THT Extra: 2010 Catcher Defense Leaders
April 29, 2010
Jeff's got a new toy!
In today's article at The Hardball Times, he introduced his metric for college catcher defense, and showed some results for top draft prospects such as Grandal, Gibbs, and Rupp.
We thought you might be interested in some more detailed data. In the table below, you'll find 2010 Division One leaders (through Tuesday's games), along with a few prospects, and then the less impressive end of the leaderboard.
SB, CS, and opponents SB% are shown just for information's sake. All of that is compared to average, regressed, and converted to runs, and encapsulated in one number, the one under "SB/CS." "WP/PB" is the run value (heavily regressed, in this case) of the catcher's success in stopping errant pitches. And "Plays" is the regressed run value of defensive plays made on batted balls such as bunts and popups.
The final column is the sum of the previous three. Showing all of the run values out to two decimal points is a ridiculous degree of false precision, but it makes them a little more fun to look at than a bunch of plus and minus 0.1s.
Player School SB CS Opp SB% Runs: SB/CS WP/PB Plays +/- Munoz Aaron Northwestern State 26 32 45% 4.07 0.12 -0.04 4.15 Taliaferro Jeff Texas San Antonio 28 32 47% 4.01 -0.01 -0.17 3.82 Berset Chris Michigan 21 30 41% 4.04 -0.14 -0.10 3.80 Freitas David Hawaii 34 35 49% 3.74 0.11 -0.12 3.72 Holaday Bryan Texas Christian 17 22 44% 2.64 0.47 0.14 3.26 Parker Matt San Diego State 27 25 52% 2.70 0.44 -0.13 3.01 Welch Dan Dayton 37 30 55% 2.85 -0.08 -0.02 2.75 Glime Gregg Baylor 16 21 43% 2.22 0.16 0.27 2.65 Watkins J.T. Army 14 21 40% 2.40 0.21 -0.05 2.55 Arendse Kevin Utah Valley State 15 19 44% 2.15 0.28 -0.09 2.34 Lipkin Ryan San Francisco 9 16 36% 1.97 -0.01 0.29 2.26 Forsythe Blake Tennessee 24 21 53% 1.96 0.31 -0.01 2.25 Larson Francis UC Irvine 14 18 44% 1.85 0.12 0.12 2.09 Cleary Jack Maryland 35 23 60% 1.73 0.10 0.23 2.06 Albaladejo Mike Florida Atlantic 22 18 55% 1.56 0.28 0.20 2.03 Richard Evan Prairie View A&M 20 23 47% 1.86 0.03 0.13 2.01 Trent Derek East Tennessee State 27 20 57% 1.78 0.55 -0.33 2.00 ... Stanley Cody UNC Wilmington 37 21 64% 1.12 0.13 0.31 1.55 Rupp Cameron Texas 17 12 59% 0.74 0.50 -0.02 1.22 Grandal Yasmani Miami (FL) 22 11 67% 0.22 0.24 0.11 0.58 Gibbs Micah Louisiana State 35 13 73% -0.37 0.46 -0.04 0.05 Kvasnicka Michael Minnesota 13 6 68% 0.01 0 0 0.01 ... Griffin Chris Iona 55 10 85% -1.74 -0.24 -0.06 -2.04 Pearson Chris Evansville 47 5 90% -1.93 -0.02 -0.11 -2.05 Kral Rob College Of Charleston 52 7 88% -1.86 -0.19 -0.01 -2.06 Newman Robby Longwood 54 10 84% -1.88 -0.24 -0.07 -2.18 Jayjack Ed UNC Greensboro 56 10 85% -2.25 -0.40 0.30 -2.35 Garza Andrew Texas Southern 69 7 91% -2.49 -0.07 0.11 -2.46 Mulroy Sam Princeton 73 9 89% -3.96 0.29 0.24 -3.43 Reed David Alcorn State 93 13 88% -4.07 -0.28 -0.01 -4.35
In case you're wondering, Munoz is a junior transfer student from Gateway CC, so we don't know if this year is just a fluke. Taliaferro, though, looks like the real deal. He was among the top 25 defensive catchers last year, as well.