Fangraphs adds catcher framing data

[2wins87]

In a move that that was inevitable but a long time coming, Fangraphs has now added catcher framing.  They have multiple articles discussing the methodolgy and impact:

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/war-update-catcher-framing/

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-pitch-framing/

 

Similar data was already available elsewhere, but if you like data it is nice to have it at Fangraphs where it is rolled into valuation metrics, and easily sortable and whatnot.  The data does only start in 2008 with the advent of PITCHf/x, so it adds another big difference to pre and post 2008 data, but Fangraphs has always been about quantifying the best available current data, not necessarily being a long historical repository of data.

 

Anyway, I have a few thoughts after digging around a little bit:

 

1a. Garver was quite poor at framing last year and it really cuts into his fangraphs WAR, making him only slightly above replacement.  It'll be interesting to watch if the work he put in this offseason turns things around this year.

 

1b. In a smaller sample, Astudillo's framing was about average, which might help the case that he can at least be a part-time catcher.

 

2. Ryan Doumit was even worse than we probably remember

 

3a. There was a debate about Mauer and Yadier Molina and the HOF a little wile ago, both are positive pitch framers over the portions of their careers for which there is data.  Mauer is only slightly positive, getting 13.6 framing runs (about 1-1.5 WAR) from 2008-2013.  Just extrapolating backwards you could probably add another 1 WAR for the seasons for which there is no data.  So it probably doesn't much help his case but it doesn't hurt.

Molina on the other hand, is helped immensely (by around 20 framing runs per year in the first year in which data is available), which puts his career fWAR at 53, actually slightly ahead of Mauer, and you could pretty reasonably extrapolate 5 or 6 more WAR for the seasons without data.

 

3b.  Some of the early framing numbers seem really extreme.  The methodology didn't change, and the idea of a catcher framing a pitch is much older than the data itself, but it still seems to have taken a little while for teams and coaches to realize that framing was something to focus on to really gain a significant edge.  Anecdotally, there seems to be a change around 2013.  Guys like Molina and McCann who put up huge early framing numbers drop down to just solidly above average.  How much of the early numbers are just going to guys who happen to have benefitted from their size, stances, or whatnot without any conscious effort?  If we care about things like this for the hall of fame do we want to discount the early years somewhat?  Jeff Sulivan also had a piece about the decrease in the variance and year-to-year correlation of framing stats as working on framing becomes more mainstream around baseball.  Is the outsized value of pitch framing going to just be a blip?

 

4. Mauer's 2009 MVP season now looks even better at 8.2 fWAR (to Jeter's 6.7 fWAR), though I doubt this would change any Yankees' fans minds that Jeter was somehow robbed.  This is now the 3rd best catcher season by fWAR since 2008, beat by McCann's 2008 and Posey's 2012.  Both of these are aided much more by framing value, though Posey's and Mauer's seasons are very close without framing value and McCann's would be pedestrian without it.

 

5. Good catcher framing is also taken out of pitcher value while poor framing is added to pitcher value.  Is it right to put framing entirely on catchers?  Do pitchers have some control due to where they are throwing their pitches in which counts?  I already have some philosophical issues with fWAR for pitchers which are a topic for a different discussion, but I wonder if the perceived effect on pitchers is correct.  They do acknowledge that deciding how to treat framing for pitchers was the main reason it took as long as it did for pitch framing to come to Fangraphs, but there are probably still a lot of debates to come.

 

[Mike Sixel]

Thanks for the great post. Can't wait to dig in