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Trevor Plouffe’s last few days have likely been a rollercoaster. After a forearm injury sidelined him for the rest of the 2014 season with just a few games to go, he was initially told he would not require surgery for repair. A trip to the Mayo Clinic confirmed that he would indeed require surgery to fix the arm. Then the only manager he has known with the Twins was let go and he raced across town (running two red lights) only to give his support following Ron Gardenhire’s exit interview at Target Field. That’s quite a lot going through his head. Another interesting thought going through his head lately was the effects of catcher framing.Prompted by a stat on the subject provided by ESPN’s Stats & Info overseer Mark Simon, Plouffe inquired whether or not Rays’ catcher Jose Molina the leading catcher in coaxing extra strikes from outside the strike zone: Download attachment: Plouffe2.png Plouffe’s intuition was close -- according to ESPN/TruMedia Molina finished just behind Ross -- but it was actually the Angels’ Hank Conger whose 11.6% called strike rate on pitches outside of the zone led baseball this year. This exercise always interests me: Players using their experience to guess what the data says. Plouffe has stood in with Molina behind the dish for 48 pitches in his career. Of those he has taken, six have been called strikes that have been out of the zone (16%). This is slightly higher than average (approximately 9%) but too small of a sampling to make any connection. Now, Plouffe was never rung up on any out-of-zone strikes looking, still, if you are Plouffe in the batters box, you might recall those few pitches with clarity. That said, Molina has had his way with the Twins lineup dating back to 2010 and Plouffe certainly has observed a lot of his teammates shaking their heads on the way back to the dugout. In 16 games, he’s managed to steal strikes out of the zone at a 14% clip, which is the highest rate for a catcher facing the Twins in that time. Beyond that, the lineup has had just over 500 plate appearances while he has been the receiver and have hit just .207 -- the lowest average against by one catcher in that time (minimum 300 plate appearances). There is plenty of discussion on whether or not framing adds the win value that some believe, but there is little question that it is a skill (just ask my ). “I don’t put too much stock in that,” Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki told me this spring. “Don’t get me wrong, I think that has a lot to do with it but at the same time, what a pitcher does has a lot to do with it. If he’s all over the place, he’s obviously not going to get those borderline calls, not matter how good you make it look. If you are around the plate consistently, you are going to get those calls. There’s definitely an art to it, you look at the Molinas, they are pretty good at what they do.” Plouffe and Suzuki are correct, the Molinas are pretty good. He has also had some pretty good pitchers throwing to him as well. For the most part, framing is always presented from the pitcher/catcher perspective but it is interesting to see that it may be possible that the catcher can have a psychological effect on a hitter. So does that mean that catchers like Molina while expanding the strike zone for their pitcher are able to induce more chases by the hitters attempting to protect this increasing strike zone? According to ESPN’s data, Molina’s chase percentage is exactly league average dating back to 2010 (26.5%) which indicates that despite the ability to grab strikes off the plate, hitters are not necessarily enticed to go after those pitches at a higher rate. Fans and analysts alike can continue to debate the catcher’s unseen effects on the game but it is interesting to find out that, at least in the case of Trevor Plouffe, the backstop can get inside a hitter’s head. Click here to view the article