Susac was the Giants second round pick in 2011. (Conner Penfold/Working Titles)
I sat down with current San Jose Giants starting catcher and No. 14 ranked prospect (according to MLB.com) in the San Francisco Giants organization, Andrew Susac, to talk about his first year playing professional baseball.
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Andrew, first just tell me about the general transition you’ve had to make jumping straight from college ball into Class-A ball?
The transition has been a lot more than I thought. Calling a game is one of the hardest things to do in sports, I think, and I’m convinced now. It’s a big learning curve behind the dish because pretty much the whole game, between the pitcher and the catcher, is run right behind the plate with me. Right now I’m just trying to learn my pitchers and learn my staff as quickly as I can and we possibly have new guys coming in and out so it’s a constant grind to try to mix those two. You’ve got to learn what type of characteristics your pitchers have, what type of person they are and how you can instruct them a certain way and go about people in different ways. But the learning curve is definitely tough. Pitchers at this level are pretty good and the arms are definitely good. Taking nights off isn’t something you can do often so you always have to be ready to play.
Catchers talk about getting into a groove with their pitchers. Are there any pitchers that you feel you’ve meshed well with so far?