from Amazon
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
WAR for catchers
I’m sure none of us are happy with how the catchers come out in WAR necessarily, but this I don’t get:
Stripping those years out, Bench still sits at 88, a substantially weaker defensive catcher than Gary Carter. That strikes me as idiosyncratic at best, and nonsense at worst.
Why is that? Carter was a great fielding catcher, and so was Bench. In my WOWY of catchers for their careers, this is how all catchers with at least 7 full seasons since 1952 stack up:
Runs per season
14 Sundberg, Jim
13 Carter, Gary
13 Dempsey, Rick
13 Rodriguez, Ivan
12 Johnson, Charles
11 Crandall, Del
11 Parrish, Lance
11 Wilson, Dan
10 Ausmus, Brad
10 Matheny, Mike
9 Bench, Johnny
9 Boone, Bob
I’ve got Carter at +4 runs per season over Bench at controlling the running game. And at 10 seasons, that gives Carter a +40 run advantage (even more actually, because Carter caught for 12 equivalent seasons and Bench 10). Rally has the gap between the two at only 20 runs. I’ve got them at 66 run difference.
Now, no one ran on Bench (250 fewer SB than average in his career), while he caught his fair share (exactly league average CS). Carter however had an average number of SB allowed, but he caught 160 more runners. Carter also had alot fewer passed balls relative to average. You add it all up, and Carter has the advantage.
If runners had tried to steal more on Bench, sure, Bench might have profited. But, he might have been too good to steal on, and so, that’s why he loses some value: he was too good. The same applies to IRod. I know it sounds crazy, but imagine if Superman was behind the plate. There’d be no SB, no CS. That would really make Superman an average catcher. The value comes not in preventing runners from stealing, but in actually removing them from the basepaths. Carter removed them and Bench didn’t.
And that’s why Carter is the more valuable catcher on the running game, even if you can make the case that Bench was the most… uh… feared. (Sorry.)
Recent comments
Older comments
Page 1 of 344 pages 1 2 3 > Last »Complete Archive – By Category
Complete Archive – By Date