Over the last few years, I’ve tried not to let baseball commentators’ words bother me as much as they used to. When I started on the site, many of my posts complained about something a sports writer wrote, something Tabler said, or some other old-school comment that came up during a game.
I’ve tried using the mute button more or changing the channel when there is some rant that is likely to piss me off.
Then came the other night when Brian Serven didn’t corral a wild pitch and let a ball get by him for a passed ball.
Then we had the Buck rant about catchers on one knee. Then Siddal did the same rant after the game. And then Siddal did it again before today’s game.
Now, first of all, yeah, terrible timing for those two plays to happen, but then the play that hurt more was the Ernie Clement error that went unmentioned because it would go against the company line that Clement is a great infielder (he is pretty good, but why can’t we comment on a play he should have known better to try). Mistakes happen.
But then Serven makes mistakes, and we are treated to rant after rant about one-kneel catchers—rants that don’t take a moment to check the stats.
Anyway, our catchers, using the one-knee style this season, have had 25 wild pitches against. Now, with all the complaining about it, one would imagine that the new style is causing wild-pitch numbers to soar. And, one would think that if you were going to rant several times, you’d check the numbers.
Anyway, let’s pick some random seasons to check how many wild pitches there were (I’m not cherry-picking the seasons. I don’t want to spend all day at this:
- 2024: 25 (so far)
- 2023: 42
- 1986: 38
- 1993: 83
- 1999: 55
- 2005: 39
- 2010: 69
- 2015: 62
Anyway, I think it would be hard to infer from that list that the one-knee style is causing the team to have many more wild pitches. I mean….just the numbers don’t prove that the one-knee style is causing a drop in wild pitches. But it is hard to read those numbers and think it is causing more wild pitches.
And I’m guessing that some of the reason there are fewer wild pitches is that there are fewer really wild pitchers. In the old days, some guys were just wild.
The other thing that bugs me about the rants is that those guys are Sportsnet, owned by Rogers. They could easily get someone from the team on to explain why they have the catchers going to this style. A good part of the reasoning is pitch framing, but they could suggest that it doesn’t make pitch blocking all that much worse. They likely have numbers that show the method works.
Of course, if it helps pitch framing and keeps fewer guys from getting on base, then the odd extra wild pitch (not that there is anything in the numbers suggesting it is causing more of them) is something we could live with.
I get old-school rants. I understand the idea that baseball was better when I was 12. I have many old-school moments. I would love to see pitchers complete games. I wish teams didn’t carry eight relievers so that they could have more useful players on the bench. Right now, it is essential that bench players can play multiple positions, but when you could have more guys on the bench. Teams would carry a guy who only pinch hit. The A’s carried Herb Washington, a guy who only pinch-ran. In 1974, he appeared in 92 games and had zero plate appearances.
But if you are paid to be an analyst, let’s have more than a rant and look at some numbers and reasoning.