According to FanGraphs leaderboards, the Nationals rank 28th in baseball in catching WAR (-0.3). That’s not great. And the situation is perhaps more dire since those measurements do not include framing value.
The Nationals rank 23rd in baseball with -7.8 framing runs saved above average, according to the framing metrics at Baseball Prospectus.
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But it’s not just Wieters’ glove that is declining, his bat is hurting the Nationals, too.
Wieters has a career-worst 71 wRC+ and .246/.293/.380 a slash line. In the year of the home run, he has hit just seven and has an 8.3% HR/FB ratio.
Source: Travis Sawchik, FanGraphs
BTW…Lucroy is at a .642 OPS. The “imaginary available and great catcher” who will replace d’Anaud is almost non-existant. Speaking of “imagining”, I still believe in Kevin Plawecki…No…I don’t have a good reason.
Most MLB C’s cannot play both offense and defense—and many fall short on both sides. Thankfully, the awesome and important capture of the Pitch Framing Stat provides another opportunity to identify great Catchers.
The -7.8 framing runs saved above average is the biggest bs stat in the world.
It’s malarky.
As for the greater point, replacing d’Arnaud, I still want to see how he holds up over the season and how he ends up.
I think the Mets have been pretty okay at the catcher position this season. Not an easy position to upgrade.
Still like Travis, though I’m a bit disappointed in his bat.
Framing was Click Bait for Brian……I threw in Plawecki for You
That’s funny too. I actually don’t mind your feelings about Plawecki. You recognize that there’s not much in the way of scientific evidence for your faith, but you just have a sense he’s going to come around. I think we all have those guys. Players who we think have an extra gear that’s going to kick in. A Robles, a Duda, a Murphy, whomever.
The pitch-framing strikes me as part of the movement to quantify the qualitative, to translate art into math, and to objectify the subjective. So let’s throw it all into our God, the computer, which will spit out a number. Personally, I just don’t need it and it does not at all enrich my experience of the game.
I wonder if we can come up for a stat for those times when an annoyed Jerry Grote would fire the ball back to the pitcher, sending a message loud and clear.
The variables on crediting a catcher for framing a pitch are many, the data is polluted, I don’t trust it. But I can watch a guy work behind the plate and come away with a pretty fair idea if he’s a professional or sub-average receiver. So much depends on the predictability of the ball thrown by the pitcher. Personally, I like a “quiet” receiver. And maybe that’s it, Eraff. When people start quoting pitch framing data, we tend to lose all the nuance that comes from a thoughtful, well-observed conversation about catching. Some argue that the numbers are helpful and illuminating. And sometimes they are, absolutely. But sometimes the numbers are reductionistic. The make the world a smaller, less beautiful place.