Gary Sánchez is a Traitor to the Masked Brotherhood

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Gary Sánchez has challenged 14 called strikes this season. No other batter in the majors has challenged more than 11. Sánchez should probably challenge less often, based solely on the fact that he's only 6-for-14. He thinks he knows the outside edge of the strike zone, but he's wrong. Thirteen of the 14 challenges he's mounted came on pitches on that side of the zone. Sánchez, an extreme pull hitter trying to get a pitch up and on the inner half to generate damage, wants to stop pitchers from stealing strikes on him in a sector where he can't do much, anyway. That makes sense in a vacuum, but he's cost the Brewers one of their challenges several times.

In fact, Sánchez has challenged 17.7% of all called strikes against him this season. That number is an outlier for any group; only Josh Naylor and Mark Vientos have higher challenge rates. However, it's especially notable given the subgroup to which Sánchez belongs, within the broader population of hitters: catchers.

For as long as there has been a strike zone, catchers have tried to shape and expand it, and that has always been (in part) a political endeavor. Yes, there are vital physical aspects to pitch-framing, but catchers also work umpires with conversations between pitches and the long, slow development of relationships. That's not to say that umpires consciously favor catchers they like; it's just a reflection of reality. Good communication with the ump helps them understand what you're trying to do, and what you're not trying to do (i.e., bamboozle them). Listen to any color commentator over the last 40 years (many of them former catchers!), and you'll hear talk about a catcher being more deferential than most batters when they're at the plate. Why? Because they want that call for their pitcher, too.

It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that catchers challenge pitches less often than any other position group under the ABS system. It's a noticeable gap, too. Here's the share of all initially called strikes challenged by hitters, split by defensive position.

• Catcher: 2.65%
• First Base: 4.54%
• Second Base: 3.34%
• Shortstop: 4.16%
• Third Base: 3.63%
• Outfield: 3.87%
• Designated Hitter: 4.19%

It's not just blather from old, leathery baseball men anymore. Here is concrete evidence that when catchers take their turns in the batter's box, they're still politicking for their pitchers. They might see the ball and understand the edges of the zone a bit better than some of their counterparts at other positions, too, but inarguably, catchers are trading some potential offensive value at the margins for the odd call when they're working the zone themselves, behind the dish.

Even Sánchez feels this pressure. Of those 14 challenges, three came when he was playing first base, and another nine came on days when he was serving as the Brewers' DH. Only twice has he challenged a call on a day when he was actually catching, and one of those came on a pitch that missed the zone by the width of a baseball—one egregious enough that Sánchez dared not even dream of getting the call himself on a consistent basis.

That's a fascinating insight into the nature of this dynamic. If a player sometimes catches but is serving in a different capacity that day, what drives them to be more challenge-prone? Is it a greater sense of pressure to deliver value offensively? Is the understanding between catchers and umps deep and tangled enough that a batter-catcher knows their zone at the plate is truly tied to the one they'll get behind it, in a way that doesn't transfer to the same player on days when they're not the backstop? Either way, it's interesting that Sánchez is opting out of any efforts at diplomacy—but only when he's not the catcher for that day.

Unwritten though they might be, rules are rules, and there are real, unwritten rules growing around ABS. For one, catchers have agreed not to waste the ump's time or challenge their acuity as eagerly when they're in the batter's box, instead of the catcher's box. Sánchez is defying those frameworks, but even he can't flout them outright—at least, not when it's his turn to catch. 

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[Playing Catch]

I haven't looked at any data, but it seems like Sanchez is often the one that uses the last challenge of the game, when it's late, and there's one available. 

But even if that's not the case, the challenge success rate only tells part of the story. Another part of the story is that Sanchez was hot early with challenges, and perhaps Murph and others give him the green light, when others (Vaughn??) don't yet have that option, lest they be optioned/DFA'd (Greg Jones). Sanchez is also brought up as a pinch-hitter in key spots, where using a challenge is leveraged.

The system, and the unknown strategies that lie therein, I think, will remain mysterious until maybe the All-Star break, when teams have had enough experience and data to formulate some kind of conventional thought towards the system.

There's no doubt in my mind that the variance between players will be distinct, and real enough that some players/teams will use it differently based on the players skill-level. But then again, I thought torpedo bats were gunna be a thing for a minute there.

[Trax]

The team manager ultimately is in control here.  Set the per inning precedent and make it very clear.

[Brian]

You said he's an extreme pull hitter, yet he is challenging inside pitches he does not swing at.  Pitchers are obviously pitching him inside for crowding the plate so why not just move an inch further away from the plate since he thinks they are to inside to swing at? 

 

[wiguy94]

11 minutes ago, Brian said:

You said he's an extreme pull hitter, yet he is challenging inside pitches he does not swing at.  Pitchers are obviously pitching him inside for crowding the plate so why not just move an inch further away from the plate since he thinks they are to inside to swing at? 

So either Sanchez is stubborn or Daniel Vogelbach is a moron for a hitting coach. 

That's the outside of the plate for a right handed hitter

[Brian]

56 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

That's the outside of the plate for a right handed hitter

Your right about the diagram what was I thinking.  Here is the way the pitched him in 2022. The exact same way except even lower.  

http://fantasy.fangraphs.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/04/0f54fbe9-56cf-4122-a68c-759662943b50.jpg