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Thread: In ‘18 Tony Wolters ranked #9 in framing runs at 10.2 Last year he fell to the 107th ranked C with -8.8 framing runs with nearly 3,000 more framing chances in 2019. Using video & data from Baseball Savant I wanted to see if I could find a reason for the decline..
From what I gathered, not much changed as far as Wolters receiving style/mechanics/setups between the 2 years. Wolters’ heat-maps on shadow zone (borderline) pitches show that in both years he excelled at adding strikes on either side of the plate.
The video tells the same story. In both 18 & 19, Wolters was able to add strikes by expanding the plate east & west by using a small push/pull back to the center of his body on pitches off the plate.
However: if you look back to the heatmaps, he struggled both up in the zone & down in the zone. Especially down in the zone, which is were we have the most opportunities to add K’s for our P staff generally. A few things stuck out to me watching his receiving down in the zone..
In both years, Wolters had similar tendencies: he gives up on some pitches that are, IMO, presentable. Pitches that should be clear K’s he simply sticks. Pitches slightly below the zone he tries to use a slight lift back into the zone that doesn’t seem to work consistently..
IMO, the inconsistency is his setups, especially the wide, active secondary stance also hurts him when trying to capture borderline pitches down in the zone..
Wolters does do some good things as well in his receiving: generally good timing to catch, works down to up, & slightly manipulates ball back up & to the center which does seem to allow him to capture some strikes below the zone, just not consistently.
Suggestions:
As athletic & dynamic as Wolters is, I believe finding his best receiving position(s) & learning to block & throw from there could be really beneficial. Seeing him in a 1 knee system would be really intriguing w/ him already transitioning into 1 knee blocks often..
As athletic & dynamic as Wolters is, I believe finding his best receiving position(s) & learning to block & throw from there could be really beneficial. Seeing him in a 1 knee system would be really intriguing w/ him already transitioning into 1 knee blocks often..
I also think he could benefit from moving the ball more on borderline pitches below the zone. W/ implementation of more receiving friendly setups & more vertical lift (see Hedges below) on pitches below the zone, I think he could be right back in the mix as a top 10 pitch framer
If you read all of this, thank you, you’re clearly as nuts or as bored as I am. Stay safe 
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