The next big thing in catching is here!

Yes, right here it is, and if you can solve it, you will make a lot of money and be able to get a job with any team you want. I'm here to try and convince you why you shouldn't.

Currently, the most critical defensive metrics that catchers are measured by revolve around receiving, including catcher framing runs above average and strike rate. What would happen if those statics didn't matter anymore, or even worse, didn't exist?

Let's face it. An automated strike zone is coming sooner rather than later to Major League Baseball in some way, shape, or form, whether we like it or not. So now what?

All receiving numbers go out the window, and we focus on blocking and throwing, and that's it. Simple.

Wrong.

A catcher is involved in much more that we cannot measure effectively. Including, but not limited to, calling pitches, game planning, and managing wildly different personalities and talents that make up a pitching staff, all while 100 MPH pitches are coming at him repeatedly.

So there it is, the next big thing, how to measure a catcher's effectiveness when we can no longer measure the most valuable part of their game (receiving) because the automated strike zone nullifies it. Don't figure that out. (But if you do, please call me; I'd love to hear it.)

Why not?

Why throw away a lot of money and not get a job with any team you want?

Here is why: There are a few things about this game that has yet to be figured out that make the game so beautiful. One of those is the effect a catcher that does all of those intangible things above has on a pitching staff.

I recently read an article in The Atlantic that explained the game of baseball in a different light than I had ever heard before. Derek Thompson said in his recent article, "There are two types of games in life: finite and infinite. A finite game is played to win; there are clear victors and losers. An infinite game is played to keep playing; the goal is to maximize winning across all participants" (Thompson, 2022). A baseball game is a finite game, with one winner and one loser. To further that, my job as a manager is to do everything in my power to put the team in a position to win as often as possible. You are probably sitting there thinking to yourself, "If that is his job, why wouldn't he want to know who the best guy is to put on the field?"

Thompson explains, "In baseball, winning the World Series is a finite game, while growing the popularity of Major League Baseball is an infinite game. What happened, I think, is that baseball's finite game was solved so completely in such a way that the infinite game was lost" (Thompson, 2022). Shifts, pitcher vs. hitter matchups, lineup optimization, heat maps, you name it, and baseball has an equation for it. Luckily for me, people way more intelligent than I could ever fathom come up with those, and I benefit from using them. But, the question arises, what are we doing to our national pastime? Are we limiting the infinite game of baseball to achieve finite wins?

I am guilty as charged. I love the numbers in the game; honestly, they fascinate me. Equally, it is nice to take a second to remember what it was like as a kid when you knew that John Doe was a pull hitter because you had played against him since he was eight, and you had to figure it out.

Baseball is fun and always will be. No kid enjoys beating a video game because that is the end of the line. The game is over. Luckily "beating baseball" is ultimately impossible because of the insurmountable amount of human elements involved, but boy, we keep getting closer and closer. Leave catcher effectiveness as one of the beautiful mysteries of the game.

Sources:

Statcast catcher framing leaderboard. baseballsavant.com. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/catcher_framing?year=2022&team=&min=q&type=catcher&sort=4%2C1

Thompson, D. (2022, October 31). What Moneyball-for-everything has done to American culture. The Atlantic. Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/10/sabermetrics-analytics-ruined-baseball-sports-music-film/671924/