Atlanta Braves, a Pitching Franchise, needs a Catcher
By Ryan Cothran
Atlanta Braves defensive Catcher Rankings
Whether it be the ol’ eye test, traditional stats, or advanced defensive metrics, our Atlanta Braves stink at catching.
Baseball Prospectus, in my personal opinion, are leading the way in Advanced Catcher Metrics. I’ll not bore you with the details, but if you’d like to take a look at their explanation, here’s a link. To put it mildly, here are the rankings for Braves’ catchers:
Baseball Prospectus
Extra strikes: A.J. Pierzynski 64th, Christian Bethancourt 75th
Passed Balls/Wild Pitches saved: A.J. Pierzynski 17th, Christian Bethancourt 28th
Fangraphs (Defensive Runs Saved)
Braves overall ranking, 27th
Traditional Stats (MLB.com)
Fielding Percentage: 21st
Passed Balls, 25th
Wild Pitches, 12th
Caught Stealing %, 26th
For a team that is known to be built around pitching, this is simply unacceptable.