Soto the student ready to be Cubs' catcher

MESA, Ariz. -- Ted Lilly walked off the mound after a throwing session at Fitch Park to get some feedback from Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Geovany Soto joined them and started asking Lilly questions.

Soto had been in the hitting group facing Lilly, but now was in catcher mode. The rookie had spotted something and wanted to know if that was how the veteran liked to set up hitters.

It's all part of the education of Geovany Soto.

"You could see it at the end of last year," Rothschild said of Soto, projected as the Cubs' regular catcher this season. "When he came up last year, he watched a lot of video and spent a lot of time going over hitters and really paying attention to details of what he needed to do. It takes awhile for young catchers to come to that realization, no matter who they are, and he's come to that fairly quickly."

When Soto takes the field March 31 for the Cubs' regular-season opener, he will be the team's first rookie catcher to start Opening Day since Joe Girardi did in 1989. Technically, Soto is a rookie, but he's had brief September callups the last three seasons and has been in the big league camp before, so it seems as if he's been around a long time.

"I'm still a rookie," he said, smiling.

He grew up last season at Triple-A Iowa. Soto reported to camp slimmer and in better shape and hit .353 with 26 homers, 31 doubles and 109 RBIs. He was named Pacific Coast League MVP, and in 18 September games with the big league team, he batted .389. Cubs manager Lou Piniella was convinced Soto was the real deal, and the youngster started two of the three games in the National League Division Series.

"I didn't know him that well," Cubs pitcher Scott Eyre said of Soto, "and two years ago, he caught me every spring. Last year, when he got called up, he was catching me in a game and he said, 'We're going to do this and that.' He knew me.

"He wants to learn. To me, that's a good sign he wants to do this. I've played with guys who are just happy to be here. He's not, and I think that's why he had success last year."

Soto has two advantages. Because he has been in the Cubs organization, he has grown up with many of the pitchers, like Rich Hill and Michael Wuertz. And because the Cubs have a lot of veteran pitchers, he can lean on them.

"It does give you a little breather on calling games," Soto said about having veterans in the mix. "You learn quicker. At least you have somebody who you can pick their brain. We have four, five, six pitchers [with experience], and then we have [Henry] Blanco -- I can pick their brains and keep learning every day."

Blanco, 36, started playing professional baseball in 1990. Soto was 7 years old then.

"I'll try to keep him on track," Blanco said of Soto. "He's a good listener."

Pitcher Sean Gallagher leaned on the young catcher often last season at Iowa.

"He's so in tune to everything in the game," Gallagher said. "You look at guys, and something might happen on the field -- they might have a passed ball, or even a bad at-bat -- and it will carry over into the catching game or even later in the game. With Soto, it's that moment. He's on that pitch, that time, every time.

"He's personal with every pitcher. If there's ever a time when something is going wrong, he'll come out and go, 'Hey, man, you're doing this.' He'll say, 'Hey, I've been watching you all year, you expect me not to notice?'"

What makes a good catcher?

"It's somebody who's on the same page, somebody who cares about being on the same page," Hill said. "When I say 'being on the same page,' it's when a hitter comes up, [the catcher] knows exactly how you want to go about your business pitching to him and how you want to attack the hitter.

"I've learned a lot from [Soto] -- I don't know if he's learned from me," Hill said, laughing. "I've probably just given him headaches."

Soto, 25, has a lot to learn. He's discovering the pitchers' strengths, weaknesses, what they're capable of. He has to know his opponents, read scouting reports, know the hitters' tendencies.

The Cubs began last season with Michael Barrett as the regular catcher and Blanco as backup, but Barrett was eventually traded, and Blanco was limited to 22 games because of a cervical herniated disk. Jason Kendall was acquired in mid-July, and hit .270. But he threw out two of 51 basestealers. Soto not only can hit -- his .652 slugging percentage at Iowa was tops in the league -- he threw out four of 10 basestealers while with the Cubs.

"What helps me is working with Soto in the past," Wuertz said. "You gain that bond. If you're in a situation and you need to throw a pitch -- it may be a fastball situation but he has confidence in you and calls a slider."

Confidence. Trust. These also are things Soto has to work on this spring.

"The other thing that defines a good catcher is how he changes from the starting pitcher," Eyre said. "I don't throw the same as [Carlos Zambrano]. I don't throw the same as Sean Marshall or Rich Hill. I don't throw a big sweeping curveball.

"Say we got [Adam] Dunn out three times, and now it's my time to get him out. How do we approach him? Did he have better swings at Rich's slider? I have a different slider than Rich. Do we take the chance with the slider? You have to trust your catcher. If he calls for something out of the blue, fastball in, it's like, 'OK, I'll try it.'"

Soto acquired new responsibilities on Oct. 24 when his first child, daughter Gia Leizan, was born. He has additional responsibilities this season as a baseball player.

"You can't think 'I've got this 100 percent' because anything can happen in baseball," Soto said. "Whenever you go into a new league, I know it will be different. [The 2007 season] was my third year in Triple-A, and I knew most of the hitters. In the big leagues, they have a lot of video and it helps a lot. It'll come, and you'll remember guys from past experiences. You just have to go ahead and play and get that experience. All the video in the world won't help."

He did what he could this offseason to stay in shape and reported slimmer than a year ago when he'd dropped 20-something pounds. He trained hard, especially his legs. He's got all the physical attributes. He's also has compassion for his job and his teammates.

"I like to take credit when we have a good game," the rookie said, "but when we have a bad one, I feel like I didn't do a good job. You're going to have bad days. Not every game will be a complete-game shutout, not every game will go real smooth. It's when the pitcher is having a tough time, trying to get that guy through five innings, that's your job."

"He takes giving up runs or hits to heart," Wuertz said. "It's little things like that that make a good catcher."