Who Are The Best Catchers to Run On?

Happy Friday the 13^th, everybody.

I want to follow-up today on a question raised by a subscriber, and mentioned by our own Sweet Lou yesterday. Most of the advice here will refer to those in rotisserie leagues, but can be applicable to fantasy points leagues too if your league places good value on SBs.

We are late in the season now, and making huge strides in calculated categories (like ERA, WHIP, and AVG) is all but impossible. One of the stats that can allow for big gains is stolen bases. If you have the potential to gain a couple of standings points with just a handful of swiped bags, you need to plan as carefully as you can in order to get those SBs. One way to make an informed decision on which of your potential speed threats to play is the opposing catcher’s Caught Stealing percentage (CS%). At this point in the season we have enough data to know who can throw out a good percentage of basestealers...and who can’t.

You shouldn’t make a decision based on this info if one player you’re comparing to another is simply a much better speed weapon. But, say you have to decide between two relatively middle-of-the-road guys like Chone Figgins (24 SBs) and Ryan Freel (22 SBs) for your starting lineup this week. If Chone is playing against the Twins and Henry Blanco (0.52 CS%), he’ll have a much tougher time stealing than Freel, who is facing the Braves and Johnny Estrada (0.18 CS%). In order to create this list, I divided up the players into NL and AL, and included only players who had caught 200 or more innings this year. A top half and bottom half are shown for each league. I wanted you to be able to see all the data for making up your lineups, not just the top two or three.

Top CS% -- National League

These are the guys you should use caution running against. They catch the most attempted basestealers.

NAME	GP	ATT	SB	CS	CS%
Yadier Molina,StL	29	9	3	6	0.67
Brian Schneider,Mon	93	51	26	25	0.49
Brent Mayne,LA/Ari	36	27	15	12	0.44
Javier Valentin,Cin	37	23	13	10	0.44
Eddie Perez,Atl	42	19	11	8	0.42
Dave Ross,LA	36	24	14	10	0.42
Jason Kendall,Pit	103	71	43	28	0.39
Yorvit Torrealba,SF	38	14	9	5	0.36
Ramon Castro,Fla	31	14	9	5	0.36
Paul Bako,ChC	30	37	24	13	0.35
Jason LaRue,Cin	78	41	27	14	0.34
Ramon Hernandez,SD	66	53	36	17	0.32
Vance Wilson,NYM	54	22	15	7	0.32
Raul Chavez,Hou	36	19	13	6	0.32
Gary Bennett,Mil	53	35	24	11	0.31
Robby Hammock,Ari	46	39	27	12	0.31

Bottom CS% -- National League

Give ‘em the green light. These are the guys you should use your speed weapons against. They catch the fewest attempted basestealers.

NAME	GP	ATT	SB	CS	CS%
Jason Phillips,NYM	53	33	23	10	0.30
Paul Lo Duca,LA/Fla	88	83	58	25	0.30
Chad Moeller,Mil	70	49	35	14	0.29
Juan Brito,Ari	37	35	25	10	0.29
Brad Ausmus,Hou	90	73	53	20	0.27
Miguel Ojeda,SD	41	11	8	3	0.27
Michael Barrett,ChC	92	63	46	17	0.27
Todd Greene,Col	40	29	22	7	0.24
Mike Matheny,StL	79	38	29	9	0.24
Mike Redmond,Fla	67	59	45	14	0.24
A.J. Pierzynski,SF	86	49	38	11	0.22
Mike Lieberthal,Phi	94	72	56	16	0.22
Einar Diaz,Mon	28	18	14	4	0.22
Charles Johnson,Col	80	69	54	15	0.22
Mike Piazza,NYM	41	37	30	7	0.19
Johnny Estrada,Atl	93	60	49	11	0.18
Todd Pratt,Phi	29	16	14	2	0.13

Top CS% -- American League

These are the guys you should use caution running against. They catch the most attempted basestealers.

NAME	GP	ATT	SB	CS	CS%
Henry Blanco,Min	77	48	23	25	0.52
Jose Molina,Ana	54	37	18	19	0.51
Kevin Cash,Tor	50	28	14	14	0.50
Gerald Laird,Tex	38	22	11	11	0.50
Sandy Alomar Jr.,CWS	44	43	25	18	0.42
Damian Miller,Oak	78	61	36	25	0.41
Joe Mauer,Min	32	18	11	7	0.39
Rod Barajas,Tex	68	41	26	15	0.37
Toby Hall,TB	84	47	30	17	0.36
Dan Wilson,Sea	78	53	34	19	0.36
Jorge Posada,NYY	95	65	44	21	0.32