Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers - Catching Base Runners

	Which 2002 Catchers Catch Thieves?
	(Minimum 500 innings caught in 2002)

By Chuck Rosciam

The new king remains upon the throne for the second straight year.

Last year Jason Larue (CIN-NL) upseated Henry Blanco to become the reigning prince of catching thieves and held off the old king, Ivan Rodriguez, with an amazing 60.9 % to Pudge's 60.3% caught thief percentage. This year Rodriguez dropped to 10th place while Blanco slipped even more to 13th.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez continued his unbelievable rate of just 0.28 stolen bases per nine innings in 2002, far and away the lowest number of steals per nine among all catchers who caught at least 500 innings last summer. The MLB average of 0.550 SB/9 is the lowest in the past five years and some 15 points below the 1999 high of .700. Also the success rate for catching thieves throughout MLB has steadily increased over the past five years from a low of 27.1% in 1998 to a high of 32.4% in 2002. Are the base stealing police getting better overall or is something else at work?

Using the same minimum, here are the best of 2002 at catching thieves:

Take a look at the following chart. It lists the runners each catcher caught stealing (CCS), the stolen bases attempted (SBA), the stolen bases (SB) while he was behind the plate, the caught stealing percentage (CS%), and the stolen bases allowed per 9 innings (SB/9).

Catcher		Team	INN	G	CCS	SBA	SB	CS%	SB/9
LARUE	JASON	CIN	906.3	110	28	62	34	0.452	0.338
MOLINA	BEN	ANA	1014.3	121	35	78	43	0.449	0.382
DAVIS	BEN	SEA	538.7	77	18	41	23	0.439	0.384
SCHNEIDER	BRIAN	MON	521.7	65	20	46	26	0.435	0.449
REDMOND	MIKE	FLO	615.7	80	29	69	40	0.420	0.585
JOHNSON	CHARLES	FLO	638.3	82	25	62	37	0.403	0.522
LOPEZ	JAVY	ATL	815.3	103	33	87	54	0.379	0.596
MILLER	DAMIAN	ARI	763.0	100	25	66	41	0.379	0.484
HALL	TOBY	TBA	737.3	83	24	64	40	0.375	0.488
RODRIGUEZ	IVAN	TEX	836.3	100	15	41	26	0.366	0.280
GIL	GERONIMO	BAL	1068.7	125	35	96	61	0.365	0.514
JOHNSON	MARK	CHA	707.3	85	24	66	42	0.364	0.534
BLANCO	HENRY	ATL	594.7	79	21	58	37	0.362	0.560
LIEBERTHAL	MIKE	PHI	1127.3	129	28	79	51	0.354	0.407
FLAHERTY	JOHN	TBA	669.0	75	26	74	48	0.351	0.646
HUCKABY	KEN	TOR	683.0	88	20	57	37	0.351	0.488
MAYNE	BRENT	KCA	836.7	99	23	66	43	0.348	0.463
MATHENY	MIKE	SLN	830.3	106	23	66	43	0.348	0.466
KENDALL	JASON	PIT	1191.7	143	39	117	78	0.333	0.589
AUSMUS	BRAD	HOU	1079.0	129	31	96	65	0.323	0.542
LAMPKIN	TOM	SDN	710.3	94	18	57	39	0.316	0.494
LODUCA	PAUL	LAN	1184.0	137	42	135	93	0.311	0.707
GIRARDI	JOE	CHN	615.7	88	20	65	45	0.308	0.658
DIAZ	EINAR	CLE	833.3	100	36	118	82	0.305	0.886
MACHADO	ROBERT	ML4	520.0	48	14	46	32	0.304	0.554
SANTIAGO	BENITO	SFN	1066.7	125	25	83	58	0.301	0.489
PIERZYNSKI	A.J.	MIN	1035.7	124	19	64	45	0.297	0.391
BARRETT	MICHAEL	MON	931.3	110	24	83	59	0.289	0.570
POSADA	JORGE	NYA	1190.7	138	31	109	78	0.284	0.590
WILSON	DAN	SEA	902.7	113	17	60	43	0.283	0.429
INGE	BRANDON	DET	820.1	94	17	61	44	0.279	0.483
VARITEK	JASON	BOS	1064.7	127	31	112	81	0.277	0.685
BAKO	PAUL	ML4	587.7	76	16	61	45	0.262	0.689
HUNDLEY	TODD	CHN	604.3	79	20	77	57	0.260	0.849
BENNETT	GARY	COL	726.7	90	12	53	41	0.226	0.508
HINCH	A.J.	KCA	527.3	68	9	48	39	0.188	0.666
PIAZZA	MIKE	NYN	1006.7	121	27	152	125	0.178	1.118
MLB Average			824.4	100	24	75	51	0.324	0.553