One of the toughest things to quantify in all of sports is a catcher’s value on defense. Their are so many responsibilities and subtle nuances that go into being a quality Major League backstop. The best of the best are able to deftly juggle the responsibilities of managing a pitching staff, framing borderline pitches, blocking pitches, holding base runners, throwing said runners out when they attempt to steal, and much, much more. Recently I’ve been doing some research into catching defense and I have been somewhat unsatisfied by both the traditional statistics (caught stealing %, passed balls, and so on) and by the advanced metrics (URZ and defensive runs saved). A few excellent studies in particular have been done to analyze a catcher’s ability to frame pitches, but otherwise most analysis is left to judgment. I’ve been compiling some of my own numbers relating to catchers controlling the base running game in order to gain a better understanding of who the best backstops in baseball really are, and I’d like to share some of my findings today.

The spreadsheet below contains catchers or catcher groupings from all 30 Major League teams. Twenty-five Major League teams have primarily used one catcher for at least 50% of their innings behind the plate while the five remaining clubs have worked out of a platoon scenario for one reason or another. For that reason I’ve examined those five clubs as a unit to examine whether or not those platoons are actually working on the defensive side of things.

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Our divisional theme heads west … and just like your morning paper, the scores from the coast come a day late.

@Dodgers 3, Angels 0 (box): Hyun-jin Ryu went past the 8th for the first time in America, and it felt so good, he just kept going, polishing off a 2-hit shutout with 7 Ks and no walks. It’s the Dodgers’ first individual shutout in their 94 games against the Angels, and was completed in 2 hours, 11 minutes.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the twentieth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round adds those players born in 1952 who were not added last round.  Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

The great and (defensively) powerful Ozzie Smith was a popular choice as the 19th inductee into the Circle of Greats.  More on Ozzie and the voting after the jump.
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Yesterday, Mariners Manager Eric Wedge blamed sabermetrics, “for lack of a better term”, for Dustin Ackley’s failure to perform at the major league level.  From the linked mlb.com piece (skip to the bottom to read it yourself):

“It’s the new generation. It’s all this sabermetrics stuff, for lack of a better term, you know what I mean?” Wedge said. “People who haven’t played since they were 9 years old think they have it figured out. It gets in these kids’ heads.” Continue reading →

After the first month of the 2013 season Royals’ GM Dayton Moore had to be feeling pretty darn good about himself. By the end of April an offseason full of risky moves in the pitching department and prospect department had begun to coalesce into one of the best rotations in baseball, leading Kansas City to a 14-10 record despite a struggling offense.

Unfortunately for those decked out in royal blue, things haven’t gone as smoothly in May. Tuesday’s 4-1 loss at the hands of the rival Cardinals was particularly bitter. Not only did it drop Kansas City’s record in May to a pathetic 7-18 on the month, the loss was also the Royals 10th straight at Kauffman Stadium, matching the franchise record set just one season ago. After spending much of the first month in 1st place in the AL Central, the Royals are now tied for last with the Twins, staring 7.5 games ahead at the Detroit Tigers.

To make matters worse, the offense, which was supposed to be the Royals’ calling card, has been a completely flop. The franchise ranks dead last in the AL in homers, 2nd to last in walks and slugging percentage, and 3rd to last in runs scored. The homers have been particularly hard to come by of late, with Kansas City hitting just 2 in their last 13 games. That’s not exactly the formula for playoff contention and it appears to stem from Kansas City’s quarter century long war on walks.

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Game Notes is scaling back coverage in favor of depth, so we’ll focus on one division per day (both leagues), with occasional noteworthy games tacked on. We begin with the Central Divisions; but feel free to comment on other games.

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Pirates 5, @Brewers 4: The Bucs have allowed 4 earned runs or less in 19 straight games, the longest such streak this year and their longest since 1970. Their May pitching stats look like some Cy Young seasons: 2.44 ERA in 210 IP, 199 Ks, 58 walks, 14 HRs and a 16-7 record. A 2-inning stint by Vin Mazzaro ran his scoreless string to 12.2 IP (plus stranding all 5 inherited). Jason Grilli converted his 20th straight save; he’s 5 saves ahead of any other Pirate after 50 games.

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In Part 1, we saw that whatever correlation had existed between no-hitters and strikeout rates was broken in the last 20 to 30 years. But why?

I can’t study that question in depth, but we can dip a toe in the water by starting with a simpler question: What basic measure would we expect to show the strongest correlation to no-hit rates?

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“The less often the ball is in play, the more likely a no-hitter becomes.”

Tom Verducci wrote that in a June 2012 Sports Illustrated column titled, “Flurry of no-hitters and perfect games reflect changes in baseball.” You’ve probably heard the same claim elsewhere.

It sounds good in theory, and it may hold for individual games. But on a league-wide basis, it’s not supported by results in the current era, once you look beyond a very small sample. The high-strikeout era as a whole has actually seen a decline in no-hitters, compared to prior rates.

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