Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis got thrown out of a game on May 29th during the 2015 MLB season. Getting thrown out of a game is normally not an unusual event. However, Ellis getting tossed may well be considered unusual. First, he is not prone to unsportsmanlike behavior or arguing with umpires but during that game with the St. Louis Cardinals he got into a heated debate with home plate umpire Mike Winters. Secondly, the exchange that transpired between Ellis and Winters was even more unusual, and probably unique in the annuals of baseball history. During the exchange Winters critiqued Ellis’ catching style.

It’s one thing for coaches or fans to criticize A.J. Ellis’ catching style but when an umpire does it, that’s crossing the line. (Photo credit – Paul Sancya)

As the game progressed Ellis grew impatient with the calls by the home plate umpire and reacted when Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter drew a walk. The ensuing exchange between Ellis and Winters resulted in both the Dodgers catcher and manager Don Mattingly getting an early trip to the showers.

While complaining about the pitch call to Carpenter, Ellis was told by Winters that, “Your presentation wasn’t good.” Needless to say Ellis was surprised by Winters’ retort and no doubt responded in a manner that ensured his early exit from the game.

Former Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was was furious when home plate umpire Mike Winters ejected Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis which, of course, led to his own ejection.
(Photo credit – Jeff Curry)

What did Winters mean by “presentation”? It seems he was using a code word for “pitch framing.” In essence he was saying he didn’t like the way Ellis had caught the ball and was not interested in where the ball had crossed or missed the plate.

A.J. Ellis remained a bit out of character after the game still steaming from his rebuff by Winters.

“Their job is to call balls and strikes,” Ellis told Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett after the game. “It’s not their job to be a catching coach behind the plate. It’s not their job to be critical of what I’m doing. It shouldn’t even matter if there’s a catcher there or not. The ball comes through a zone and they need to take a look at that.

“People on blogs and websites can critique my framing but I’m not going to take it from an umpire because it’s not their job to do that,” added Ellis. “It’s their job to call balls and strikes based on what comes through a strike zone.”

Pitch framing as a skill, if it exists at all, must have always been a skill but has become the new catcher critiquing term in the past ten years or so. It seems baseball needs a new catch word or phrase or type of statistic every now and then.

So what is pitch framing ? According to QCBaseball.com it is :“The art of framing the baseball gives the illusion to the umpire that a ball just off the plate actually crossed the plate. It also gives the impression that the ball 5 or 6 inches off the plate just missed. The umpire may get the impression that the pitcher has very good control which can influence his calling of balls and strikes.”

It is interesting that QC Baseball defined pitch framing as an art. This was not the only reference that I came across which used the new catcher definer as an art. Perhaps next we will be able to award style points for catchers trying to dupe umpires.

Pardon my sarcasm but pitch framing, in my opinion, is a myth perpetuated by the need to have a new type of subjective stat pop up every few years. It is not substantive because even with PITCHf/x – a pitch tracking system created by Sportvision – a determination must be made if the umpire would have called a ball or strike with a pitch in the same location without a catcher. That is indeed impossible to do. Additionally there is no way to determine how many runs good pitch framing would save or poor pitch framing would give up.

Watching a game and observing how catchers receive the ball certainly puts pitch framing in the myth category. Catchers invariably pull pitches just off the plate in and those below the knees up and that includes former Dodgers catcher Russell Martin who carries a reputation as a good pitch framer.

Most Dodger fans and perhaps most baseball fans consider former Dodger pitcher Zack Greinke to be a high IQ guy with a correspondingly high baseball intellect. He is also known for calling them as he sees them. I like his take on pitch framing.

“I believe that some catchers are better at framing pitches. But I’m not a believer that it’s as valuable as it’s being made out to be,” Greinke said. “It’s part of a catcher’s skill set. It’s not the most important part. Just because he frames good doesn’t mean he’s a good catcher.”

Dodgers lefty and perennial Cy Young contender Clayton Kershaw seems to take a neutral position on the art of pitch framing and takes no position on the validity of a catcher’s ability to steal strikes. I might add that it is seldomly mentioned that if a catcher can steal strikes he might also turn a strike into a ball.

“I don’t know,” Kershaw said. “You just want strikes called strikes … I guess I’m in the middle. I don’t roll my eyes at it and I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it either.”

Interestingly enough, Kershaw prefers to pitch to his close friend A.J. Ellis. Perhaps that explains his agnostic position regarding pitch framing. Ellis unfortunately has gained a reputation for being a poor pitch framer while his catching teammate Yasmani Grandal is considered to be a top-5 pitch framer.

