Thread: Catcher's influence on pitchers?

Just out of curiosity, are there any stats that measure the impact catchers have on pitchers? Is it even possible?

Do you think there is any difference in how our staff pitches when they are pitching to Doumit or Butera instead of Mauer? If every time Butera caught a starter this year and it was a QS and a win, would people be willing to give him any credit for it, and accept him as a valuable catcher despite his wiffle bat?

I'm not aware of any stat but yeah it makes a big difference in my opinion. Calling a game is an art form. You have to know how to set up batters and exploit Weakness. Catcher should prep for each hitter, and those who take that seriously will be a huge influence on a pitchers numbers.

Originally Posted by spideyo

Just out of curiosity, are there any stats that measure the impact catchers have on pitchers? Is it even possible?

Do you think there is any difference in how our staff pitches when they are pitching to Doumit or Butera instead of Mauer? If every time Butera caught a starter this year and it was a QS and a win, would people be willing to give him any credit for it, and accept him as a valuable catcher despite his wiffle bat?

http://goo.gl/HeSC9
It appears that as Riverbrian intuits, the impact a catcher can have is on pitch selection, and thus influence things like groundball ratio. The article notes that this skill is independent of how good of a defensive catcher a player is. The article does point out that catcher ERA is not a reliable tool.

Originally Posted by Riverbrian

I'm not aware of any stat but yeah it makes a big difference in my opinion. Calling a game is an art form. You have to know how to set up batters and exploit Weakness. Catcher should prep for each hitter, and those who take that seriously will be a huge influence on a pitchers numbers.

The pitcher still has to execute, hit his spots as they say.