@dodger_poke
Catching in the Minor Leagues is one of the toughest, most grueling, physically demanding, and mentally taxing challenges in all of sport. Catchers are tasked with handling pitching staffs that are made up of extraordinarily competitive people that are from all over the world, speak different languages, have different styles, different pitch profiles, and all with different temperaments and personalities. And, just about the time you get comfortable, the rosters change and pitchers come and go and, many times, the process starts all over again, at least to some degree. Putting all of these elements together and making it look seamless as a product on the field is a lot easier said than done, but it’s something that Hunter Feduccia, a catcher in the Dodgers organization, has learned to master.
Bayou Background
Feduccia grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and went to Barbe High School where he had the great fortune to play for Glen Checcini who just finished his 36th season as head coach for the Bucs, and has won 11 State Titles, 3 national championships, 25 district championships, has been voted the 5A Coach of the year 6 times and has been the National Coach of the year twice. He also reached the 1000 win milestone this year in April and was inducted into the Louisiana High School Hall of fame back in 2019. Needless to say, Feduccia learned how to win, he learned the daily process of what goes into winning and he learned how to play the game of baseball at the highest level.
He hit .353 his senior year at Barbe, his only year as a starter, then chose LSU Eunice with the ultimate goal being a landing spot at the in-state powerhouse LSU. At Eunice, the quickly blossoming catcher hit his stride and hit .390 for his 2 combined years as a Bengal and had an OPS of 1.120 in his Sophomore year in 2017. He was also named the 2016 and 2017 Defensive player of the year for LSU-Eunice and was named the Gold Glove Award winner in 2016 after posting a .997 fielding percentage as a catcher for the Bengals. As a result of his great work, Feduccia’s main goal of landing at LSU and being an impact player for the Bayou Bengals was becoming a reality, especially after having a great Summer in the Northwoods League in which he was voted the #4 prospect of the League. Feduccia spent his Junior year at LSU under the legendary coach Paul Mainieri and had big shoes to fill as he was replacing Mike Papierski who was a 9th-round draft pick of the Astros. The cool-mannered Lake Charles native was up to the task as he started 48 games at catcher for LSU and had a great experience as the Tiger’s backstop.
At Barbe, I played under Glen Checcini who was an awesome coach, and he was a really fun coach to play under for 4 years. Then I got recruited to LSU Eunice and had an awesome 2 years there and we had a good group of guys. In my Junior year of college I went off to LSU and that’s always been a dream, so that was fun to get recruited by them and get to play for a year, so it’s been a ride so far
Dodger Draft Pick
The Dodgers drafted the talented Louisianan in the 12th Round of 2018 and started him off in Rookie ball in Ogden, then moved him up to Low A Great Lakes later that year. He started 2019 with Great Lakes, then got moved up to Rancho, which was High A at the time, in July and spent the rest of the year with them. After the Minor League season got canceled in 2020, he then spent all of 2021 in Tulsa and just got moved up to AAA OKC on June 29.
Feature Cut
Feduccia has always been known as a smooth operator behind the plate with great footwork and a great release throwing down. Here’s what his coach at LSU Eunice, Jeff Willis, had to say about him the year after he left Eunice and was playing at LSU.
“I thought last year he was the best catcher in junior college baseball, not just from the catching standpoint, but he supplies a power bat in the middle of somebody’s lineup,” Willis said. “To be able to get the combination of those two things is very rare in that position.”
He also has a very short, compact swing that simply doesn’t have any holes and allows him to use the entire field, hit every kind of pitch, and against both right-handed and left-handed pitching, and still make good contact even if his timing isn’t perfect. Here’s what his head coach at LSU, Paul Mainieri had to say about his swing and overall offensive game.
“He doesn’t really have a weakness at the plate,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “He handles all kinds of pitchers, he handles all kinds of pitches, he covers the whole plate with his swing and uses the whole field.
“He’s not going to strike out much and he hits in the clutch.”
In this first video, I wanted to show how well Feduccia hits breaking balls and some of the reasons why, in my opinion. He lets the ball get deep, which allows him to track the ball very well, he’s willing to use the big part of the field and he just keeps everything very simple, short, and compact. His movements are so quiet that he’s able to keep his weight and his hands back, so even if his timing isn’t perfect, he can still make great contact.
Although Feduccia can use the entire field, he is still extremely quick on anything thrown to the inner half of the plate. Watch him turn on this ball and hit it 423 ft.. with an exit velocity of 107.
The Dodgers don’t place a huge emphasis on holding runners and prefer that their pitchers concentrate mainly on the hitters, so it makes it tough on the catchers to throw runners out. Feduccia, however, does a good job with his footwork when setting up to throw to 2nd, has a quick release, and accurate throwing arm as you can see in the video below.
Feduccia Future
Feduccia has developed a very effective way of handling maybe the most talented staff in all of the Minor Leagues and pitchers love throwing to him. I know this to be a fact because I have talked to several of them and they have gone out of their way to mention how much they like throwing to “Feddy” as they call him. He understands each pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses, he does a very good job framing pitches, throws the ball well, has a great demeanor, and carries a good bat with him. In fact, he just finished a month in which he hit .340. Feduccia is an excellent combination of being hard-nosed but also MLB talented, and he helps his team win games in a myriad of different ways that you need to see every day to truly appreciate just how valuable he is.
