CatchersHome Weekly — August 9–15, 2026
August 16, 2026
Thank you for following along through one of the deepest weeks we have covered — records, a gold medal, a franchise trade, and two catchers rewriting what is possible at their position.
🎥 See our YouTube Catchers News Cast
History-making records, a franchise-defining trade, a gold medal, and a freshman who changed what ‘first’ means in softball — this week stacked.
⭐ Player Spotlight
The Piazza Tier: Hunter Goodman’s Week-After-Week Case for History
Back-to-back 30-homer seasons, six multi-homer games matching a 31-year record — Goodman kept making history all week, then answered the trade deadline noise with a 4-for-4 night.
🏆 Top 10 Stories of the Week
1. Four Games. Eight Years. Baltimore Just Built Their Franchise Around a 21-Year-Old.
The Orioles traded a three-time All-Star to hand the job to Samuel Basallo — after just four big-league games and the largest pre-arbitration catcher deal in MLB history.
▶ Watch the report: Samuel Basallo Is Now the Orioles’ Franchise Catcher
2. Hunter Goodman Matched a Mike Piazza Record Nobody Had Touched in 31 Years.
Six multi-homer games in one season. No NL catcher had reached that mark since Piazza in 1995 — the same week Goodman cleared his own career high with two months still to play.
▶ Watch the report: Hunter Goodman Matches a Mike Piazza Record Nobody Has Touched in 31 Years
3. Defense First. Then 26 Home Runs and the AL All-Star Game.
Dillon Dingler became Detroit’s first catcher at the All-Star Game since 2011 by locking in his framing and pop time first — the offense followed the craft, not the other way around.
▶ Watch the report: Dillon Dingler’s Breakout: Defense First, Then Everything Else
4. No Freshman Had Ever Done It. Kendall Wells Won the Johnny Bench Award Anyway.
She hit 39 home runs and held runners to three stolen bases all season — and took the top award in Division I softball as a first-year player.
5. She Ran Montana Fouts’s Near-Perfect Game and Walked Off With Defensive MVP.
Dejah Mulipola called 18 straight retired in the gold medal game as Team USA blanked Japan 2-0. The catcher who controls the game earns the hardware.
▶ Watch the report: Dejah Mulipola Wins Defensive MVP — 2026 International Cup
6. The Best ERA in Baseball Starts With One Hard Throw Back to the Mound.
William Contreras resets his pitchers with a firm return throw after every lazy pitch. The Brewers carried the best team ERA in baseball into the All-Star break.
▶ Watch the report: Contreras Runs the Brewers’ Best Pitching Staff
7. She Called 84 Pitches for a Catcher She’d Never Worked With Before — and Won Both MVPs.
Kayla Kowalik caught Rachel Garcia for the first time in AUSL All-Star Cup Series 1 and called a complete-game one-hitter, shaking her off just twice.
▶ Watch the report: Kayla Kowalik’s Series 1 Weekend Said It All
8. Five Home Runs in His Double-A Debut Week. He Leads Every Minor League Catcher.
Boston Smith went 8-for-21 with five homers in his first week with his third organization in five months — and leads all Minor League catchers with 27 home runs in 2026.
▶ Watch the report: Boston Smith: 5 HR in His Double-A Debut
9. The Greatest Offensive Catcher in Baseball History Is Fighting His Swing.
Cal Raleigh’s fastball whiff rate doubled to 50 percent in 2026. Pitchers found a mechanical flaw and attacked it — proof that mechanics are never solved, only maintained.
▶ Watch the report: Cal Raleigh’s Swing Is Breaking Down
10. He Came Back From a Torn Meniscus in Four Weeks and Answered With His Bat.
Francisco Alvarez returned with trade rumors swirling and posted a .319 average with four home runs in 13 games. The injury was the context. The response was the story.
🧤 Gear Corner
The Most-Bought Catcher’s Bag in the Sport: Our Full Review of the No Errors NO E2
The NO E2 warranties its wheels for three years — nobody else in the category does that. Here is what 100,000-plus catchers have bought, and where the geometry trade-off shows up.
💬 We’d love to hear from you — email us at comments@catchershome.com.
😄 One More Thing
Why do catchers always know what’s coming?
Because they called the pitch.
Keep working. We’ll see you behind the plate next week.
— The CatchersHome Team