(Minimum 40 Attempts per Season)

A few notes are in order and are included below.

1. The analysis considered the 1958-2000 seasons plus Roy Campanella's career, since Retrosheet has play by play data for all of his games.
2. Retrosheet does not have all games for all years. The record is complete from 1974-2000 for both leagues and 1963-2000 for the AL. At least 95% of all games were available for each season.
3. Only catchers who allowed 40 attempts per season were considered (except that all Campanella seasons were included). There were 1569 catcher-seasons meeting these criteria.
4. The top 10 catchers for 2000 are presented below in the first table. The team abbreviations should be self-explanatory. SB2 is the number of steals of second against this catcher, CS2 the number of runners he caught stealing; SB3 and CS3 are the corresponding numbers at third base. The first percentage (Pct) is the percentage of runners thrown out trying to steal second. The second percentage is the combination of action at second and third bases.
5. The 10 worst performances for 2000 are in the second table. The point is not to embarrass anyone, but to show the range for a single season. It should be noted that Mike Piazza's problems in 2000 are not typical for him since his career average is 21.6%.
6. The top 20 single season performances for the entire data set analyzed are presented next. The single line following that is the worst single season percentage of success, by Luis Pujols.
7. Only caught stealing initiated by the catcher were included. Since 1979 a runner can be charged with caught stealing on a pickoff from the pitcher if he tries to advance; rule 10.08(h)(2).
6. The next table contains career values, considering only those catchers allowing at least 100 attempts. There were 320 such catchers. The worst career performance follows that table.
7. The percentage of caught stealing has changed dramatically in the last 40 years. The final table gives the values for each fifth year from 1960 to 2000. The intervening years were omitted to make the table less cluttered; they are available upon request.

Conclusions:
1. Roy Campanella was extraordinary. He has the top three single season performances and five of the top six. In 1948 and 1952 he caught more than two thirds of the runners trying to steal second. The usual assumption is the "break even" point from a runner's point of view is 70% success (somewhat lower values are favored by some analysts). Campanella essentially reversed that figure. 2. The most recent single season performance better than Blanco's in 2000 was turned in by Bob Boone in 1982. All of the others are much older. When the changing league percentages are taken into account, Blanco's record last year becomes even more impressive.
3. Ivan Rodriguez is widely regarded as a great throwing catcher; he and Blanco are the only contemporary catchers on the career list below. However, Rodriguez does not have an individual season in the top 20. His best totals were marks of 53.2% and 52.8% in 1999 and 1997, respectively. 4. Benito Santiago is also frequently praised for his throwing abilities. His best single season was 165th on the list, with a value of 43.4% in 1994 and he is at position 164 on the career list with a mark of 30.2
5. The percentages presented here must be considered in the context of opportunities. For example (data not shown here), one effect of Santiago and Rodriguez has been that opposing runners attempt to steal much less often when they are behind the plate. It is necessary to balance the frequency of attempt with the percentage of success. That analysis is much more complicated and will not be presented here.