University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Two Of A Kind Behind The Plate
June 2, 2006 | Baseball
June 2, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Carolina head coach Mike Fox was putting his team through a two-hour workout on a stifling last day of May earlier this week. The temperature would eventually reach 88 degrees, with the typical North Carolina humidity adding a few degrees to the heat index.
As the Tar Heels began to take light batting practice, Fox divided his squad into several groups. Catchers Benji Johnson and Tim Federowicz were in the third group, which meant they had the luxury of several free minutes before it was their turn in the cage.
They could have been free minutes. But that's not how Johnson and Federowicz wanted to spend their time.
"Here it is June and they've caught a ton of pitches this year," Fox said. "And they come up to me and want to go receive off the machine while they're not hitting. They're both such hard workers. Both take a lot of pride in their catching, and they've complemented each other very well and worked very hard with each other."
The Tar Heels have had perfect symmetry at the catching position--Johnson and Federowicz have each been the starting catcher in 29 of the squad's 58 games. They've essentially been two halves of the same whole all season. Finding differences in the duo requires splitting very fine hairs: Federowicz, a freshman, has a stronger arm but Johnson, a sophomore, is a better receiver. Federowicz (pronounced Fed-dur-OH-vitch, but save yourself the trouble and call him FedEx like everyone else in the Carolina clubhouse) has been a better run-producer but Johnson has more raw power.
They've provided so much pop (Johnson leads the team with 12 home runs; Federowicz is tied for second in runs batted in with 48) from a frequently dormant position that they take turns filling the designated hitter role when the other is in the starting catching position. But their real value comes on the defensive side, where they've virtually eliminated opposing running games. They've combined for a 43 percent caught-stealing mark; to put that figure in perspective, consider that just five major league catchers are currently above 43 percent in that category. Many of the stolen bases against the Tar Heels came early in the year, as teams have essentially shut down their running games against Carolina in recent weeks.
"It's a tremendous luxury for our pitchers," says pitching coach Scott Forbes, a former catcher who works closely with Federowicz and Johnson. "They know they just have to come home decently quick and we'll throw runners out. We don't want our pitchers focusing on the running game. We want them to focus on the hitter. We've been able to do that this year because of our catchers."
The catching duo has succeeded despite a weekend rotation that can be a challenge to catch. Robert Woodard is a master of precision who almost always hits his spots. But Daniel Bard's explosive fastball can be dicey, and Andrew Miller's biting slider is the heaviest ball on the team.
"Bard and Miller are amazing to catch," Federowicz said. "They have so much movement on the ball and they will put it anywhere you want."
Learning when and where to put it has been the biggest learning process for both catchers. Johnson saw only sporadic work behind the plate last year as a freshman. But when he wasn't in the game, he usually found a seat in the dugout near the coaches. Not to lobby for playing time, but to try and soak up as much knowledge of the game as possible.
"If something happened in the game, I wanted to be able to hear them talking to each other," Johnson said. "I wanted to see what they were thinking in certain situations or certain counts--when they thought a runner might be going or when it might be a bunt situation. Those were the kinds of things I had never had to think about before."
He's thought about them this year and been extremely successful. Most of the Carolina pitches are called from the dugout, but the coaching staff has occasionally let Johnson call his own game. It's a freedom they'll give him even more next season as a junior. Federowicz, who might use his cannon arm on the mound before his Carolina career is finished, will get even more game management experience this summer when he plays in the Cape Cod League.
Before that season comes, though, both players expect they still have plenty of postseason games left to call. A primary benefit of alternating catchers has been the reduced wear and tear on their bodies. Forbes recalls--with a painful grimace--his senior year in college, a season when he caught all but nine innings. The Tar Heel hope is that by limiting the innings of Johnson and Federowicz, they'll have a pair of catchers in midseason form during the month of June rather than one exhausted catcher.
"It's helped me a lot," Federowicz said. "I'm nowhere near as tired as I would have been if I was catching everyday. I think it's beneficial for both of us and you'll see better results in the postseason because of it."
With that, he heads back to the Carolina clubhouse.
There is still--as usual--plenty of work to be done.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
