, this is step one," the catcher told the Associated Press. "There's going to be good days. There's going to be bad days. I'm expecting that, [but] I know I'm ready."