How Guardians catcher Hedges hacked PitchCom to pump up his pitchers

“My brain is quite obsessive about the catching position,” Hedges said. “It’s tough to turn my brain off. My brain would just start spinning, and I would have all these ideas.”

Even while watching TV or playing video games at his apartment in early April, his thoughts wandered to hacking PitchCom. Could it be altered to pick up the game pace? The default version required pressing two buttons: one for pitch type and one for location. The process could take a couple of seconds to relay the info. If the pitcher shakes off a couple of times, Hedges found it could take 10 seconds to find a pitch they agreed on.

He also wondered if there was a way to deliver psychological boosts to his pitchers during the game. What if he could simulate a mini-mound visit without using any of the allotted five?

“You’ve never been able to talk to your pitcher from behind home plate,” Hedges said. “I’m like, ‘What if we can take advantage of talking to the pitcher in a way without using a mound visit? Whether that’s positive reinforcement - or even negative, if you need it.”

He began to bounce ideas off the coaching staff and pitchers. While he liked that he no longer had to worry about runners on second stealing signs, he missed the emphasis he could add when he placed his fingers down for an old-fashioned pitch call. He wanted to add a human element to the new system.