Top Twenty-Five Catchers
Catching Base Stealers
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One measure of a catcher's defensive ability is his Percentage of Base Stealers Caught (CS%). For the would-be thieves success means stealing a base more than 75% of the time. For the catcher success at stopping these thieves would be a CS rate greater than 25% (keeping the thieves below 75% which is the breakeven point for a runner).

Since 1956 there have been many seasons where catchers have excelled at nabbing base runners intent on stealing. The very best performance (minimum 50 SBA's) for Catching Base Stealers 1956-2007 was by Gus Triandos of the Baltimore Orioles in 1957. He caught 2/3 (66%) of every attempt. The below list is the Top 25 Seasonal Performances in the last 52 years:

Catcher Year Tm SB CS SBA CS%
Gus Triandos 1957 BAL 21 42 63 0.6667
Bob O'Farrell 1922 CHN 41 70 111 0.6306
Jason LaRue 2001 CIN 27 42 69 0.6087
Dick Bertell 1963 CHN 29 44 73 0.6027
Larry McLean 1911 CIN 37 55 92 0.5978
Thurman Munson 1971 NYA 23 34 57 0.5965
Earl Battey 1960 WS1 29 41 70 0.5857
Henry Blanco 2000 MIL 28 39 67 0.5821
Bob Boone 1982 CAL 46 64 110 0.5818
Ellie Rodriguez 1971 MIL 30 41 71 0.5775
Rick Dempsey 1977 BAL 30 41 71 0.5775
Clay Dalrymple 1967 PHI 22 30 52 0.5769
Mike Ryan 1968 PHI 25 34 59 0.5763
Ivan Rodriguez 2001 TEX 23 31 54 0.5741
Johnny Bench 1969 CIN 30 40 70 0.5714
Johnny Bench 1972 CIN 24 31 55 0.5636
Jerry Grote 1969 NYN 31 40 71 0.5634
Ivan Rodriguez 1998 TEX 38 49 87 0.5632
Jim Sundberg 1977 TEX 43 55 98 0.5612
Clay Dalrymple 1961 PHI 36 45 81 0.5556
Yogi Berra 1957 NYA 29 36 65 0.5538
Tim McCarver 1967 SLN 30 37 67 0.5522
Jimmy Archer 1911 CHN 49 60 109 0.5505
Ray Fosse 1973 OAK 41 50 91 0.5495
Yogi Berra 1958 NYA 23 28 51 0.5490

The Career Best CS% by a Catcher is by Roy Campanella whose astounding 57% is way ahead of every other catcher in the 1956-2007 period. The following list is the Top 25 career totals:

Catcher SB CS SBA CS%
Roy Campanella 181 242 423 0.5721
Clay Dalrymple 321 306 627 0.4880
Yogi Berra 154 141 295 0.4780
Dick Bertell 150 137 287 0.4774
Ivan Rodriguez 639 579 1218 0.4754
Gus Triandos 237 207 444 0.4662
Sherm Lollar 190 163 353 0.4618
Del Crandall 275 229 504 0.4544
Steve Lake 185 154 339 0.4543
Joe Azcue 244 201 445 0.4517
Thurman Munson 533 427 960 0.4448
Elston Howard 285 221 506 0.4368
Mike Ryan 234 181 415 0.4361
Johnny Bench 610 469 1079 0.4347
Earl Battey 276 212 488 0.4344
Buck Rodgers 283 215 498 0.4317
Henry Blanco 281 210 491 0.4277
Jerry May 177 131 308 0.4253
Randy Hundley 399 293 692 0.4234
Johnny Roseboro 406 297 703 0.4225
Hal Smith 156 112 268 0.4179
Bob Kearney 224 159 383 0.4151
Ellie Rodriguez 334 235 569 0.4130
Ron Karkovice 401 281 682 0.4120
Jim Sundberg 1012 708 1720 0.4116