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You knew it was coming sooner or later. The nerds were bound to come after the on-field heartbeat of a baseball club.

Well, it’s official. Catchers are under attack.

The pocket-protector crew continues working to automate the game, and now an organization basically decided to remote control its minor league catchers.

The references to nerds come half-jokingly. At this point, we know there’s a balance between analytics and old-school baseball IQ and feel. Nobody surviving in the current era of the game rejects data, nor do they last if they blatantly ignore the lessons gained from years of experience and an understanding of what effects those human beings who play the game.

Balance always is crucial.

OK, but there’s reason to feel sick if you’re one of the true believers still worshiping at the altar of or you're just a longtime disciple of the Cardinals Church of Catching that includes multitime Gold Glove winners Mike Matheny and Tom Pagnozzi as well as Hall of Famer Ted Simmons and two-time World Series champion Tim McCarver.

There are blasphemers among us. A plot is afoot.

The Miami Marlins crossed a line. According to , the Marlins have had decided to have every pitch thrown by their minor leaguers called from the dugout and not by their catchers. The idea being that they’re giving the catchers a better chance to develop as offensive players by taking pitch calling duties out of their hands.

Former big league catchers A.J. Pierzynski, who spent part of a season with the Cardinals, and Erik Kratz, who co-authored a book titled “The Tao of the Backup Catcher,� on their show “Foul Territory.� Predictably, two former veteran catchers skewered and lambasted this approach.

I know. I know. They’re catchers. They’re biased. Of course, they’re against it. They don’t want to see responsibility taken away from catchers.

My own personal bias comes from years covering minor league baseball and talking to catchers who’d been tasked with calling games, learning what it means to handle a pitching staff, knowing what their pitcher needs, having a feel for how a pitcher’s stuff plays on a given night, understanding the responsibility of reviewing scouting reports, reading swings and knowing game situations.

I think back more than 10 years to a postgame conversation with catcher Juan Centeno recounting that he called for a slider in a certain situation because he was sure the opposing team would try a squeeze play, I can’t believe that he didn’t benefit from being in that position and having the responsibility to make that call and the ability to influence the outcome of a game.

Similarly, you can’t convince me there wasn’t value in every pressure-packed decisions made by catcher Xorge Carrillo as he helped a then-minor league pitcher named Steven Matz through seven no-hit innings in a Double-A championship-clinching game.

Heck, one season I asked a group of Triple-A catchers in Salt Lake City to reflect on their journeys as game callers.

, a former top draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, recounted how he arrived in the majors and poured through a folder jammed with scouting reports and heat charts and tendencies. Then, veteran catcher Russell Martin shut the folder and told Sanchez that the most important thing was trusting his “eyes.�

Ask any minor league catcher. They'll emphasize the duty they had as game callers, the relationships they develop with their pitchers and the need to react and adjust as things unfolding on the field in front of them.

That’s the job.

It’s certainly the job in the majors. Isn't the idea of the minors still to get guys ready for the majors?

Maybe that’s why we should be most concerned. Is this just a sign of the direction the game is moving?

Oh, it’s just one organization taking pitch-calling away from its catchers.

Sure, cling to that hope if you want, but we all know if there’s one team out there willing to do it, there’s probably more.

Hey Cardinals fans, don’t forget that the head of baseball operations for the Marlins, Peter Bendix, climbed the ranks in the same Tampa Bay Rays front office that produced Chaim Bloom. And yes, they overlapped.

Also don’t overlook the fact that MLB continues to tinker with the automated ball-strike system (ABS) being used in the minors and test-driven in big league spring training.

In a “challenge system� in which only select calls can be reviewed, the impact is mitigated. However, the idea that the eye in the sky can determine all balls and strikes is a looming threat to pitch framing, another vital piece of the catcher’s job.

Chip away at a catcher’s ability to influence games through framing, then start putting the game planning and pitch-calling duties in the hands of someone in the dugout.

Doesn’t sound much like balance to me.

Well, Adam Wainwright spent his 18 years in the majors as a pitcher of some note in and around the St. Louis area. (the platform formerly known as Twitter) and decried this approach, too.

Wainwright, a three-time All-Star and 200-game winner who is now a baseball analyst for Fox ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ, warned in his post that the Marlins are not allowing the pitchers to think for themselves and could stunt the growth of both pitchers and catchers.

“Catchers and pitchers should have to study and prepare to be great,� Wainwright wrote. “Pitchers should be on the bench guessing what’s coming and why. Growing together.�

Huh, perhaps we're all looking at this the wrong way.

Maybe we should be asking what Yadi and Waino could have done if they were asked to think a lot less.