Defensive Catchers

I was wondering how in the overall sucess of a team was a catchers defensive rating and arm ("T","PB") ratings as well vs a catcher that can hit but is not a good defensive catcher. In addition would that make a big difference playing in a hitters park vs. a pithcers park. I had not really considered the value of a defensive catcher overall before and wanted to know if there were any opinions amongst the vetrens out there.

Dale

I have had some success both ways, but I have only played a few months but...

I think of a catcher as an extension of the pitchers hold factors as far as throwing arms---

if you have a lot of 0 and minus holding pitchers, then a better throwing arm on the catcher is more valuable to me as it will not only throw a few more out, but more importantly it will also cut the attempted stolen bases, and if you have pitchers with lots of gb-a on their cards, and also 1 rated infielders you will turn more double plays.

In a hitting park the offense is probably the most important aspect of any player, so like always it depends on your park and combination of other players.

I don't see a lot of base hits occurring on Catch-X results. I'm really not clear on that part of the X chart for online strat. Every once in a while I see a base hit, but not often.

I worry more about e ratings for catchers, throwing errors (the T rating), and passed balls.

As an aside, there is an aspect to catcher's range that I understand is part of the CD-Rom and online game, but no-one talks about much. It has to do with base running and throws to home. As I understand it, when the theoretical split card draw is either the last safe number or the first out number, the result is referred to a chart for the catcher's range. I think it goes like this (I could be a little off on the exact ranges):

Catcher range / safe range / out range
1 / 1-4/5-20
2 / 1-8/9-20
3 / 1-12/13-20
4 / 1-16/17-20
5 / 1-20/-

gbrookes, perhaps this is something you might submit to Garcia for inclusion in the rules. His last blog was about the rules page having been updated and he invited anyone with suggestions for improvement to step forward.

I agree with gbrookes on the 1-5 range rating of Catchers---I pay no attention at all to the range rating.

Only the throwing arm, PB rating and the throwing error rating make much difference.

The PB and T error ratings could be more important in the long run, I would like to see a post on that, but I don't want a + armed catcher with a 1-20 throwing error rating. 15% of stealers will get an extra base with a 20 T error rating.

With minus armed catchers you can tolerate a bad throwing error rating somewhat more as less SB will be attempted.

Those 1-18 and 1-19 stealers will attempt steals anyway unless stealing is set to very conservative, but Minus arms can slow down the steal attempts of lesser rated players.

As good as Kimbrel is as a closer--I don't like that +6 hold rating, any stealer that gets on will be at second base regardless of how good your catcher throws. I prefer Rodney if I spend that much on a closer---so if your Pitchers have bad hold ratings don't worry about the catchers arm rating.

gbrookes, perhaps this is something you might submit to Garcia for inclusion in the rules. His last blog was about the rules page having been updated and he invited anyone with suggestions for improvement to step forward.

I will. Good idea.

I typically don't use catchers with a + throwing arm rating. However in special circumstances their hitting overcomes any issues with that such as Mike Piazza in the 90s game or even Ted Simmons in the 80s game.