On the other hand perhaps Kershaw sees pitch framing as one of a subset of catching skills and on the lower end of the scale. Catching skills, among others, that would top pitch framing are: game calling, taking control of a game, throwing arm, blocking pitches, providing a good target, game preparation. It would be difficult to label A.J. Ellis sub-par in those catching skills.

Dodgers reliever Chris Hatcher, who was signed out of the University of North Carolina, began his professional career as a catcher. He broke into the big leagues with the Florida Marlins in 2010 as a backstop but was quickly converted to pitching. Hatcher does not subscribe to the metrics of pitch framing. For him putting a number to the skill or art is no easy task.

“How do you quantify it? It doesn’t take into account guys with late movement,” Hatcher said. “It’s easier to catch a pitch that’s 98 miles per hour straight versus 90 miles per hour with late sink.”

“Like a lot of statistics, it’s subjective,” said Kansas City Royals bench coach and catching coordinator Don Wakamatsu about pitch framing.

Needless to say Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi has no doubts about the value of pitch framing.

“It’s a skill that affects the game in such a nuanced way that it’s very easy to underestimate or overlook it,” said Zaidi. “The really interesting thing about framing for me is – it is pretty much one of, if not the, most persistent skills in baseball. “A batting average will fluctuate, a pitcher’s ERA will fluctuate way more than this metric of catcher framing will fluctuate.

Many consider Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal among the best pitch framers in the game today and is one of the reasons why Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi traded for him. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Okay, let’s suppose that pitch framing is real and not a myth. Why would umpires fall into the trap of having strikes stolen from them and putting the hitter at an even greater disadvantage? The hitter has just about the most difficult job in all of sports. That is, hitting a round ball traveling at 90 miles per hour moving away from the plane and doing so with a round bat. Not only that he must make a decision to swing or not in in about a quarter of a second. Why would umpires want to have a catcher call a strike for them under those circumstances , unless they were Ron Luciano?

When you boil it down to the bare bones, pitch framing is more of an indictment of home plate umpires than it is a positive for catchers. The simplicity of the strike zone, although a variant depending on the umpire, is that a pitch is a ball or a strike depending on where it crosses the plate or misses it. Where it is caught and how it is caught is irrelevant. If Buster Posey, regarded as a top notch pitch framer, is having that much affect on strikes that are being called when he catches, it means the home plate umpires are also becoming increasingly irrelevant. It further means that the only honest way to call balls and strikes is to go to e-balls and e-strikes which would be much more fair for the hitters.

What’s down the road with calling balls and strikes? Does PITCHf/x or PitchTrax or K-zone begin replacing the home plate umpire? I certainly expect that is not in the works for the near future. However, maybe we are actually beginning to move back towards umpires controlling their domain behind the plate. Are the umpires striking back?

Umpires must surely be aware that pitch framing is high on the agenda for catchers as more and more front offices are focusing on sabermetrics and analytics. They surely must be aware of the print media presentations surrounding the topic and they must be aware that baseball play-by-play announcers frequently speak with glee of a catcher stealing a strike when he yanks his glove to the edge of the strike zone. How else could they look at it other than as an indictment of their work?

FANGRAPHS released a research article by Jeff Sullivan on January 26th entitled The Beginning of the End for Pitch-Framing? In their study they found that the value of pitch framing is starting in a downward direction quite quickly. For instance, they found that the Top 10 framers in 2014 maintained only 57% of their value in 2015. That value is cut almost in half in one year and we also know that Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi maintains that the more traditional skills for players fluctuate much more than the metric for pitch framing. A 43% drop in one season is indeed a major fluctuation.

Sullivan speculates in his article that the umpires are responding to the controversy surrounding pitch framing which makes them look bad, and rightfully so. They know who the good pitch framers are and don’t want to be manipulated for a team’s gain. The 2016 season will definitely be a watershed season for pitch framing.

”It makes sense that, if umpires became aware of great pitch-framing, they might become aware of ways to call the game that have a little less to do with how a catcher moves,” writes Sullivan. “And you have to think framing has been on their radar.”

Whether pitch framing is a myth or a passing fad makes little difference as perhaps we are moving in the right direction to restore the integrity of the home plate umpires that they themselves lost by aiding and abetting catchers and pitchers to the detriment of hitters.

Look for a downward drift in the value of pitch framing to continue in 2016. The game will be better for that trend.