i've been experimenting with different catcher options, and i found a brilliant strategy in the form of a single player.  i was only the 4th person ever to select 1911 Jimmy Walsh, who, while being a utility player, has a cannon arm for a catcher and an adequate bat at a reasonable price.  Thru 28 games started (and cumulative 241.3 innings behind the plate), my old boy Jimmy has only had 36 SBA's and he's thrown out 20 of them!  He has a monster hose for an arm!  I am a genius.

Wait, i also thought at first it was just bad luck, but i think i've got a large enough sample size now where i can be certain that my boy Jimmy is using his daughters lefthanded softball mitt when he catches.  While he has done an amazing job suppressing potential SBAs and thrown out a wonderful percentage of runners, he is averaging nearly 1 passed ball per game.  Ouch.  kinda negates alot of the upside of his throwing prowess when he's allowed 24 PB. 

so, my question is, i never saw PB metrics on the "performance history" data, nor have i seen PB as a sorting criteria when drafting players.  Am i doomed to reading all forum posts hoping to find scraps of info on particular players?  Is there a searching tool that i'm not aware of?  Should i have relied more heavily on my gut feeling of caveat emptor when i hit the "select player" button on Walsh?

i dont mind losing when i've put together a bad team, or when a similar team happens to get more engine friendly treatment than mine, but i do mind losing when i've made decisions based on information that wasnt available to me.  please advise, and thanks in advance for your time.


PGF

In the Draft Center, you can sort by Fielding Percentage. In a more broad sense, the player's Field rating is what impacts past balls.

Ozomatli, 

thanks for the quick response.  however, i did look at that, and my guy Jimmy, had a reasonably sound .960% and a RF of 3.34 as catcher, nothing that would make you think that he is actually catching barehanded.  so i dont think that stat is informative.

Ozomatli,

i may have been a bit hasty with my initial reply.  Due to my laissez faire attitude toward defense (i dont mind c or d fielders as long as they arent MIF), when i quickly reviewed lots of other catchers i've used, their % was north of .980.  i guess i may have underestimated the .020 effect as the catcher is the fielder that sees the most action.  that being said, if that is the only way WIS can describe a catchers PB rate, i say they could add another field of data.

sorry if i jumped the gun, your explanation looks like it fits the data.

Posted by pfan on 1/19/2016 5:17:00 PM (view original):
Ozomatli, 

thanks for the quick response.  however, i did look at that, and my guy Jimmy, had a reasonably sound .960% and a RF of 3.34 as catcher, nothing that would make you think that he is actually catching barehanded.  so i dont think that stat is informative.

He is D-/D- at catcher (.815 fielding percentage). My advise is to stay away from D-/D- catchers.

ncmusician,
 thanks for the response, i remember his grades being better, but you are right, he's D-/D-/A+, i guess i made a hasty decision and fell in love with only the A+

There are some other guys with great CS% who have better defense. 1964 Johnny Roseboro and 1975 Gary Carter come to mind right away

thanks ozomatli.  i appreciate the input. 

I'm trying Frank Shugart in one league.  The season is almost completed, he's thrown out 23 of 57 base stealers (40%) but he's made 18 errors and allowed 40 passed balls.  Not sure if I'm brave enough to try him again...

Pretty good bat, though.

thanks redsox, its nice to see that someone with vastly more success and experience than i have is still willing to take some chances...  

Catcher is a fun position to experiment with. You can take a guy like 1974 Gene Tenace who is a good fielder but only a .211 hitter but he hits a good number of HRs and has a good OBP. Cheap too.

Posted by cwillis802 on 1/22/2016 8:39:00 PM (view original):
Catcher is a fun position to experiment with. You can take a guy like 1974 Gene Tenace who is a good fielder but only a .211 hitter but he hits a good number of HRs and has a good OBP. Cheap too.

Had him in your OL type league. Batted .150 but had an OBP of .311. That was like 120 walks

That sounds about right DRock. He doesn't hit much, but will pop an occasional HR and draw the walk, but he is also very cheap which allows you to allocate more money on other players. He throws out base stealers and doesn't make many errors and has enough PAs so if you hit him 8th or 9th in the lineup you won't need a backup catcher either.

John Kerins is another interesting one to use. I also like Buck Rodgers and Alan Ashby for cheap ones.

I used to love '92 Tom Daly. He was fast for a catcher and reliable hit .250-.300 even in the toughest hitters parks.

I'll have to take a look at Daly. I think I've used him as a third baseman before. There is a season of Wally Schang where he is like a .240 hitter but he steals bases and tends to hit much better than his real life average.