The Caddy effect

[ZeroHour]

While I do not have exact stats to back this up at this very moment, I think it should be considered that while Olivo's five-tool potential was given up for Garcia, his loss may actually benefit the overall pitching staff.

 

I present a hypthetical example (see if it sounds familiar):

 

Jon Garland/Neal Cotts/Schoney on the mound and/or Olivo behind the plate in a game situation, hitters count, and they throw a changeup. Eveyone knows they will throw the changeup, and everyone knows its going to get clobbered. You know it, Farmer knows it, Hawk knows it, especially the hitter knows it. Afterwards, everyone bemoans the horrible pitch selection. I think of Garland's last few starts where he gives up a cookie in the 7th inning.

 

Not a conspiracy theory, just something to be considered.

 

 

Im not on the Davis bandwagon or anything, but game-calling was brought to everyone's attention as a factor in Olivo's easy departure.

 

Loaiza and MB have both said on the record that one of the reasons they pitch so quickly is because they trust Sandy. Whatever he puts down, they can throw with confidence because they trust his judgement.

 

More to come, I dont know if stats are possible, but just wanted to put this one out there.

 

-ZeroHour

[Bridgeport_Joe]

FYI--

 

Baseball Prospectus looked at this last year in a pretty extensive study. They were completely unable to find any evidence that a catcher's game calling ability affects starting pitchers' ERA by more than a couple hundreths of a run.

[ZeroHour]

Familiar with Bp, they do grat work and Woolner is one of my favorite author's. I myself am a pretty firm believer in the "no effect" school, but I am bringing this up because I cannot remember a season in which this has been brought up more. It seems everytime a bonafied cookie is served up, everyone knows it before it leaves the pitchers hand (mainly Garland in his few digressions). Woolner admits that the effect is not completely discounted and discusses that it may be "below the radar of detection". I dont think I myself can quantify it, but I think that it should be considered when evaluating Olivo's true value, even if a more traditional means must be used in this case. Like I said before, perhaps there is something were not fully seeing here at work.

[beck72]

Loaiza and MB have both said on the record that one of the reasons they pitch so quickly is because they trust Sandy.  Whatever he puts down, they can throw with confidence because they trust his judgement.

Olivo has caught E-Lo since he's been with the Sox--all last year

[AngelasDaddy0427]

In fact the biggest mindlapse/cookie was that Phelps game that screwed up Cotts the first time and guess who was behind the plate....SANDY!

I'm sorry I just don't see where this is coming from I think Olivo did a great job.

[Al Lopez Ghost (old)]

OK, I did some research. This year Ollivo caught 40 starts for us, and appeared as a "relief catcher" in 4 other games. We were 23-17 in his starts and 1-3 when he came in late.

 

The Sox ERA in all of Olivo's appearances was 4.69. Our overall ERA through today (so that means all of Olivo's time and the Minny series) is 4.54.

 

Olivo starts by pitcher:

ELO 15 (Sox were 10-5)

 

Garland 14 (Sox were 8-6)

 

Diaz 2 (Sox were 1-1)

 

Cotts 1 (Sox were 0-1)

 

Rauch 2 (Sox were 1-1)

 

Shoeneweiss 1 (Sox were 1-0)

 

Wright 3 (Sox were 0-3)

 

Buerhle 2 (Sox were 2-0)

 

Just the facts. Seems to me thought, that Olivo's numbers were worsened by the starts he made with Cotts, Rauch, Diaz (the early Diaz starts) and Wright, while rarely playing with Buerhle.

[Wedge]

The team is 4-0 when Burke starts at catcher.