Something weird is going on with Giants catcher Patrick Bailey
San Francisco's backstop hasn't started great.
Something weird is going on with Giants catcher Patrick Bailey originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Patrick Bailey was one of the best defensive catchers in baseball last season for the San Francisco Giants .
It meant his inconsistent offensive performance wasn't too detrimental to his overall value. This season, though, something weird is going on with Bailey's defense. He's still a top-notch framer -- Baseball Savant ranks him No.
1 in MLB in the early going, and that's a crucial skill to overall catcher value. But after being in the 80th-percentile in blocks above average last season, Bailey is in the 19th-percentile this season. And he was in the 97th-percentile in caught stealing above average last season, now down to 11th-percentile.
Both of those are massive declines, and they've got Giants fans getting frustrated. MORE: Blue Jays' Ernie Clement is a battle between old-school and new-age baseball In the raw totals, Bailey has thrown out just 1-of-14 attempted base stealers this season. Both those stats, though, blocking and caught stealing, are really the effect and not the cause.