依旧附上原文连结：http://goo.gl/tWt4g
Video is widely available through the minors, but the pitch-tracking
technology that has made the Molina name more famous has penetrated only so
far. According to one front-office source, about 40 minor league ballparks
have a PITCHf/x system installed, and about 25 are equipped with Trackman (a
competing ball-tracking technology that relies on Doppler radar). Around 20
of the 30 parent clubs have at least one affiliate with one of the two
systems in place, with the highest concentration at Triple-A. The teams pool
much of the information that's collected; the more of your own PITCHf/x or
Trackman data you elect to share with others, the more you receive in return
(although clubs generally keep info from non-league events held in their
stadiums — workouts, high school and college games — to themselves).
在小联盟，录影技术非常普遍，但是让Molina更出名的投球追踪系统才刚起步。根据某球
团透露，大约有40个小联盟球场装有PITCHf/x系统，有25个球场装有Trackman系统（一种
依赖都卜勒雷达的系统）。30个球团中，大约有20个在至少某个小联盟层级装有这样的配
备，大多集中在3A。这些球团共用这些系统的资讯，你分享的越多，得到的就也越多。（
虽然球团会把非正式比赛的数据自己留着，包括练球、高中比赛、大学比赛等等。）
Still, 65 ballparks with ball-tracking technology just scratches the surface
of professional baseball below the big leagues. Even in 2013, seven years
after the first PITCHf/x systems were installed in big league ballparks, most
of the minors — to say nothing of amateur and international baseball — are
a ball-tracking blind spot. That means that receiving skills still have to be
evaluated the old-fashioned way (with actual eyes) and the slightly less
old-fashioned way (via video).6
但是，以小联盟来说，65个球场只是九牛一毛。2013年了，PITCHf/x系统在大联盟球场已
经装了七年了，大部分的小联盟球场──学生棒球和其他国家就别提了──依然是投球追
踪系统的盲区。这表示，要评估接捕能力，还是要靠肉眼这种老派的方式，在加上比这在
新潮一点点的方式，录影。
That's not really a problem, because the search for good framers, like almost
every other pursuit in the modern front office, works best with input from
both stats and scouts. Over small samples, an experienced scout or instructor
can tell you more about someone's receiving skills than a computer connected
to a camera can, especially at levels where it's more difficult for catchers
to frame pitches because the pitchers can't hit the target consistently.
Opinions vary on exactly how long it takes to evaluate a catcher's receiving
skills, but the consensus is that the assessment comes quickly.
这不是什么大问题，因为要找具备好的接捕能力的捕手，就跟现在球团要做的任何事情一
样，需要数据和球探来综合评估。样本太小的话，要辨别接捕能力，有经验的球探和教练
比电脑还要管用，尤其是有的层级的比赛里，捕手根本很难当，因为投手根本丢不准。要
花多久才能评估一个捕手的接捕能力，这一点还众说纷纭，不过大家都同意用数据套下去
就很快了。
Yankees catcher Chris Stewart confidently says he can spot a strong receiver
in five to 10 pitches. Others offer more conservative estimates. "I think you
need a couple of games to give a truthful evaluation," Yeager says. "You have
to see a guy catch a couple of days, and you have to see him catch three or
four different pitchers, because every pitcher's different."
洋基捕手Stewart信心满满地说他只需要五到十球就可以看出一个捕手是不是会接球，其
他人就保守多了。Yeager说：“我想，要得到一个真实一点的评估，需要几场比赛。你得
看他接个几天，然后得看他接三四个不同的投手，因为每个投手都不一样。”
That snap judgment is just the start. Once you've acquired a catcher with
some raw talent for framing, the real work begins. There's no
one-size-fits-all plan for grooming great receivers — and not every catching
instructor agrees on the proper way to receive pitches — but there are,
generally, two types of improvements a player can make. There's the
mechanical change, which can be adopted immediately, and the incremental
increase in comfort and confidence that comes with experience, repetition,
and familiarity with a pitching staff.
