In Win Shares, Bill James makes note of an interesting trend that has been occurring in baseball since in began, and is completely undocumented. That trend is the decrease in independent putouts by catchers through time.
As most of you probably know, strikeouts are counted as putouts for catchers. So, catchers tend to have an extraordinarily high number of putouts, sometimes even more than the first basemen. Independent putouts by catchers are simply when we take the team's strikeouts, and subtract them from the team's catcher's putouts.
At the beginning of history, independent putouts by catchers were extremely common. Over time then have been substantially decreasing, and the trend is still in place today. In 1876, strikeouts accounted for less than one fourth of catcher's putouts (589 of 2400). In 2000, SOs accounted for 97% of catcher putouts. As James says, "Essentially, one full play per game-1/27th of all putouts-have moved, over time, away from catchers to other fielders."
He does later state a possible explanation, that the disappearance of the high strike and the thin handled bats have caused it. But, he really doesn't seem to have much confidence in that theory.
What do you guys think about this? Any other theories out there?
As most of you probably know, strikeouts are counted as putouts for catchers. So, catchers tend to have an extraordinarily high number of putouts, sometimes even more than the first basemen. Independent putouts by catchers are simply when we take the team's strikeouts, and subtract them from the team's catcher's putouts.
At the beginning of history, independent putouts by catchers were extremely common. Over time then have been substantially decreasing, and the trend is still in place today. In 1876, strikeouts accounted for less than one fourth of catcher's putouts (589 of 2400). In 2000, SOs accounted for 97% of catcher putouts. As James says, "Essentially, one full play per game-1/27th of all putouts-have moved, over time, away from catchers to other fielders."
He does later state a possible explanation, that the disappearance of the high strike and the thin handled bats have caused it. But, he really doesn't seem to have much confidence in that theory.
What do you guys think about this? Any other theories out there?
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