With all the talk about catchers. . .

[Mex17]

I have broken down in my mind three general areas of a catchers defensive game.

They are, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (this will be important later on):

-The ability to throw out baserunners.
-The ability to handle a pitching staff/call a good game.
-The ability to handle himself around the plate area (prevent wild pitches and passed balls, block the plate on a play at home, that sort of thing).

Your mission is to now rank the priority of these three areas from most to least important. Have fun and I look forward to reading the results and opinions.

[DocTee]

1. Handle
2. Throw
3. Block

If he calls a good game, the likelihood of a baserunners whom he need to throw out, or of plays at the plate will be curtailed. Theoretically.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I would rank the importance in the following order:

1. The ability to handle a pitching staff/call a good game. It is essential that a catcher understands the respective strengths and weaknesses of his individual pitchers and how to get the best performances out of each. A catcher needs the respect and confidence of his pitchers in order to get their best performances. By far, this is the most crucial aspect of a catcher's defense in my view.

2. The ability to handle himself around the plate area (prevent wild pitches and passed balls, block the plate on a play at home, that sort of thing). If a pitcher is tentative throwing a split finger, nasty slider, or wicked curve out of the strike zone it may limit his ability to get batters out in crucial situations. If a pitcher has confidence that his catcher will stop virtually anything that he throws, it allows him to throw his nastiest stuff even with runners on base or in scoring position.

3. The ability to throw out baserunners. I'm probably a bigger proponent of the running game than most here, but still I realize that the ability to throw out runners is more of a luxury than it is a necessity in today's game. Less teams (and fewer players) utilize the running game than they seemed to 20 years ago.

[nymr83]

i think doc nailed it

[Fman99]

Nymr83 wrote: i think doc nailed it

Uh, which doc?

[Guest Edgy DC]

1) Leadership.

2) Clubhouse characterness.

3) Shortness.

4) Internalized rage spilling out comically.

5) Stockiness.

6) Puncher's power.

7) Future managerness.

8) Baserunning comedy.

9) Ump baiting.

10) Self-aggrandizing masochism.

11) Sex scandals.

12) Lefty-battingness.

13) Willingness to play other postions.

14) Republican-ness.

15) Goofy stories told by pitchers of his visits to the mound.

16) Self-mythologizing, particularly about his more athletic youth.

17) Profanity.

18) Interesting uniform number, with story attached.

19) Equipment variations.

20) Overall otherness.

Edited November 22, 2007 by Guest

[smg58]

Passed balls, wild pitches, and stolen bases are largely equivalent, in the sense that the runners advance a base. SB's are more common, though. Blocking the plate usually makes the difference between a run and an out, so it's pretty important even though it doesn't happen that often. (Anybody know the statistic for how often plays at the plate happen, and how the different catchers vary in terms of not getting the out even when the throw arrives in time?)

Any difference in a catcher makes in the performance of the pitcher matters a lot, but how do you quantify that? It's possible that pitchers could like working with a guy who doesn't actually help them.

And it never hurts to hit like Piazza or Carter in their primes either, especially when the average catcher hits like Yorvit Torrealba.

I think I'd need a good statistical analysis before I could reliably prioritize this.

[Elster88]

TORVO is always looking for more members.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think if your ERA is a run lower with a catcher you don't like working with, you learn to like him. That run translates to a lot of dollars.

[nymr83]

Fman99 wrote: ="Nymr83"]i think doc nailed it Uh, which doc?

that was intentional

[Theoldmole]

I'm liking Doc Rock.

[Guest attgig]

Depends on your pitching staff. If you got a knuckleballer like Wakefield who needs a personal catcher becase nobody else can handle his pitches... well, the 'around the plate' category is a little more important.
if you have a staff full of young guys, handling the staff is important.
if you have a veteran staff, relying on fastballs/changeups/sliders but are slow to home plate, throwing is going to be more important.


that said.. with the Mets staff
I would rank it:
staff
throw
around the plate