Lucroy's Catching

[mletto157]

Has anyone else noticed that the Brewers pitching has suddenly gotten better with the promotion of Lucroy to the starting catcher? All of a sudden the Brewers are having 0-2 walks a game instead of the 4-6 they were getting before?

 

I'm actually not sure if this is a coincidence. Since he's been up I've noticed our pitchers consistently getting more balls counted as strikes. I've started to watch his framing of the pitches and it's pretty awesome. With many catchers you see them catch the ball and move their glove to the strike zone as they are trying to frame the pitch to make it look like a strike. With Jonathan, he almost starts moving his glove from off the strike zone and continues to move it for a split second after he catches it before it stops. When watching in full speed it literally looks like he moved it to the strike zone to catch the ball and hence gets that ball called a strike. Every game when they show the strike-zone tracker on called strike threes, many of the pitches are out of the zone and Lucroy makes them look like strikes. It's really not until the replay that you even notice they were balls.

 

I was just curious if anyone else has noticed this as well. Also, if there are any statistics to support what I've been seeing? I can't check at work since sports sites are blocked (yet I still have access to Brewerfan forums, thank God!).

[logan82]

http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=22637

[mletto157]

Thanks logan. Mods, you can lock this one if you like.