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Originally Posted by jbergey22
Ill take your word for it as I dont have time at the moment either to dig into it even though it does surprise me.
I was never a huge fan of Varitek until I seen him do something a few weeks ago that was impressive IMO and helped me realize why the Red Sox think so highly of him. Beckett was getting upset with the home plate umpire and was about ready to lose it when Varitek stepped into the umpires face and got himself kicked out of the game to save his pitcher. Stats may not identify things like that but it does quite a few things to help the team.
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Apparently the link doesn't have the individual players anymore. I get a 404 error message. Here's the rankings based on what was there.
Top 10 Catcher careers by RPR, 1981-97, (min 10,000 PA caught)
NAME PA RPR XRA
Kreuter,Chad 10859 -0.0148 -160.5
Skinner,Joel 12265 -0.0115 -141.4
Berryhill,Damon 11391 -0.0088 -100.8
Surhoff,B.J. 16827 -0.0086 -145.5
Dempsey,Rick 23108 -0.0082 -189.9
Martinez,Buck 10467 -0.0080 -84.0
Fisk,Carlton 30402 -0.0075 -228.0
LaValliere,Mike 21126 -0.0073 -155.0
Harper,Brian 13527 -0.0068 -91.8
Hassey,Ron 18935 -0.0060 -114.3
Worst 10 Catcher careers by RPR, 1981-97 (min 10,000 PA caught)
NAME PA RPR XRA
Steinbach,Terry 26575 0.0047 126.1
Cerone,Rick 22859 0.0053 120.4
Heath,Mike 25820 0.0053 136.3
Stanley,Mike 15058 0.0059 89.0
Ortiz,Junior 13599 0.0068 92.0
Bando,Chris 10202 0.0078 79.1
Flaherty,John 10253 0.0082 83.9
Petralli,Geno 10651 0.0089 95.1
Rodriguez,Ivan 16780 0.0103 173.3
Girardi,Joe 13675 0.0136 185.5
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Also I wonder if having a good game caller like Varitek rubs off on the other catchers/pitchers so they are able to better identify what calling a good game is all about
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The article mentions this as well:
There are other places to look for a catcher’s influence beyond the game-calling ability looked for in this study. A catcher might be able to impact the "clutch" performance of the pitcher, helping him focus in high leverage situations. Such a pitcher would surrender fewer runs than expected from his hits & walks allowed. A catcher who senses what his pitcher is throwing well might be more efficient in calling pitches, reducing the pitch count per batter, and thus allowing the starter to go deeper into the game and preserving the bullpen. Nothing in this study precludes any of the possibilities from being true, and this is a promising line for future investigation.