Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers amongst best in the league

Flowers ranked as one of the top MLB catchers

When the Atlanta Braves signed Tyler Flowers on December 16, 2015, the plan was for him to be the backup to Bethancourt.  The youngster didn’t work out and Flowers played in 83 games.

The Braves signed Flowers to a two-year deal, with a team option for the third year, worth $9 million.  I’m not sure if anyone had an idea of what we were actually getting in this free agent signing.  Flowers could go down as one of former GM John Coppolella’s best free agent sign.

MLB.com released their top 10 catchers in the game right now and Flowers falls in at number nine on the list.  The shredder listed the following….

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1. Buster Posey
2. Gary Sanchez
3. Willson Contreras
4. Yasmani Grandal
5. J.T. Realmuto
6. Austin Barnes
7. Mike Zunino
8. Yadier Molina
9. Tyler Flowers
10. Robinson Chirinos

In 2016, Flowers had a slash line of .270/.357/.420 with eight home runs, 18 doubles, 41 RBIs and 27 runs scored.  He followed that solid season up with a more impressive one in 2017…slashed .281/.378/.445 with 12 homers, 16 doubles, 49 RBIs and 41 runs scored.

But Flowers isn’t a top catcher just for his bat…it’s more about his framing.

Since Statcast began tracking stats of pitch-framing in 2007, history shows that the Atlanta Braves are no strangers to great framing catchers.

Here are the framing statistics and explanation of those statistics that will be used to measure catchers framing value (out of catchers with at least “1,000 pitches caught” for sampling):

• zBall% – the average number of pitches caught IN the strike zone, but called a ball.
• oStr% – the average number of pitches caught OUT of the strike zone, but called a strike.
• +Calls – the total number of balls that are called strikes.
• PerGame – the average number of calls a catcher gets per game.
• RAA – Runs Above Average; estimated number of runs saved due to pitch framing.

In 2017, Flowers claimed the #1 spot in 4 of the 5 categories measured:

• #1 in oStr% (12.4)
• #1 in +Calls (211)
• #1 in PerGame (1.30)
• #1 in RAA (28.1)

If you need any clearer statements, yup that’s good! Check out Flowers stats throughout his career and the progression over the past few years.  Framing is definitely a part of Flowers game and he takes it seriously.

Tyler Flowers: rankings in framing from 2011 to 2017 w/ CWS and ATL:

• 2011 – #69 in zBall% (11.9), #20 in oStr% (8.4), #20 in +Calls (41), #14 in PerGame (1.43), #20 in RAA (5.5).
• 2012 – #48 in zBall% (14.0), #19 in oStr% (7.9), #29 in +Calls (11), #30 in PerGame (0.27), #29 in RAA (1.5).
• 2013 – #36 in zBall% (14.5), #19 in oStr% (7.7), #25 in +Calls (16), #30 in PerGame (0.20), #25 in RAA (2.1).
• 2014 – #46 in zBall% (12.7), #46 in oStr% (7.0), #57 in +Calls (-42), #44 in PerGame (-0.34), #57 in RAA (-5.6).
• 2015 – #57 in zBall% (11.7), #2 in oStr% (9.9), #2 in +Calls (169), #1 in PerGame (1.79), #2 in RAA (22.5).
• 2016 – #70 in zBall% (12.1), #6 in oStr% (9.1), #4 in +Calls (100), #7 in PerGame (1.30), #4 in RAA (13.3).
• 2017 – #65 in zBall% (13.5), #1 in oStr% (12.4), #1 in +Calls (211), #1 in PerGame (2.56), #1 in RAA (28.1).

Flowers joined FOX Sports at Sunday’s ChopFest and he talked about this upcoming year.  He was also asked about batting fourth in this Braves lineup…which seems as though may be the case if the Braves roster stays the same.

Next: Braves players changed their 2018 jersey numbers

My favorite quote from this interview…

“I worked a lot on my speed this offseason, maybe I’ll get in the two-hole.”