Before delving into today’s topic, here’s an update on my promised interview with Driveline’s Kyle Boddy (pronounced “BOH-dee” by the way).
I had a chance to do the interview Wednesday, on Zoom, and I thought it went great — I am excited to share it in the not-too-distant future. The interview also went a whopping 45 minutes, which means a ton of transcribing.
Luckily for me (and for AN), one of the site’s earliest members is a friend and a transcribing wizard. She is also getting ready to go to Europe in 2 weeks, with limited time available right now.
Because the piece will be so long, I am planning to break it into 2-3 segments, with the hope of running at least the first part in March. But favors are not obligations and so we will see whether some, all, or none of the interview is ready by Opening Day.
Controlling The Running Game
A’s pitchers are often judged by ERA, walks, strikeouts, innings pitched, even their fielding acumen. Catchers, meanwhile, are judged on their own menu of skills usually including “pop time,” arm strength, throwing accuracy, and with it ultimately “caught stealing percentage”.
This is often quite unfair to catchers because one of baseball’s deep dark secrets is that much of controlling the running game rests on the shoulders of the pitchers. And so far in spring training A’s pitchers haven’t been doing a bang-up job.
The issue reached its peak on March 6th against the Milwaukee Brewers when the Brew Crew swiped 7 bases on helpless A’s catchers. When it comes to nabbing would be base stealers the good news is that the A’s have 2 excellent throwing catchers in Shea Langeliers and presumptive back up Jhonny Pereda. The bad news is that all too often the pitchers aren’t giving their catchers a fighting chance.
Who are the biggest offenders? From last year’s group, we know JP Sears has had difficulty holding runners on. Amongst the new pitchers, the guy on whom teams are running roughshod is Jeffrey Springs.
Both Sears and Springs are left-handed, belying the conventional wisdom that LHPs have an easier time controlling the running game (Jon Lester notwithstanding). But it’s also worth noting that the trend has been more pervasive than just 2 pitchers — in general opposing teams are taking liberties running against the A’s and mostly succeeding despite the fact that Langeliers and Pereda do their parts well.
As the Cactus League fades and the regular season arrives it’s something to watch: will “running roughshod on the pitchers” become a theme that undoes some of the good work the pitching and defense is doing, or can the A’s use the exhibition games to figure out a way to better neutralize “would be base stealers” before their jumps are too great?
Just another piece of the game to pay attention to as March 27th ever nears…