快速判断只是个起头而已。当你有了具备尚未成熟的接球天分的捕手后，真正的工作才要
开始。要培养出一个好的接捕能力没有标准流程（而且并不是每个教练都同意所谓正确接
捕的方式），但是基本上一个球员可以达到两种程度的进步。第一是机制的改变，这是可
以立竿见影的，而要接的越来越有信心，越来越舒服，就需要更多的经验、不停地重复一
样的动作，然后和投手群混熟一点。
Some catchers are framing fixer-uppers, just a few exterior alterations away
from becoming much more valuable properties. For Diamondbacks bullpen coach
Glenn Sherlock, a former minor league catcher and an experienced catching
instructor whom Arizona GM Kevin Towers credits with turning Miguel Montero
into a good framer, the first fix is glove height. "I think catchers' targets
at the bottom of the zone is so important," he says. "You see a lot of
catchers who have high targets and take the balls out of the strike zone."7
有的捕手在接捕能力上就像老房子一样，只要稍加修补，就有长足进步。响尾蛇的牛棚教
练Glenn Sherlock就是GM Kevin Towers找来修补Miguel Montero的。Sherlock认为，第
一步是要改变手套的高度，他说：“捕手把投球的目标订在好球带下缘超重要。常看到很
多捕手把目标设太高，然后就把球带出好球带了。”
Stewart recalls a mechanical tweak that helped him in 2008: "I had my thumb
pointing down. That's kind of the natural way you learn to catch. But
[Yankees bench coach Tony Pena] had me turn my glove so my thumb was more
pointing toward the second baseman area instead of pointing down at the
plate. It helped me work on balls coming on my left side easier. I didn't
have to turn my whole arm."
洋基捕手Stewart回想2008年，受益于一个机制上的改变：“以前我的大拇指都会朝下，
其实当你学习接球的时候蛮自然就养成这习惯的啊。但是牛棚教练Tony Pena要我把手套
转个方向，我的姆指变得有点像是指向二垒的方向，而不再往下往本垒板指了。这样我比
较好处理我左边的球，就不用转动整条手臂了。”
Yeager focuses first on a catcher's stance. "I think you can correct some
guys that are doing something just by the positioning of his arm," he says.
"Sometimes they have a tendency to get the arm inside of the knee, or they
get it on the outside of the knee, and … their knee sometimes gets in the
way … Everything in the positioning is a key."
Yeager先看的是姿势。“我觉得只靠改一下手臂放的地方就可以纠正一些人了。有时候他
们习惯把手臂放在膝盖内侧，或是放在膝盖外侧，之类的，他们的膝盖一直在挡他们的路
啦。姿势的每个细节都是关键。”
Lower the target, turn your thumb, adjust your crouch. That's the easy stuff.
It may feel unnatural at first, and it takes some time to get used to, but it
can produce improvement overnight. The more grueling method of improvement,
the one that over the long run produces the greater gains, is as simple as it
is painstakingly slow: catch. Catch in games, catch in the bullpen, catch in
side sessions, and then do it again in your dreams after you finally fall
asleep. "Baseball is a habit," Cervelli says. "It's a repetition. You've got
to repeat things every day, and they come."
目标放低，大拇指朝向正确的方向，蹲姿好一点。这不难。或许一开始会不自然，得花一
点时间来习惯，但是马上就可以看到效果了。还有个简单到靠杯，也慢到靠杯的方法，就
是接球。比赛也接，牛棚也接，训练的时候也接，然后睡觉的时候在梦中再继续接。
Cervelli表示，“棒球就是习惯而已。无限循环，你每天都在做一样的事情，就会变得自
然了。”
Bullpen drills are a big part of that repetition. Pitching machines can
simulate any type of pitch, at any speed, in any location, and apprentice
pitch framers exhaust all the possibilities. The drills aren't a time to fill
your quota of practice pitches and move on to something more interesting.
They're a time to concentrate and consolidate lessons.
