Good afternoon everyone, over the past 2 or 3 weeks of the season, there has been a debate going around the Purple Row. Whose better on defense? The incumbent Nick Hundley or the rookie Tony "Freaking" Wolters? There is a poll at the end of this fanpost.

Well, last night, as the clock was approaching midnight my time(Central), the thought ran through my head, who is indeed better? So, I dragged myself up the stairs and fired up the laptop. 3 1/2 hours later after checking each ballgame and which innings were won, lost and tied with each catcher. I realized I had gone down the rabbit hole and then thought, "maybe I should go to bed".

Basically, what I tried to achieve here is this. What starting pitcher has the most success with what catcher and how does that catcher work with the bullpen? I did NOT include number of hits given up. The answers are quite interesting. Just to clarify, no offensive numbers were used in determining who is better. If anyone would like to chime in and help me out straightening things out, by all means.

The numbers will look like this: Innings Pitched/Runs(Earned or Unearned)/Walks/Strikeouts.

Hundley has caught 2 of Jorge de La Rosa's starts: 8.2 IP/9 R/7 BB/11 K over these 2. Averaging 4 1/3 IP/4.5 R/3.5 BB/5.5 K per start.

Wolters has caught 3 of DLR's starts: 11.2 IP/12 R/5 BB/17 K over 3 starts. 3 2/3 IP/4 R/1.66 BB/5.6 K average for 3 starts.

Hundley has caught 2 of Chad Bettis' starts: 13 IP/9 R/5 BB/7 K averaging 6.5 IP/4.5 R/2.5 BB/3.5 K for 2 starts.

Wolters has caught 3 of Bettis' starts: 19 IP/5 R/3 BB/14 K and that comes out to a 6.5 IP/1.66 R/1 BB/4.6 K per start

Hundley has caught 3 of Tyler Chatwoods' starts: 19 IP/7 R/4 BB/9 K averaging 6 1/3 IP/2.33 R/1.33 BB/3 K per start

Wolters has also caught 3 of Chatwoods' starts: 19 IP/ 3 R/4 BB/18 K good for a 6 1/3 IP/1 R/1.33 BB/6 K per start

Hundley caught 2 of Jordan Lyles' starts: 8 IP/10 R/5 BB/5 K for a not so exciting 4 IP/ 5 R/2.5 BB/2.5 K per start

Wolters caught 1 for Lyles and only a 7 IP/1 R/1 BB/4 K performance.

Dustin Garneau caught 1 for Lyles also: 2 1/3 IP/ 7 R/5 BB/ 0 K

Christian Bergman in his only start was received by Garneau: 5 IP/ 2 R/1 BB/ 7 K. This was the Arrieta game

Hundley has caught Jonathan Gray twice: 9 2/3 IP/8 R/ 2 BB/13 K less than stellar(except for the walks) 4 2/3 IP/4 R/1 BB/6.5 K per start

Wolters has caught Gray 1 time: 5 IP/5 R/2 BB/10 K.

Rusin was caught by Hundley in his only start(before tonights' affair with the Giants: 5 IP/ 0 R/3 BB/6 K

Eddie Butlers' only battery mate this year has been Hundley with 1 start: 5 2/3 IP/5 R/1 BB(YES) and 3 K

The running totals so far for our starting catchers are:

Hundley: Over 13 starts: 119 Innings, 101 Runs, 37 BB and 97 K's. for a ho hum average of 9 Innings/7.76 R/2.84 BB/7.4 K per start

Wolters: Over 11 starts: 94 Innings, 36 Runs, 25 BB, and 91 K's with a "that's more like it" 8.5? Innings/3.2 R/ 2.27 BB/8.2 K per start.

Garneau: Over 3 starts: 27 Innings, 22 Runs, 15 BB, and 24 K's. 9 Innings/7.33 R/5 BB/8 K per start.

Now, lets move on to see how the catchers handle the bullpen. Our catchers have caught 95 2/3 innings with 55 Runs, 29 BB's with 83 strikeouts.

In Hundleys' 13 games, from the pen, he has caught 50 Innings, 35 Runs scored, 10 BB and 43 K's.

In Wolters' 11 games, from the pen, he's caught 32 1/3 innings, 10 runs scored, 10 BB and 28 K's.

Garneaus' 3 games from the pen, he's caught 13 1/3 innings, 10 runs scored, 9 BB and 12 K's

The numbers over these 27 games from the pen look like this: 3.5 IP/2.03 R/1.07 BB/3.07 K.

I know I know, its still pretty much SSS but we have virtually 1 months' worth of games to look at and there is a difference between Hundley and Wolters. Hundley has much higher run and walk allowed rate than Wolters. The numbers are somewhat skewed by the fact that Hundley has 2 extra starts. However, the biggest thing for me is the higher K rate and lower BB rate per outing for the starters when Wolters is behind the dish. This can only add to the debate that Wolters is a great framing catcher and is able to get the calls that are needed. It looks like Wolters has earned the trust of most of the pitching staff knowing that they will be able to get a pitch close and possibly have it called a strike.

Please forgive me for all the bullet points. I'm still learning how to type out stuff on here. If anyone has anything to add to this, by all means, go for it. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

GO ROCKIES!