I know its been brought up before. With one of my teams the last 4 seasons I went with the idea that I would use my DH with a 29 PC to be my backup Catcher. I figured I was going to make the playoffs with or without a true backup Catcher, so lets get a extra big bat into the lineup. Come playoff time I would roll the dice that my starting Catcher did not get injured and if he did I had one on my 40 man roster I could activate next series.

One other thing I did is I have 2 Cy Young quality pitchers, so I would not ruin their stats I would not start the 29 PC Catcher when they were pitching. So the poor pitch calling catcher primarily pitched to the 2 worst pitchers in the rotation.

Here is the starting Catcher, 86-88 PC catcher. My ERA when he is catching 3.63 ERA.

Don Wilson

The backup Catcher. 29 PC catcher. My ERA when he is catching 3.84 ERA. Now consider I also avoid using him when the 2 Cy Young Quality pitchers pitch and it looks even better.

Lawrence McKnight

You could argue that the backup has only caught 75 games, but that is still half a season and quite a few games considering the difference between a 88 and 29 PC and that the 29 avoids the top 2 pitchers.

Time goes on I am questioning more and more the value of PC, and every day this 29 PC Catcher leads my bottom 2 pitchers to near shutouts emboldens me even more.

May I suggest you look at passed balls and steals by other teams. Wilson has 1 fewer pb in 500 more innings caught.

You think those things are affected by PC?

I've been fighting the anti PC battle for a long time now glad to have another convert.

Quote: Originally Posted By sche0707 on 10/12/2009I've been fighting the anti PC battle for a long time now glad to have another convert

If you feel that you have a unique view of PC that is "better" than most everybody else's, why would you want to convert others to your way of thinking? Doesn't your "better" way give you a competative advantage?

Home/Away splits?

You play in LA.

Quote: Originally posted by MikeT23 on 10/12/2009Home/Away splits?You play in LA.

They both play for L.A. I don't favor which Catcher plays at home or away. While its possible by pure random that one played a greater percentage at home than the other, odds say that it would be close to 50/50.

Quote: Originally posted by moosep on 10/12/2009May I suggest you look at passed balls and steals by other teams. Wilson has 1 fewer pb in 500 more innings caught.

Steals would be added into the ERA portion of importance, when it really comes down to it 5 runs is 5 runs regardless how the team got to 5 runs. Passed Balls could lead to Unearned runs, which would not be accounted into ERA. Mcknight only had 8 PB in his career, so how many of those resulted in unearned runs. The other question is does PC have anything to do with Passed Balls? Seems like that would be glove and defensive rating. I am not trying to compare which of the two is the better all around Catcher, I am trying to show how the PC of the two effects the outcome for a Pitcher, and I don't think PC plays a factor in steals or passed balls.

If you didn't use the back-up with 40% of your staff, it might be rather easy to figure out. At least ballparking it.

Quite some time ago, I did some research on teams that used varied catchers. Took about 20 seasons of data where both catchers caught at least 1/3 of the innings. There was a difference. Nothing to the point of where a 73 would be sustantially better than a 58 but enough to notice. Played the same way on almost all 20 seasons.

This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

Pascual Rodriguez	C	80	31	387.0	2	6	35	.171	0	4.186
Kenneth Fischbach	C	25	22	172.0	0	7	26	.269	0	4.552
Alex Baxter	C	122	109	893.2	3	27	109	.248	2	4.733

A bit exaggerated but right in line. 64/56/49

Nate Ward	C	65	44	394.0	4	12	46	.261	0	4.409
Samuel Davis	C	81	62	546.0	7	17	66	.258	0	4.632

Doesn't match. 66/69

It's too bad you can't see OAV for the catcher since that's what it supposedly affects. While I've hardly seen evidence that PC is a big deal, ERA is pretty tough to make any comparisons on it.

It's hard to draw any real conclusions based on the limited data you can get. Even OAV wouldn't show you anything based on a few seasons. 30 hits a year is the difference between .250 and .300. That's nothing over the course of 900 innings. 1 hit every 3.3 games? But, if a pattern keeps repeating itself over a number of worlds thru a numbers of seasons, it's there and it's real.

And the fact that ERA is generally lower with a lower PC catcher indicates that there is something to it.

The other team that I have been doing this with is not as extreme, and the better PC catcher gives up about 1/2 a run less per game, but I feel that 1/2 run per game is well worth it when the backup catcher sucks in comparison to a extra hitter.

Vic Rivera

Bill Fossum

I am not saying PC does not make a difference, I just wonder if the difference is worth sacrificing hitting. In this case the backup Catcher had a 150+ RBI's, would I be better of playing him at Catcher and giving up the 1/2 run a game and adding a #4 hitter type to the lineup in LF ?