By Blaidd Drwg
The 9 stolen base disaster the other day got me thinking – I always heard that the Sox, and Jason Varitek in particular, were easy to run against, so I thought I would take a look at just how easy it is to steal against them. The following chart represents the numbers for all Sox catchers over the last 16 seasons. Generally, all of the Sox catchers have been below average to terrible.
| Year | SBA | CS | PCT CS | Rank | League Avg | MGR | Catcher(s) |
| 2010 | 36 | 1 | 3% | 29 | 25% | Francona | Martinez, Varitek |
| 2009 | 151 | 23 | 13% | 30 | 28% | Francona | Varitek, Kottaras |
| 2008 | 96 | 32 | 25% | 21 | 27% | Francona | Varitek, Cash |
| 2007 | 107 | 32 | 23% | 19 | 26% | Francona | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2006 | 108 | 23 | 18% | 29 | 29% | Francona | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2005 | 87 | 29 | 25% | 21 | 29% | Francona | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2004 | 123 | 31 | 20% | 30 | 30% | Little | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2003 | 101 | 35 | 26% | 26 | 31% | Little | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2002 | 118 | 50 | 30% | 20 | 32% | Little | Varitek, Mirabelli |
| 2001 | 223 | 51 | 19% | 30 | 31% | Williams/Kerrigan | Hatteberg, Varitek |
| 2000 | 159 | 47 | 23% | 28 | 31% | Williams | Varitek, Hatteberg |
| 1999 | 159 | 58 | 27% | 25 | 31% | Williams | Varitek, Hatteberg |
| 1998 | 132 | 58 | 31% | 18 | 31% | Williams | Hatteberg, Varitek |
| 1997 | 171 | 53 | 24% | 29 | 32% | Williams | Hatteberg,Haselman |
| 1996 | 147 | 36 | 20% | 29 | 29% | Kennedy | Stanley,Haselman |
| 1995 | 80 | 41 | 34% | 10 | 30% | Kennedy | MacFarlane,Haselman |
| 1994 | 98 | 38 | 28% | 23 | 31% | Hobson | Berryhill, Rowland |
A couple notes about the chart – the League Avg column represents the percentage of baserunners thrown out in all of baseball for a particular year and the Catchers column has the starting catcher listed first (by number of games caught) and the primary backup catcher listed second. Notice the trend down in SB CS % – I keep hearing that teams are being more selective about the places they are choosing to steal (unless you are the Mariners this season) and those numbers seem to indicate that. I was surprised that the Sox were 29th this season in CS % with teams running all over them (the next most attempts against a single team is 18). The Nationals are last with a 0% CS rate, although their opponents have only attempted 6 SB against them, so for the purposes of this exercise, I feel pretty confident saying the Sox have the easiest battery to run against. This chart makes one thing obvious – historically, the Sox are generally in the bottom third of the league in throwing guys out. Really makes me wonder how many runs this has cost them over the years. So, where does the problem lie? Is it Varitek, is it the other catchers, is it the pitcher, manager or some combination of them. Here is the chart of Jason Varitek vs. the other catchers. In most of these seasons, the other catcher represent the battery of Wakefield and the catcher who is not Varitek.
| Other Catchers | Varitek | ||||||
| Year | SBA | CS | CS PCT | SBA | CS | CS PCT | |
| 2010 | 25 | 1 | 4% | 11 | 0 | 0% | |
| 2009 | 43 | 7 | 14% | 108 | 16 | 13% | |
| 2008 | 30 | 16 | 35% | 56 | 16 | 22% | |
| 2007 | 44 | 12 | 21% | 63 | 20 | 24% | |
| 2006 | 62 | 10 | 14% | 46 | 13 | 22% | |
| 2005 | 22 | 8 | 27% | 65 | 21 | 24% | |
| 2004 | 46 | 8 | 15% | 77 | 23 | 23% | |
| 2003 | 40 | 12 | 23% | 61 | 23 | 27% | |
| 2002 | 37 | 19 | 51% | 81 | 31 | 28% | |
| 2001 | 172 | 33 | 16% | 51 | 18 | 26% | |
| 2000 | 55 | 13 | 19% | 104 | 34 | 25% | |
| 1999 | 35 | 12 | 25% | 124 | 46 | 27% | |
| 1998 | 83 | 39 | 32% | 49 | 19 | 28% |
FlatbreadGarden 