Andrew said:
People have been saying that since opening day in the gamethreads. You'd think after the fourth time being hit in the hand this year he'd move it behind his back like other catchers, but instead he gets hit a fifth time and potentially ends his season. It's so frustrating because it's fluky, but not something unavoidable.
To be fair, there was a runner on first in a close game, and in such situations many MLB catchers will often "cheat" by bringing the throwing hand from behind the back to behind the knee to reduce their time to ball in glove/release time to second - Hannigan was unlucky that by having to reach to the inside for that pitch, he moved his knee away from his "protected" hand, exposing it. I wonder how many of this other "balls off hand" incidents were also with runners on base....