Pretty interesting look at Cardinal catchers from Viva El Birdos blog member Solanus
I think it's fairly obvious that Molina is a vastly superior framer to Knizner and I am never going to make the claim that they're even relatively close to each other in that regard, but it is kind of interesting to look at the Umpire Scorecards and see how Yadi is getting it done.
Through Wednesday's games, the Cardinals are 28-17 with Molina starting; in those contests, our pitchers gained a benefit from framing of +10.76 runs. In those wins, the advantage was +8.08 runs; for the losses, it was still +2.68 runs.
With Knizner starting, we're 30-28, with his framing having relatively no difference either way (+0.48 total, +0.35 in wins, +0.13 in losses).
A huge reason why Molina has such a huge lead in value is that he gets to catch Wainwright more often and combined they get more calls than they would separately:
Yadi & Adam (& subsequent relievers) as the starting battery, 15 starts, +8.28 runs
Yadi as the starting catcher with any other starter, 30 starts, +2.48 runs
Adam as the starting pitcher (plus any relievers), 8 starts, +1.91 runs (AK, 6 games, +1.63)
Mikolas has 7 starts with Molina (+1.35) and 17 with Knizner (+2.75) - not much difference
Hudson has 13 starts with Knizner (+1.06) and 8 with all others (-1.32) - AK has better framing, but worse record (5-8 v 4-4)
Hicks has 2 starts with Molina (-0.27) and 6 with Knizner (-2.49) - oof
Matz has 7 starts with Knizner (+1.79) and 3 with Molina (-0.76) - 6-1 with Andrew, 1-2 w/Yadier
Liberatore has 4 starts with Molina (+1.60) and 2 with all others (+0.10)
Pallante doesn't get calls regardless (10 starts, -3.90 total)
All other starters have 9 starts with Yadi/Ivan (+2.34) and 5 starts with Kizz (-1.72)
Molina is an excellent framer and Knizner has plenty of work to do, but a huge portion of the gap comes down to who gets more Waino starts and who gets more Hicks/Pallante starts (3 for Yadi for -0.86 runs, 10 for Kizz for -5.03 runs).
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