Who was best at throwing out runners, Bench, Campanella, Molina?

1948_Swell_Robinson

Some brainwork. Not looking at any other aspect of catching, but simply, which of these three catchers were better at throwing runners out? Bench, Campanella, or Molina?

Name.........SB......CS......CS%......League CS%
Bench.......610.....469......43%.......35%
Campy......187.....252......57%.......42%
Molina......520.....351......40%.......28%

There are different factors in the way the game was played in each of those eras that had an effect on stolen bases in general and on caught stealing %.....and the league CS% captures those aspects, but does it get it all?

LandrysFedora

Out of those 3 I would go with Mr. Bench, and I'm not sure how his stats bear out because I'm not much into stats but I would give an honorable mention on throwing out runners to Benito Santiago.

dallasactuary

Doing this over entire careers would take more time than even I am willing to spend, so I looked at just 1972. I looked at each NL team's primary catcher, and how many stolen bases were attempted against each of them. The great majority of catchers faced one stolen base attempt per game (per 9 - 11 innings):

Earl Williams - 9 (inninngs)
Fred Kendall - 10
Dave Rader - 10
Johnny Edwards - 10
John Bateman - 10
Terry Humphrey - 10
Ted Simmons - 10
Duffy Dyer - 10
Randy Hundley - 11

That leaves three catchers; the Dodgers couldn't settle on a catcher in 1972 and tried half their roster at the position. Chris Cannizzaro ended up playing the most - 525 innings - and faced a stolen base once every 13 innings. I don't know if that's just random noise or something meaningful.

Next up is Manny Sanguillen; not known as a great defensive catcher because he made a lot of errors, but he was excellent at throwing out runners, particularly early in his career. He faced a a stolen base only once every 16 innings.

That leaves Johnny Bench. Bench faced a stolen base once every 21 innings - less than half as often as the rest of the league.

The point of all this is that stolen base attempts don't just occur randomly. If Johnny Bench is behind the plate, Joe Torre doesn't try to steal second, but Lou Brock does; Doug Rader doesn't try, but Cesar Cedeno does; Dave Kingman doesn't try, but Bobby Bonds does. That Johnny Bench was throwing out runners at a rate 20% better than the league average doesn't even tell half the story. Johnny Bench was throwing out the best baserunners at a rate 20% better than the rest of the league was throwing out all baserunners. I think a similar analysis of Molina would show the same thing.

1948_Swell_Robinson

@dallasactuary said:
Doing this over entire careers would take more time than even I am willing to spend, so I looked at just 1972. I looked at each NL team's primary catcher, and how many stolen bases were attempted against each of them. The great majority of catchers faced one stolen base attempt per game (per 9 - 11 innings):

Earl Williams - 9 (inninngs)
Fred Kendall - 10
Dave Rader - 10
Johnny Edwards - 10
John Bateman - 10
Terry Humphrey - 10
Ted Simmons - 10
Duffy Dyer - 10
Randy Hundley - 11

That leaves three catchers; the Dodgers couldn't settle on a catcher in 1972 and tried half their roster at the position. Chris Cannizzaro ended up playing the most - 525 innings - and faced a stolen base once every 13 innings. I don't know if that's just random noise or something meaningful.

Next up is Manny Sanguillen; not known as a great defensive catcher because he made a lot of errors, but he was excellent at throwing out runners, particularly early in his career. He faced a a stolen base only once every 16 innings.

That leaves Johnny Bench. Bench faced a stolen base once every 21 innings - less than half as often as the rest of the league.

The point of all this is that stolen base attempts don't just occur randomly. If Johnny Bench is behind the plate, Joe Torre doesn't try to steal second, but Lou Brock does; Doug Rader doesn't try, but Cesar Cedeno does; Dave Kingman doesn't try, but Bobby Bonds does. That Johnny Bench was throwing out runners at a rate 20% better than the league average doesn't even tell half the story. Johnny Bench was throwing out the best baserunners at a rate 20% better than the rest of the league was throwing out all baserunners. I think a similar analysis of Molina would show the same thing.

That is a good analysis.

Justacommeman

All I know is Pudge had the best arm I ever saw. Ropes and seeds

m