Defensive catchers are on the decline, offensive catchers are the trend Framing has virtually lost its effect.
NC Kim Hyeong-jun and KIA Han Jun-su have solidified their positions as offensive catchers.
In professional baseball, the position of defensive catchers has narrowed, and the golden age of offensive catchers has opened up.
With the implementation of the Automatic Pitching System (ABS), where a computer determines strikes and balls, the main indicator for evaluating a catcher’s value appears to be shifting clearly from defense to offense.
In the KBO league, for several years now, catchers with both bat skills and defensive skills have been used rather than defensive catchers.
After ABS was implemented, catchers with better hitting skills began wearing masks more often.
When you think of a defensive catcher, things such as skillful ball mixing, stable pitching lead, blocking ability, and high base stealing percentage come to mind.
He also has the ability to frame the ball by moving his mitt well to trick the referee into thinking the ball is a strike.
However, with the introduction of precise ABS, the catcher’s framing has virtually lost its effectiveness.
In ABS, a pitcher’s ball must pass through the middle and latter half of the home plate strike zone at the same time to be considered a strike.
No matter how low the ball is lifted with the mitt or how high the ball is hit, if it does not pass the computer strike zone set according to the batter’s height, it is a ball. You can’t fool a machine with framing.
This season, the base size has increased from 15 square inches to 18 square inches, and as the distance between each base has decreased, stolen bases are on the rise.
Since this trend cannot be prevented with the catcher’s ability, each team relies more on the checking ability of the pitcher, who is the first line of defense against stealing bases.
As such, the expectations placed on defensive catchers in the past have decreased significantly.
This change laid the foundation for Kang Baek-ho (KT Wiz), who played catcher in high school, to use the mask in the pros as well.
The leading catcher of the KIA Tigers this season is Kim Tae-gun, and the second resource to support him is Han Jun-su.
However, as of the 6th, Junsu Han had 72 at bats in 26 games, surpassing Taegun Kim (67 at bats in 23 games) in both the number of games played and the number of at bats.
The attractive point of Han Jun-su, a right-handed pitcher and left-handed hitter, is his batting ability. He recorded a batting average of 0.375, 13 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of 0.500, establishing himself as a slugger in the lower batting lineup. 고스톱