Do you want to catch balls like the pros?
If so, you’ll need some of the baseball accessories that professional baseball players use. For catchers, this means masks, leg guards, chest protectors, and, of course, gloves.
But with so many catcher mitts available, how do you know which ones are the best gloves? In this brief guide, we’ll explain what to look for and list our top three gloves.
How to Find the Best Gloves
The catcher has a unique and dangerous position that requires some of the best baseball accessories around. Foremost among these are the gloves.
No one wants to be catching fastballs with a flimsy mitt, so keep an eye out for the following:
- Size
- Leather quality
- Padding
- Adjustability
The size of most professional baseball gloves is between 32.5 and 35 inches. When looking for yours, make sure it’s not too tight or too loose.
The leather quality that pro baseball players prefer is either soft leather or durable leather. Soft leather is easy to break in, light, durable, and relatively inexpensive. Durable leather is heavy, well padded, and more pricey — but, it’s what all the pros use.
Padding is essential to protecting your hand while catching the ball. Make sure the mitt has plenty of padding. Adjustability means you can configure the laces to fit your hand perfectly.
Baseball Accessories: Top 3 Gloves for Catchers
Baseball accessories are like most things in life in that they come with pros and cons. The best gloves manage to balance the above four factors with the right price — something the folks at Baseball Bargain have managed to do with their catcher gloves.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at our top three pro-quality picks.
Wilson A2K Premium
The A2K Premium from Wilson uses Pro Stock Select Leather. This top-tier quality leather represents the cream of the crop — only 5% of Wilson’s leather products make it here. The end result is a highly durable mitt.
This durability mixes with a double-layered pocket that keeps your palm from getting injured and the ball from bouncing back.
It’s usually 33.5 inches and comes in a copper and black design. The Wilson A2K looks great and lasts long, however, it might take a while to fully break-in.
Rawlings Heart of the Hide
The Rawlings Heart of the Hide (HOH) boasts the same quality of leather as the Wilson A2K Premium — only 5% of steer hide is acceptable for this high-quality mitt.
Although the HOH has “Select” leather quality, the mitt design spreads it around enough that the break-in period is shorter than the A2K Premium.
Alongside that, there’s plenty of padding for the palm, finger, and thumb. It ranges from 32.5 to 34 inches and, when compared to other pro mitts, is relatively inexpensive.
Wilson A2000
The Wilson A2000 also has high-quality Pro Stock Select Leather. However, it mixes that with SuperSkin material that cuts the heavy weight of the leather in half while keeping the same level of durability!
On top of that, it uses breathable Dri-Lex material that creates less sweat, making it comfortable to wear for hours (and years) on end.
Manufacturing involves a pre-shaping stage that creates a mitt that’s easier to break-in. Typically, the Wilson A2000 is 33 inches in size.
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