Every position in baseball is important, but some are more
important than others. Pitcher is the
most vital, and catcher is probably the second most. Catchers have it rough. They sit in the most uncomfortable position
imaginable (seriously, sit in that position for five minutes. Hurts right?
Now do that with tons of pads on, while having a baseball thrown at you
at 95 MPH, for four hours), have go through the regular hitting regime as every
other position player, and have the most rigorous fielding expectations in the
sport. They have to catch every pitch,
which means ensuring no passed balls while doing their best to contain as many
wild pitches as possible, field bunts, popouts, and weak grounders, and throw
out baserunners attempting to steal a base.
The degree of difficulty for catching is insane; there’s a reason why
only five catchers have logged two-thousand games played, by far the fewest of any
position.
Other than
Yadier Molina and Ivan Rodiguez, no catcher ever has universal support from
their team’s fans. Every passed ball is
one too many, every wild pitch is one too many, and certainly every stolen base
is one too many. That being said, is Cleveland
bearing witness to one of the worst all-around fielding catchers in the league?
Carlos
Santana was obtained by the Indians in a 2008 July trade from the Los Angeles
Dodgers in exchange for Casey Blake. At
the age of 22, Santana was seen as the heir-apparent to Victor Martinez and
Baseball America certainly agreed, ranking him the twenty-sixth best prospect
in baseball in 2009 and the tenth best in 2010.
He has had three solid years in the big leagues thus far and is on pace
for the best year of his career, hitting .283/.385/.496 with 18 doubles, 10
home runs, and 31 RBIs. He would be a
borderline All-Star year if not for his ugly performance behind the plate.
Santana has
caught in three-hundred sixty-seven innings, the twelfth most in the American
League so far this year. He is, after
all, the every-day catcher for the Indians.
Santana has had thirty-one wild pitches thrown to him, the most in the
league. Now wild pitches are mainly the
pitcher’s fault, but where there’s smoke there is usually fire. Last year Santana had forty-four wild pitches
thrown at him, second most in the league.
This suggests that Santana is not exceptionally skilled at covering the
plate and blocking bounced pitches; a suggestion which the eye-test completely
backs up.
While both
the pitcher and the catcher share some blame for wild pitches, a passed ball
falls completely on the catcher. A
passed ball is a pitch that the catcher should have caught without
extraordinary effort. Santana has
allowed four passed balls, currently fourth in the league. The bright side is that Santana has proven
better than Henry Blanco, who has allowed a catastrophic eight passed balls in
only one-hundred innings. Unfortunately,
passed balls is another category heavy on smoke. Santana led the league in passed balls last
season with ten, another sign of his less than stellar catching ability.
Wild
pitches and passed balls are subtle statistics which can go unnoticed by the
average fan, but stolen bases are as visible as a double. Stealing a base is more complicated than
often assumed. When there is a
baserunner on first, the pitcher, first basemen, second basemen, shortstop,
catcher, and of course the runner, all influence whether or not the runner
actually takes off. But once he does, it
becomes catcher versus runner. The key
stat which measures this battle is caught stealing percent (CS%), the
percentage of attempted steals where the catcher threw the runner out.
Santana’s
arm behind the plate had always been just slightly above average throughout his
minor league career. His CS% hovered
either above or slightly below the average of whichever specific minor league
(Eastern League, International League, etc.) he was in. Once he reached the majors this trend
continued. His first year, 2010, he
caught in forty games as the second catcher for the Indians. That year he threw out 35% of attempted base
stealers, well above the league average of 26%.
In 2011 he became the Indians’ primary catcher but saw his CS% regress
significantly to 24% while the league average actually rose to 28%. Santana increased his CS% to 26% in his
second full year as a starter in 2012; his CS% was the same as the league
average that year. This year, however,
he has dropped off the face of a cliff. Santana
has thrown out a measly 13% of attempted base stealers this year, eleven points
below the league average and good for fourth worst in the American League. Making matters worse for Santana is the fact
that his back up, Yan Gomes, has the best CS% in the AL at 53%.
Santana is
getting to the point where he is simultaneously the best offensive threat the
Indians possess and one of their largest defensive liabilities. Cleveland is in a difficult position in the
heat of a division race with the Tigers and the Royals. Santana and Gomes can only play three
positions: catcher, first base, and designated hitter. Nick Swisher is basically the everyday first
basemen, Mark Reynolds plays third and designated hitter, and they just
promoted Lonnie Chisenhall from AAA Columbus to relieve Reynolds of the stress
of playing third every day. To have
Santana, Swisher, and Reynolds (three of the five best hitters on the team) all
in the line-up, the Indians are almost forced to play Santana behind the plate
despite his subpar defense.
No comments:
Post a Comment