The Bronx View wonders if Burnett’s streak is more about Burnett than the person catching him. Posada and Burnett had a good run together during the middle of the season:
Over the course of six starts with Jorge Posada catching, Burnett threw 39.2 innings, allowing 8 earned runs for a 1.80 ERA. His walk rate per nine innings was a little above his season average (4.5 versus 4.2) and his strikeouts per nine innings were a little lower than his season average (7.3 versus 8.5). Those variances are not insignificant, but neither is the 3 home runs given up over that span, which is a pretty small number.
Catchers helping pitchers, just like batter versus pitchers, are small sample size data that might mean something. I remember Terry Francona talking about BVSP data, and saying how he would go look at video of the at bats to see why someone was 7 for 10 against a pitcher. If he saw two lucky hits, he’d know that there’s nothing there.
The same goes for catchers and pitchers. Can Joe Girardi tell me why he thinks Molina is better in this situation than Posada? I bet he can, but won’t to keep from hurting feelings. I’m reminded of this:
A couple of years ago, at a SABR meeting in Rhode Island, Ken Ryan was the guest speaker. I asked him something about catchers; I don’t remember if it was “Who was your favorite catcher?” or “Did catchers make a difference to you?” but it was something along those lines. He hadn’t thought about the question before, but started talking about Tony Pena and the other Sox catcher at that time (his name escapes me). He said that when Pena caught, he would come out to the mound and just tell Ken to throw hard. The other catcher would talk about how to pitch to this batter. By the time he talked it through, Ryan had decided the other guy was the better catcher for him.
The other catcher was Bob Melvin. It was interesting to watch Ryan answer the question, because his first response was that catchers didn’t make a difference, but while he was trying to give examples of why, he actually convinced himself of the opposite position. He had simply never thought about it before. Girardi, who was the only catcher to get the Rockies staff to pitch well pre-humidor, probably picks out subtle came calling attributes of Molina. Maybe he simply does better when the original game plan doesn’t work. Maybe he’s better at Jorge at picking up small shifts in batter’s stances. I’d love to hear from a someone who was legitimately known as a good handler of pitchers. I’d like to hear something other than he frames pitches well. There’s a lot more to it than that.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:45 pm | Defense, Management | Permalink | No Comments
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