Atlanta Braves Catching Depth Is Very Normal

The Atlanta Braves have had a seeming revolving door behind the plate in the last few seasons. Fans are concerned about the lack of a “stud” catching prospect coming up. Should they be?

I had the opportunity this week to participate in a conference call with Keith Law of ESPN regarding his top 100 list and organizational rankings. He answered a number of questions, and one of the ones I presented brought about an interesting look at the Atlanta Braves‘ catching depth.

First, the question and answer that prompted this:

"Q. Catcher within the Braves system that is not a spot where they obviously have an elite prospect (and looking around the league, there’s) not an elite prospect at that position. (Then) you look around the majors, there are not a lot of elite catchers on offensive and defensive end. Is that a part of where the game is going or is that just a blip in the radar right now, do you think? Curious on your thoughts at that particular position. KEITH LAW: I think you’re seeing an industry adjustment on what we expect of catchers. Now in the last two years, I am hearing more discussion, even from scouts, who are not necessarily using the data, certainly not drawing (from) the data, discussing receiving and framing in ways that were simply not a discussion five years ago. So what’s happening is the Ryan Doumit(s) of the world, the worst framers ever, they are just not going to catch. They might end up catching in the minors. But they are not going to be considered long term catchers, they are not going to end up high on my rankings because teams will say, he’s a terrible framer. He’s not going to stay back there. The bar has gone up now that we can actually measure this stuff, and what that also means is you’re going to get some really good framers that just don’t hit as much, and teams are going to be happy with that, because they are still getting value. They are just simply not getting the offensive production. And if you look at the three or four catchers on my list this year on the top 100, there’s not much elite offense coming from that position. The guys back there who tend to have the power have often been the bigger guys who turns out are not that great at framing. Wieters being a great example. He’s just a terrible framing catcher and has been one for most of his career and that type of catcher, we just may not see much of him going forward at all."

So, Keith is saying the game has fundamentally changed how it looks at catching. With the Braves’ focus on pitching and defense in their minor league development, it would fit that the focus is also on this change in how teams view catching. Let’s take a look at what the catchers have around.

In the Majors

Currently, the Atlanta Braves depth chart at catcher has Tyler Flowers listed at the top. Baseball Prospectus has some of the best catching metrics available on the internet, though some of them are available only to subscribers to their site, but that is much encouraged.

In 2016, Flowers ranked 6th in all of baseball in framing runs. That is a major spot to be. It is also notable that there were only 7 catchers in the entire league who saved more than 10 runs on the season through framing, and Flowers was one of those 7.

In blocking runs, Tyler didn’t do so well, with a -0.9 blocking runs in 2016, placing him 80th among the 104 ranked catchers on BP’s listing. Of course, that’s not near as bad as his throwing runs rating, which placed him 104th (that’s right, last) with a -3.7 throwing runs on the season.

BP has a statistic that accumulates all those numbers as well as each catcher’s other basic fielding numbers and rolls it into an over-arching number that is supposed to give an idea of the run value overall defensively of the catcher. Tyler overall rated 15th among all catchers in the major leagues last season with a 7.7 Adjusted Fielding Runs Above Average (AFRAA for future players).

The “big signee” of the position this winter was veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki. Suzuki had been with the Minnesota Twins in 2016. Suzuki is basically the opposite of Flowers, with -7.1 framing runs in 2016, ranking him 92nd of the 104 catchers ranked. However, Suzuki has a very good reputation for his ability to block pitches, and the metrics back that up with 1.7 blocking runs in 2016, ranking him 12th. Like Flowers, though, Suzuki does not do well in the throwing runs metric, with -1.9 runs, ranking him 97th of the 104 catchers rated.

Last, but not least, on the 40-man roster is heart throb Anthony Recker. Recker checks in with a -7.1 framing runs in 2016, ranking him just one slot ahead of Suzuki at 91st overall out of 104 catchers ranked. Recker had 0.6 blocking runs, which put him at 27th overall. His throwing runs were -0.5, ranking him 87th overall.

So, Flowers can really frame, and Suzuki and Recker can really block, but in general, the Braves catching is not blowing anyone away in these metrics, which is likely why so many are on short-term deals. What exactly is coming on the farm, though?

Next: Minor League Depth