Hey, kids, guess what? Do you know why the Astros can't get rid of catcher Brad Ausmus? Simple: he's got a great catcher ERA. Catcher ERA is some kind of stupid-ass stat that is essentially a team ERA -- it's the ERA for all of the pitchers for the innings that Ausmus has caught. Supposedly, according to the Houston Chronicle, Ausmus's catcher ERA since 2001 is 3.75. The ERA for the other team catchers is 4.65.
Yeah, that's nearly a run a game. And yeah, it looks really really good. But, here's the catch. Since 2001, Ausmus has primarily caught Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt, and Andy Pettitte. Those three guys have been the team aces. He hasn't been spending time catching Wandy Rodriguez. Let's see what his stupid catcher ERA is if he was to spend the season catching Wandy Rodriguez and Fernando Nieve.
And, by this stat, one of the greatest catchers ever has to have been the immortal Eddie Perez -- for those who don't remember Perez, he was, for awhile Greg Maddux's personal catcher in Atlanta. And we all know what Maddux's ERA was like in those years.
Okay, I got that out of my system.
5 comments:
I agree with you this is a stupid stat.
I don't think it's a stupid stat -- any stat that supplies information is good.
That said, if you're correct, and Ausmus has primarily caught those 3 excellent pitchers, then it's a stupid application of a potentially useful stat.
Mike, you might be right in that any stat that conveys information is good. That said, I never heard of it until the Chronicle trotted it out to defend Brad Ausmus.
I like Ausmus. I think he's a good catcher. But he catches the aces. He usually don't catch the 4 or the 5 starter, thus if it's a legit stat, it's really hard to tell. And, what the Chronicle doesn't show is what Ausmus's catcher's ERA was for 1999-2000 when he caught in Detroit.
We think of ERA as a pitching stat, right? But it also measures the contributions of the defense -- all 9 guys.
ERA -- or RA without the silly earned/unearned distinction -- can be applied to any member of the defsense, pitcher & catcher included.
It's one reason that ERA is but one of many useful stats to evaluate pitching. I like it in concert with RA, WHIP, K/BB ratio, K/9, winning pct., and IP.
I dont belive any stat that supplies info is good. In this case the info is so misleading it should be a polictical statement. As the clown said in the article if this really means anything then Greg maddox's catcher is awesome but he is not. Statictians like to keep stats on everything but some stats are just useless.
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