Graph: Catchers Wearing Down
Posted by Zach Sanders on Monday, September 28, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Much is made by color commentators and T.V. personalities about major league catchers wearing down as the season goes on. I decided to do a bit of research to see if some well known backstops have had issues late in the season. To the graph-mobile!
Click on image for the larger view
Not much change, is there? The most interesting thing I found was that all of these catchers had a hard time getting them self going, and do much better in month number two.
Is this a perfect study? Not at all, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. Just wanted to show everyone that not all catchers have issues late in the season, and the commentators make it seem like much more of a deal than it really is.
I did not pick these players because of the results they gave me. They were selected because they had played more games than others and are well known.
From a physiological standpoint, it makes sense that catchers would wear down as the season progresses, but as you aptly point out, I don’t think it has a noticeable effect on offensive production (and, one would think, on other aspects of catching as well). It’s just another example of the media making a big deal out of nothing.