Plunk Everyone

Is it just your imagination, or are there a whole lot of old catchers hanging around the major leagues these days? Brad Ausmus is still catching at age 40, and Gregg Zaun and Mike Redmond are 38. Five more 37 year olds have started at least one game at catcher this year, and two 36 year olds, and two more 35 year olds - including Jason Kendall who turns 35 before July 1st of this season, which makes him 35 in baseball years*. In fact, 17.3% of this years starts at catcher have been by guys in the 35 or older age demographic. There has only been one year since 1960 in which more starting lineups included catcher past their 35th birthday, and that was just two years ago in 2007. From 1960 to 1984 there was never a season when more than 10% of starts went to catchers over 35, and there were a couple of years in there where NO catchers over 35 started. From 1985 through 1991, catchers over 35 got over 10% of starts, but then it dipped back below that threshold until 2001, and older catchers have been starting over 10% of games ever since.

But catching is supposed to be the most brutal position in the game - causing all kinds of injuries and wear and tare on the body and so forth. Right? So why are there so many older catchers still starting? Maybe the league is just getting older in general? That's true to some extent, but among all position players, 10.6% of starts have gone to players over 35 this year. Excluding catchers, that number is 9.6%. Of course 25.4% of starting Designated Hitters have been over 35 this year, but that makes sense, since the DH was invented to be an age-ed sluggers phased-retirement program, from before the concept of phased-retirement became popular. Designated Hitters are the only group with a greater percentage of starts going to players over 35 than catchers have. The average baseball age* of catchers, weighted by starts this year, is 29.7, which is once again oldest among position players.

So to summarize, there are a lot of old-ish catchers getting an awful lot of playing time this year. This is interesting from a demographic point of view, but it also holds significance for the all time record for getting hit by pitches. Jason Kendall is the next best hope to unify the "Modern" and "All Time" HBP records by getting to 288 plunks and passing both Craig Biggio and Hughie Jennings. He turns 35 in June so time is not on his side (and neither is his bat). But if catchers are playing later into their lives for some reason, or if minor league systems just aren't producing good young catchers for some reason, that gives Jason Kendall more time to get plunked another 52 times.

One of the reasons you often hear for catchers like Kendall, and Jason Varitek, and others who have lost a lot of their ability to actually hit the ball, to keep a team's starting catcher job is that they handle the pitching well. They act like extra managers and extra pitching coaches on the field, or so the theory goes. Yet for some reason, it doesn't occur to anybody to just hire the guy as a "catching coach" and let a younger player who still has cartiledge in his knees take over. From the catchers point of view it works out nicely, because they'll make more money as a player than they will after their inevitable transition into coaching. But it does make you wonder if older catchers really do handle those pitching staffs any better than younger ones. So, here's the combined catcher's ERA by age group for the 2005 through 2008 seasons:

Under 25 - 4.38
25 to 29 - 4.44
30 to 34 - 4.46
35 and over - 4.25

So yeah, pitching staffs throwing to catchers over 35 seem to do better in terms of earned run average than those throwing to catchers under 35. Grouped that way, the earned run average of 35 and over catchers is 4.25 and everyone else is 4.43. So maybe there is some truth to the theory of the crafty veteran catcher like the imaginary former Indian Jake Taylor, and the imaginary former Durham Bull, Crash Davis.

That sounds like a much better theory to explain why catchers are playing to such advanced ages thes day than something that involves getting batters hit by pitches. But, I better try it anyway. From 2005 to 2008, major league batters with a catcher under 25 years old calling pitches behind them have been hit once every 119.1 plate appearances. With catchers between 25 and 29, batters have been hit once every 107.6 plate appearances. Catchers between 30 and 34 have gotten batters plunked once every 102.8 plate appearnaces, and catcher 35 and older have called pitches that find their way into a batter's body once every 102.6 plate appearances. But I probably can't argue that teams are keeping older catchers on their teams longer just so they can get more batters hit by pitches... can I?

Catchers 35 years old and older get opposing batters plunked 4.7% more often than catchers younger than 35. Actually that wasn't that hard. It makes sense that teams would want more reliable veteran players at the catching position, because they're the most likely to show up early for spring training to help their annual plotting of what batters are going to get hit by pitches in the upcoming season.


Of course the real reason behind the demographic shift in the catching position is that the league is secretly run by catcher cults. This post from my old site doesn't even mention the vast Molina Conspiracy, or the Hollywood area Scioscialist movement, but it does discuss the Maurists, 'tekites, Irodians, Yogis, Benchlians and Posada's Witnesses among others. But I'm not really allowed to talk about that.



*-For some reason, baseball calculates a player's age in a given season base on his age at July 1st. It has something to do with his Little League eligibility I think.