5 Reasons Jonathan Lucroy is an Elite MLB Catcher

Lucroy is One of the Best Catchers in MLB

Believe it or not, Milwaukee Brewers fans, you have a catcher among the top five in all of the MLB. If the 2012 and 2013 seasons are any indication, it’s clear to see how Jonathan Lucroy fits into the top tier of backstops in baseball.

After years of suffering through the likes of Johnny Estrada, Paul Bako, Gary Bennett and Chad Moeller (just to name a few), the Brewers faithful should be fully behind their 27-year-old catcher as he has quickly risen up the professional ranks.

Catcher may be the most difficult area to truly quantify a player's value. Many of the important aspects of the job defensively either have no statistic or they are challenging to accurately assess.

The greatest catchers encompass a well-rounded set of skills both behind the plate and offensively. It's relatively easy to see a player's production as a hitter, but that's only part of his value. Catchers who excel on defense will have a greater influence on the outcome of his games throughout the season. Because pitching still has the biggest effect on the success of a team, a catcher's impact can be felt the most behind the dish by blocking balls, framing pitches and working well with pitchers.

Lucroy has developed into a consistent offensive contributor and a skilled defensive catcher, making him as valuable as any catcher in the league.

5. Blue Collar Mentality

Being a catcher already requires a certain toughness and mental strength to simply survive the entire season. Lucroy plays with a hard-nosed desire to win each day, displaying the type of "win at all costs" attitude that fans and teammates love. Lucroy pushes to get the best out of his ability each time out, a priceless inner drive that separates the good from the great.

4. Approach at the Plate

Doing whatever it takes to win leads Lucroy to hit well situationally. While old-school baseball people fight with SABRmatricians over the idea of being clutch, some players do change their approach to maximize their at-bats. Lucroy is the type of hitter that will work the count and fight to stay alive at the dish.

He consistently looks to hit the ball to the opposite field and often gets the desired results for the situation. He's been a constant producer in run-scoring situations, with a .331 batting average, .388 on-base percentage and an .804 OPS with runners in scoring position the past two years.

3. Blocking Balls

One area pitchers can trust Lucroy to shine defensively is blocking pitches in the dirt. Passed pitch runs (RPP) measures the number of runs above or below average a catcher is at blocking balls. Thus, an RPP of zero in a single season would be average. Since the start of 2012, Lucroy has the highest RPP in all of baseball with a total of 8.2. To compare other respected catchers, Yadier Molina is second (7.8) and Buster Posey is third (6.3).

The eye test confirms what the numbers suggest. Lucroy shows great flexibility to slide and dive in front of errant pitches, utilizing tremendous form to block balls in front of him and quick, soft hands to pick balls clean out of the dirt.

2. Offensive Weapon

While missing two months to injury in 2012 muted his totals, Lucroy's rate numbers were excellent: .320 batting average, .368 on-base, .513 slugging percentage and an .881 OPS. His 2013 campaign was solid as well, falling just short of another .800 OPS season, driving in 82 runs and posting a 3.6 WAR (wins above replacement) in 147 games.

Over the past two seasons, among catchers that had at least 900 plate appearances and 1,000 innings caught, “Luc” resides in the upper echelon in MLB.

.744 slugging percentage (third)

.295 batting average (third)

7.3 wins above replacement (third)

.357 weighted on-base average (third)

.827 on-base plus slugging (third)

.350 on-base percentage (fifth)

140 runs batted in (sixth)

30 home runs (eighth)

For the record, Joe Mauer's stats were not included in these rankings, because he will be a first baseman in 2014. Only Posey and Molina are better all-around hitters. Minus Mauer, Lucroy enters 2014 in the top three in MLB in five offensive categories among catchers, and he sits in the top eight of eight offensive statistics for his position.

1. Framing Pitches

One tremendous skill a catcher can use to his advantage and greatly help out his hurlers is the ability to earn strikes by framing pitches. There has been some terrific research done in the last few years to quantify the effects of catchers receiving pitches well (Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs). Among the different charts, numbers, graphs and video, you'll find Lucroy scored highly among the various parameters and measurements behind framing pitches effectively.

According to one of those studies (2007-2011), Lucroy was the second-best catcher at "saving runs" with an average of 24 runs saved per 120 games. Only Jose Molina, Yadier's older brother, had a better average (35). Lucroy definitely earns extra strikes and rarely takes them away from his pitchers on their deliveries.

Add everything up on both sides of the ball and Lucroy is one of the best catchers in MLB.