Catcher Defense Without Framing

Yesterday, I presented statistics on catcher defense and ranked MLB catchers on total run saved.  I used five components to arrive at the total:

• Stopping the running game
• Pitch blocking
• Avoiding fielding errors
• Avoiding throwing errors
• Pitch framing or receiving

One commenter wanted to see how catchers ranked without the pitch framing.  It makes sense to look at it both ways since pitch framing is a new area and still a work in progress.  So, for those who aren't ready to fully embrace pitch framing metrics or are a little concerned about how they differ from site to site, the ranks based on the first four components are shown in Table 1 below.

Keeping in mind that this table leaves out a lot of a catcher's responsibilities such as receiving pitches and pitches and pitcher management, Alex Avila was the American League leader with 10.9 runs saved.  The MLB leader was Yadier Molina of the Cardinals (12.3).

Table 1: Catcher Runs Saved Leaders (Pitch framing excluded), 2014  

Player	Team	Inn	Running Game	Pitch Blocking	Throwing Errors	Fielding Errors	Total
Yadier Molina	STL	931	5.7	5.2	0.8	0.6	12.3
Alex Avila	DET	1,017	4.3	6.0	0.4	0.1	10.9
Robinson Chirinos	TEX	784	5.7	2.7	0.0	0.5	9.0
Brian McCann	NYY	889	4.9	0.7	0.8	0.6	6.9
Russell Martin	PIT	940	6.8	-0.6	0.0	0.6	6.8
Wilson Ramos	WSN	775	3.1	3.4	0.3	-0.0	6.8
Caleb Joseph	BAL	672	4.7	1.0	0.4	-0.1	6.0
Buster Posey	SFG	929	1.3	4.3	0.3	0.1	6.0
Jonathan Lucroy	MIL	1,182	-1.0	4.8	0.9	0.2	5.0
Rene Rivera	SDP	734	5.2	-0.2	-0.6	-0.0	4.3
Carlos Ruiz	PHI	960	0.1	3.6	0.6	-0.4	3.9
Kurt Suzuki	MIN	1,017	-1.4	3.5	0.4	0.6	3.2
Devin Mesoraco	CIN	936	-0.5	2.5	0.8	0.1	2.9
Salvador Perez	KCR	1,248	1.7	1.2	-0.4	0.3	2.8
Yan Gomes	CLE	1,082	2.9	1.6	-2.0	0.2	2.6
Welington Castillo	CHC	916	3.1	-0.3	0.2	-0.4	2.5
Miguel Montero	ARI	1,152	0.9	2.2	-0.8	-0.8	1.5
Ryan Hanigan	TBR	603	-1.5	1.7	0.6	0.4	1.2
Dioner Navarro	TOR	907	-3.1	2.1	0.5	0.6	0.1
Chris Iannetta	LAA	835	1.2	-2.5	0.7	0.5	-0.1
A.J. Ellis	LAD	773	-0.9	0.6	0.6	-0.5	-0.2
Jose Molina	TBR	628	-0.1	-1.0	0.4	0.4	-0.4
Tyler Flowers	CHW	1,052	1.3	-3.0	-0.1	0.2	-1.7
Jason Castro	HOU	971	-3.4	0.4	0.9	-0.4	-2.5
Hank Conger	LAA	637	-1.5	-0.3	-0.7	-0.1	-2.7
Mike Zunino	SEA	1,121	0.6	-4.9	0.6	0.2	-3.5
Derek Norris	OAK	870	-4.8	0.2	-0.1	0.0	-4.7
Travis d'Arnaud	NYM	909	-3.5	-2.4	-0.9	0.1	-6.7
Jarrod Saltalamacchia	MIA	922	-4.6	-0.2	-2.5	0.1	-7.3
Evan Gattis	ATL	799	-3.1	-4.9	0.1	-0.0	-8.0
Yasmani Grandal	SDP	607	-5.2	-3.3	0.1	-0.1	-8.5
A.J. Pierzynski	BOS/STL	721	-9.2	0.2	-0.0	0.4	-8.6
Wilin Rosario	COL	824	-3.1	-5.2	-0.2	-0.5	-9.0

Data source: Baseball-Reference