As it pertains to Anderson, I am not very concerned about where he starts the season. I’d lean slightly towards AA, because time really isn’t an issue. Either way he’s going to have an opportunity to develop. Long term I am very much on the fence on the Anderson vs. Molina debate. Molina is becoming a pretty known quantity. Anderson is not at all. The answer to that question lies in how Anderson progresses over the next 2 years.

I can’t say how happy I am that Matheny’s back in the organization, even in this very limited role. He’s a class act, all around.

Really how many runs would Yadi save over Mike Piazza or Mickie Tettleton? I would say not as many as Omar Viz. would over Jose Offerman. That isn’t to say there is no difference just not as much as many think.

I agree the devil is in the details in studying the underpinnings of baseball performance. If anyone can uncover the data needed to establish the impact of signal-calling and a catcher’s defensive value, AZ can. Maybe AZ and Eric can interview Mike Matheny and Jeff Luhnow jointly during spring training to compare their thoughts on the question. I bet that would be a great conversation.

There’s a saying that “Absence of proof is not proof of absence.” I think this is applicable to your 3rd paragraph, and to my earlier post about my skepticism over these “conclusive” studies finding no effect of catching.

That’s all, really - I think we are in agreement. As is AZ, who points out that current analyses may simply not be using the right metrics or asking the right questions.

I admit I am a little surprised that we don’t see differences in # if runs allowed by different signal-callers, but the importance of calling a good game has been so established for so long that I’m inclined to not accept the thin body of investigation so far as conclusive….my hunch is that the devil’s very much in the details here, and the Web is full of really crappy statistical analyses of baseball players and games, conducted by self-taught statisticians.

“I’ve seen a few studies concluding that catchers don’t have a significant impact (vs other catchers) via calling a game or stifling baserunners, and they always leave me scratching my head. I’ve played at a decent level with bad, mediocre, and one very, very good defensive catcher, and the differences is palpable.”

Just because certain impacts of a catcher’s play are not quantifiable does not mean that they are invalid. “Confidence” is as subjective as it gets, no? How many major league pitchers and hitters (or professionals in any sport) doubt that confidence has a major impact on their performance? How do you quantify the amount of damage Albert Pujols did with one swing to Brad Lidge’s “confidence” (or “bravado” or “swagger”, take your pick)? We can easily quantify the difference in Lidge’s performance before and after that single pitch. But how do we quantify Lidge’s confidence per se?

One other note. People often dismiss a hypothesis on this and other blogs because they say they’ve searched high and low and have found no evidence to support the hypothesis. That argument can be persuasive if we are swayed by rhetoric, but it is not a valid argument scientifically or mathematically. Hypotheses may be disproven when there is hard evidence to the contrary, but they are not disproven just because there is no quanititative evidence that fits the hypothesis. In that case the jury is still out, that’s all.

It’s like a crime detective who has a very strong sense that a suspect is guilty that the detective is totally convinced, but he can’t prove it because he can’t come up with evidence that will hold up in court. Then one day DNA testing is developed and all of a sudden the case can be proven decisively. Sometimes the detective was right, sometimes not (think of all the people who have been executed for murders they didn’t commit).

When it comes to questions like the impact of Yadi’s handling of his pitchers and his game calling, maybe we’re in a similar situation. Until we can measure such impacts precisely, the jury is still out, and drawing a conclusion either way might be premature and way off base.

There. That’s maybe a little better.

I do believe, though, that the contributions made by a great hitting catcher vastly trump those of a defensive whiz. Give me a player who affects balls in play. A player who’s primarily ability isn’t to eliminate a part of the game that’s virtually unused at this point anyhow.

ICBIRDFAN - Aside from erik’s fantastic comic musings ;o) the answer is that Anderson’s speed is probably average. It’s not an area that he’s ever going to be recognized for but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a good baserunner. Plus, Yadi would rate as a 20 on a 20-80 scale for speed — he’s as slow as they get.

siddfynch - I think catchers are one of the areas where sabermetrics has yet to really make it’s impact felt. I would be absolutely fascinated to see the proprietary stats that Matt Girsch and Sig Mejdal presented at the winter warmup. It’s not that I doubt he’s the best defensive catcher but how they quantify it and whether they discuss it in terms of runs would be really interesting. Research on catchers has seemed to be more aimed at disproving theories (catchers ERA, game calling) than measuring defensive impact.