As someone who's just kind of dabbling into the scouting world, one thing I really liked to take to the park with me this season was the stopwatch. A lot of other scouting info can only be gained only through experience and judgment, and while I think my talents in those areas are developing, there's nothing like empirical evidence. And one area in which I managed to gather data was catchers' moves from home to second base.
This can be accurately defined as a "glove to glove" time; that is, from the time the pitch hits the catcher's mitt until the ball hits the glove of whoever is covering the bag. Therefor it includes not only the strength of the catcher's arm but the quickness of his hands.
Below I've included all the catchers who've shown what I consider to be above average moves to second in 2010. And since we're prospecting here, I'm going to by MLB standards. Obviously this is significantly higher than college standards, so the handful of guys listed below are exceptional in this category. Sometimes a catcher will also make a "lazy" throw down to second, or maybe they juggle the ball a bit, so I've thrown out any obvious statistical outliers and averaged what was left.
But first, I'd like to make a few caveats. First off, these are all based on a small sample size so there may be a significant margin of error. Second, just because a guy didn't make this list below doesn't necessarily mean that his arm sucks. There could be plenty of other reasons why so-and-so didn't make the cut, up to and including the fact that I never got a time for some catchers in the league. so with that out of the way, here's the data:
| #22 | David Mitroff | AIA Fire | 1.94s |
| Olivet Nazarene | R/R - 6'2" 190lb | ||
| #36 | Kevin Whitehead | Mat-Su Miners | 1.95s |
| Texas Tech | S/R - 6'2" 205lb | ||
| #4 | Jimmie Pharr | Anchorage Pilots | 1.97s |
| Texas Christian | R/R - 5'11" 185lb | ||
| #30 | Austin Wooldridge | Fairbanks Panners | 1.97s |
| Texas Permian Basin | R/R - 6'2" 210lb | ||
| #18 | Kyle Leon | Peninsula Oilers | 1.97s |
| Chico State | R/R - 5'10" 190lb | ||
| #18 | Wes Thigpen | Mat-Su Miners | 1.97s |
| Mississippi State | R/R - 6'0" 200lb |
David Mitroff mostly served as the Fire's backup catcher in 2010; with Marc Schoch hitting .315 with 27 RBI's (overall), Mitroff really had to compete for playing time. With that in mind I was lucky to see him when he had the chance to show off his move to the bag. Kevin Whitehead is another guy who didn't start as many games behind the plate as teammate Wes Thigpen, but the pair both demonstrated an ability to throw runners out.
Jimmie Pharr is a guy who came up late, going deep into the College World Series with TCU. I only got to see him a couple times as well, and I have heard that he can get the ball down to second even faster than the quickest time I clocked him at. Austin Wooldridge, again, didn't get very many starts, having to compete with both Kevin Roundtree and Colton Plaia for time behind the dish, but he showed a strong throw and wasn't bad with the bat either. Finally, Kyle Leon was another non-starter, although he did have the best OBP on the Oilers to add to his great defensive maneuver.
So, there you have it. Six of the best catcher arms in the league in 2010.
Nice article - I followed the Miners closely this year...Thigpen was under appreciated by outside observers, and it is nice seeing him get some recognition. In know it is a mouthful, but he might have been the team's best player. He wasn't even voted to the second team All ABL.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. I have to agree that Thigpen is a very good player. He was an every-day guy and put up great offensive numbers. He also showed talent as a defensive backstop and knocked down quite a few errant pitches.
ReplyDeleteOne knock against him was that it didn't seem like he was the most energetic guy during warm-ups, but when the ball was in play he would be working up a sweat without fail. So at worst it's a wash, and probably still a plus, in that category.
In other words, he was pretty much the total package in 2010. The only defense I have to offer as to why he might not have gotten more recognition is that there were a LOT of good catchers in the league this past year. But part of the reason I wrote this up was to give these guys some exposure where credit is due, which is especially important at a crowded position.
Great use of a solid scouting technique. I find glove to glove is a great way of judging infielders as well, as long as one takes into account whether the play is "bang bang" or a hard hit ball with plenty of time to throw the runner out. Nice article!
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