Battery Mates- Buehrle and Navarro

With all the talk these days about sabermetrics and being able to contribute some sort of data to every detail in a ball game, there will be one thing we will never be able to measure, the reationship between a pitcher and his catcher. No one is showing the value of a good relationship right now like Mark Buehrle and Dioneer Navarro of the Toronto Blue Jays. Buehrle collected his 8th win of the season last night with a impressive 7-2 win over the Red Sox. Last season he didn't get his 8th win until the 10th of August when his primary catcher was J.P Arencibia. 

Big things were expected out of the Blue Jays for the 2013 season, especially from the newly revamped pitching staff. However with Arencibia behind the plate the pitching staff struggled as did Arencibia. He lead the leauge with 13 passed balls and add the 54 wild pitches to that and the Jays were the 4th worst in the majors at catching the ball. Now giving up a base due to a passed ball isn't the end of the world, but what it does do is get into the mind of the pitcher and doesn't give him confidence in what he is throwing will be stopped by the catcher instead of the backstop. This leads to hanging breaking balls, pitches up in the zone and lots of runs scored against. 

This year seems to be different for the Jays starting pitchers and it's due to one reason only Navarro is a better defensive (and offensive) cathcer than Arencibia will ever be. He is in no way perfect but what Navarro gives to his staff is unfortunately a stat that can't be measured in anything but wins and so far this season the Jays have more wins than at this time last year.