Why do mlb catchers have extended round pads on one shoulder but not the other?

Question

Why do mlb catchers have extended round pads on one shoulder but not the other?

Answer 1

Um, does anyone here even know anything about baseball? The pad goes on the throwing shoulder, for what should be an obvious reason: to protect the throwing shoulder. You can't throw well with a banged up and bruised throwing shoulder.

Quite a few protectors these days even come with two flaps.

Answer 2

It's basically just to have as much protection as they can get, without hindering their performance in any way. A foul is no more likely to go to one should than the other, as that all depends on location/movement of a pitch and the batter's swing. As the first person said, they can't have any extensions on their throwing shoulders, as it would get in the way of their throwing motion.   I've seen some catchers not have extensions on either side, so they can have full range of motion with the glove arm as well.

Answer 3

Most of the extended pads are on the left shoulder of the catcher.  There are no lefty catchers in all of baseball.  The reason you see the extended pad on just one side is because a pad on the right side would affect the catchers throws.

Answer 4

The shoulder that has the extended coverage is the most likely to get hit with a foul ball.