Updating Catcher Defense: Where Does Alex Avila Rank Now?

Giants catcher Buster Posey excelled defensively in 2014
(Photo credit: MLB Trade Rumors)

Shortly after the 2014 season ended, 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

Baseball Prospectus researchers Jonathan Judge, Harry Pavlidis and Dan Brooks recently developed a new method to capture pitch framing.  They do a good job of introducing this very complex topic here.

I re-ranked the catchers based on the first four bullets above plus the new framing method.  Table 1 below shows that Giants catcher Buster Posey led MLB with 33 runs saved and was especially good a framing (27 runs).  Rene Rivera of the Padres was second with 30 runs saved.

Tigers catcher Alex Avila saved an estimated 12 runs with his catching in 2014.  He was average or above average on all five elements particularly excelling at stopping the running game (+4 runs) and pitch blocking (+6 runs to lead the majors).

Table 1: Runs Saved By Catchers, 2014 

Player	Team	Inn	Running Game	Pitch Blocking	Throwing Errors	Fielding Errors	Pitch Receiving	Total
Buster Posey	SFG	929	1.3	4.3	0.3	0.1	26.7	32.7
Rene Rivera	SDP	734	5.2	-0.2	-0.6	-0.0	26.2	30.5
Russell Martin	PIT	940	6.8	-0.6	0.0	0.6	16.5	23.3
Jonathan Lucroy	MIL	1,182	-1.0	4.8	0.9	0.2	18.0	23.0
Hank Conger	LAA	637	-1.5	-0.3	-0.7	-0.1	25.2	22.5
Caleb Joseph	BAL	672	4.7	1.0	0.4	-0.1	13.2	19.2
Mike Zunino	SEA	1,121	0.6	-4.9	0.6	0.2	22.3	18.8
Brian McCann	NYY	889	4.9	0.7	0.8	0.6	10.6	17.5
Yadier Molina	STL	931	5.7	5.2	0.8	0.6	4.9	17.2
Jose Molina	TBR	628	-0.1	-1.0	0.4	0.4	17.2	16.8
Miguel Montero	ARI	1,152	0.9	2.2	-0.8	-0.8	14.2	15.7
Yan Gomes	CLE	1,082	2.9	1.6	-2.0	0.2	11.3	13.9
Alex Avila	DET	1,017	4.3	6.0	0.4	0.1	1.7	12.6
Jason Castro	HOU	971	-3.4	0.4	0.9	-0.4	12.3	9.8
Tyler Flowers	CHW	1,052	1.3	-3.0	-0.1	0.2	11.5	9.8
Yasmani Grandal	SDP	607	-5.2	-3.3	0.1	-0.1	17.8	9.3
Ryan Hanigan	TBR	603	-1.5	1.7	0.6	0.4	6.5	7.7
Wilson Ramos	WSN	775	3.1	3.4	0.3	-0.0	-0.1	6.7
Robinson Chirinos	TEX	784	5.7	2.7	0.0	0.5	-4.4	4.6
Travis d'Arnaud	NYM	909	-3.5	-2.4	-0.9	0.1	11.2	4.5
Devin Mesoraco	CIN	936	-0.5	2.5	0.8	0.1	0.5	3.4
Carlos Ruiz	PHI	960	0.1	3.6	0.6	-0.4	-6.5	-2.6
Chris Iannetta	LAA	835	1.2	-2.5	0.7	0.5	-2.9	-3.0
Evan Gattis	ATL	799	-3.1	-4.9	0.1	-0.0	4.2	-3.8
Salvador Perez	KCR	1,248	1.7	1.2	-0.4	0.3	-7.4	-4.6
Welington Castillo	CHC	916	3.1	-0.3	0.2	-0.4	-9.2	-6.7
Derek Norris	OAK	870	-4.8	0.2	-0.1	0.0	-2.3	-7.0
A.J. Ellis	LAD	773	-0.9	0.6	0.6	-0.5	-6.9	-7.1
Kurt Suzuki	MIN	1,017	-1.4	3.5	0.4	0.6	-11.2	-8.0
A.J. Pierzynski	BOS/STL	721	-9.2	0.2	-0.0	0.4	-1.6	-10.2
Dioner Navarro	TOR	907	-3.1	2.1	0.5	0.6	-10.3	-10.2
Wilin Rosario	COL	824	-3.1	-5.2	-0.2	-0.5	-1.4	-10.4
Jarrod Saltalamacchia	MIA	922	-4.6	-0.2	-2.5	0.1	-18.7	-26.0

 Data sources: Baseball-Reference.com and BaseballProspectus.com