CatchersHome Weekly — June 22–28, 2026
One league crowned its most decorated catcher ever. Another welcomed rookies who are already rewriting what a catcher can be. Seven stories, one lesson on repeat: the work you put in behind the plate follows you everywhere.
⚾ Baseball
No catcher in Division I history had ever done it — until Georgia’s Daniel Jackson.
32 home runs and 26 stolen bases in one season. He didn’t choose between power and speed — he refused to. Five major awards later, he’s the blueprint.
Only Six runners tried to Steal on Vahn Lackey all Year!
Word got around. Now he’s the 2026 Johnny Bench Award winner and a projected top-two MLB pick. Nobody handed him this in high school. He built it.
The catcher who set the position’s all-time home run record came back from injury slowly — on purpose.
Cal Raleigh sat 33 days with an oblique strain and refused to rush it. The oblique powers both the swing and the throw, and the strongest comebacks give it time to trust itself again.
Two million votes and the best bat of any catcher in the game — built on one quiet change.
Shea Langeliers stopped trying to swing faster and started getting ready sooner. His barrel rate climbed from the 69th to the 93rd percentile. Small habit, huge result.
🥎 Fastpitch
She studied that pitcher for years. In her first pro at-bat, she homered off her.
Reese Atwood had every one of NiJaree Canady’s sequences memorized — then took her deep twice in one game. The scouting you do behind the plate goes with you everywhere — even into the batter’s box.
Drafted fifth overall — for her glove, not her bat.
Jocelyn Erickson hit .360 in college, but the Chicago Bandits took her to run their pitching staff. Your defense isn’t a consolation prize. It’s a credential.
The level changes. The habits hold.
Weeks into her pro career, Reese Atwood is hitting over .450 and leading the AUSL All-Star vote — on the same framing reps and work ethic she built at Texas.
Keep working. We’ll see you behind the plate next week.
— The CatchersHome Team
