I can think of three (legitimate) ways a catcher can affect a pitcher's stats (plus a bonus possible affect that I personally find appealing): 1. Call a good game (select the right pitch, at the right location, at the right time) To be honest, I wouldn't recognize a catcher who calls a great game from one who calls a "just" good one. I probably wouldn't be able to recognize the difference between a great game-caller and an average one. In my mind, any competent catcher should perform at about the same level as other competent catchers. To this extent, I obviously don't see how Lucroy would be a clear upgrade here. 2. Control wild pitches Say a man is let on base by BB. Say he advances on a wild pitch. Say the batter hits a single, bringing in the run. Most likely, the baserunner would not have scored without the wild pitch. If a catcher can better control wild pitches, and prevent the ball from rolling/flying far from his reach, the pitcher should put fewer runners in scoring position, and thus allow fewer runs. Here again, however, I don't see any significant uptick with Lucroy. 3. Catch base-stealers Similar to above, stopping a man from advancing is an advantage for the pitchers' stats. To boot, catching a runner stealing creates an out; another boon to the pitcher. I'm not sure which is more valuable between stopping an advancing runner or notching an out, but I guarantee that achieving both is significantly more valuable than one or the other. In this respect, Lucroy has an obvious advantage over the other Brewers' catchers this year. He is a significant improvement over Zaun and Kottaras in this department, and it should have some effect on the pitchers' stats. However, although Lucroy has been better at throwing out runners, he has not done so at such a rate as to explain the better stats we've seen from the pitchers. (+)4. Don't "Tell" the Pitches I said there was a bonus that laid outside the legitimate ways a catcher can have an effect on pitchers' stats. My [totally irrational and justifying] reason for why our pitchers had such poor stats early this season was that Zaun was giving away the pitch to the batter; either location or type, and in some way that was noticeable to the batter but not the average viewer. Unlike the preceding reasons, for which I could possibly dredge up some statistical evidence to make my case, this is totally unfounded. Nonetheless, it makes me feel better about our pitchers' actual abilities, so I'm gonna stick with it. In sum: If 1 or 2 or 3 or 4, then Lucroy has had a positive effect on pitchers' performance.I prefer to scratch-out 1 and 2 by caveat.I do give tentative credence to 3.I give zero credence to 4, but maintain a desire to uphold it. In all, I think Lucroy may have a small, positive effect on Brewers pitchers' stats, but not nearly enough to account for their recent performance.
Seriously, I am beginning to dread Villa in any kind of pressure situation