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Rod Barajas is the catcher who couldn’t throw. It’s not easy being the catcher who can’t throw. The 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates were terrible at throwing out base stealers. In this episode of Baseball Bits, a Foolish Baseball production, stolen bases are our main focus. We’ll talk discuss concepts like Catcher Pop Time, a tool used to measure the best catcher arm and worst catcher arm. I’ll also be sure to talk about Ryan Doumit.

We’ll discuss the 2012 Brewers, who ran all over the Pirates. This video features plenty of Ryan Braun steals and Carlos Gomez steals. Also featured is the wonderful basestealer Michael Bourn, who was rarely caught stealing. What happened to stolen bases? I tried my best to answer. It revolves around teams stealing less in search of greater efficiency.

In the end, there’s a twist. We’ve thought of these steals as Rod Barajas stolen bases, but they’re really AJ Burnett stolen bases, Jared Hughes stolen bases, and Pittsburgh Pirates stolen bases. Throwing out baserunners is a team activity, not something solely reliant on the catcher to do. As easy as it is to watch JT Realmuto throwing out runners or Yadier Molina throwing out runners, they need their teammates to effective as well.

Statcast Pop Time Leaders: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/poptime
Barajas Padres interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIQX8S7asXQ

Soundtrack by William Kage: https://www.williamkage.com/

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