
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
There was a distinct difference in wins last year when Riley Adams started a game last year. The Washington Nationals had a .349 winning percentage in Adams’ 43-starts. Contrast that with Keibert Ruiz‘s .388 winning percentage in his 98-starts, and his advantage is six more wins over a full season. But if you go to cERA (catcher’s ERA), Adams had a distinct advantage at 4.54 versus Ruiz’s 5.11. Sure, cERA means very little in most cases because of the smaller sample sizes and matchups with the battery.
But drilling down further on these statistical differences make matters curious. Yes, Ruiz was the better hitter with a 90 wRC+ stat versus 56 for Adams. You might expect the opposite on those wins with that cERA, but the team only scored exactly 3.5 runs per game with Adams in the lineup versus 4.02 runs per game with Ruiz in the lineup. That half run in cERA was basically cancelled out by the offensive runs per game. Obviously there are other factors in the team scoring more runs when Ruiz starts because he is not a one-man wrecking crew with a bat. Continue reading