这些循环当中，牛棚练习很重要。发球机可以模拟各种球路、各种进垒位置，这些年轻捕
手可以穷尽各种可能性来接捕。这个练习目的可不是要把一天的配额练完，然后就去其他
比较好玩的项目。这是个要好好专心把全部的训练都打好基础的时间。
"We do some things with the pitching machines, breaking balls, left-handed,
right-handed," Sherlock says. "We move the catcher around behind the plate to
work on backhand pitches and forehand pitches. Work on some soft wiffle-balls
to simulate movement, and just working on catching it without a glove …
Also, something that we do is check to make sure that they're breathing back
there. You start watching the catchers go through these drills and see that
they're holding their breath."
Sherlock说：“我们用发球机做很多事情。变化球、左投手、右投手等等。我们也会让捕
手蹲在不同的点，来练习正手和反手的球。也会用威浮球来模拟球的变化，然后用空手接
起来。对了，我们还要确保捕手有自然地呼吸。有时候他们在训练的过程当中会憋住呼吸
。”
Motivated catchers don't just do drills. They watch video, both of themselves
and their opponents at the position. "Watch video of guys that are good,"
Stewart says. "Watch them and see how they do it and try to intertwine it
into your game."
奋发向上的捕手可不只是做这些训练。他们会看影片，自己的影片还有在捕手位置上的竞
争者的影片。Stewart说，“看那些强者是怎么做的，然后融入自己的方式。”
Eventually, all of this pays off in game action. If it sounds a little
monotonous, well, it is. That's another reason why, even if decades down the
line every place where baseball is played comes pre-installed with a PITCHf/x
(or FIELDf/x) system, there will still be a role for scouts. No matter how
all-seeing the eyes in the sky above ballparks become, teams will still need
to know what's going on inside their players. Character and work ethic are at
least as important in determining whether a catcher reaches his ceiling as a
receiver as it is in determining how good a hitter he'll be.
最终呢，这些努力都会在比赛中得到回报。有点单调吗？本来就是如此。这也就是为什么
即便几十年后全世界的球场都装了投球追踪系统，我们还是需要球探的原因。不管以后球
场会进步成怎样，球团还是需要知道他们的球员心里在想什么。性格和工作伦理事关这些
捕手能够达到多高的天花板，也包括他们打击方面可以有怎么样的表现。
"We can make you better if you have an open mind and you're willing to work
and willing to try certain things," says Yeager, who mentions Russell Martin,
A.J. Ellis, and Tim Federowicz as some of his best students.8 "[You've] got
to want to get back there and take the time of squatting and blocking balls,
transferring balls, throwing balls, receiving balls, getting your hands beat
up, getting foul tips into you. You've got to realize that you're going to
get beat up physically back there."
The good news is that if you do have the masochistic impulse to get drilled
by baseballs, you can have a future in framing. Naturally, the younger you
start to work, and the more naturally gifted you are, the quicker it will
come, but those gifts aren't a prerequisite. "If you see a guy that has some
very soft hands, you know that at one point he's going to get it," says Tony
Pena, a four-time Gold Glover who now serves as the Yankees' bench coach and
catching instructor.9 "There's no limit. There's going to be a guy that plays
for a long time and then becomes a really good catcher over years."
Russell Martin、A.J. Ellis和Tim Federowicz的恩师Yeager表示，“如果你愿意敞开心
胸，愿意尝试，我们可以让你进步。你必须得愿意花时间蹲在那边档球、传球、接球、手
被砸得很痛又一直被擦棒球招呼。你得要有准备，你真的会被砸。”如果你自虐到肯做这
些苦差事，那么恭喜你，你可以开始走上你的接捕之路了。自然，你开始的年纪越小，你
就能有越多的才华，上手也更快，但这些才华并不是最重要的。四届金手套，现在的洋基
板凳教练Tony Pena说：“你只要看到有那种手感很好的人，你就知道他会是一回事。没
有限制啦，总是有人打球打了好几年转型，最后还是变成一个好捕手的。”
"I don't think everybody can be the same," Cervelli says. "[But] if you work,
if you let somebody coach you, it can happen. You can be close." Stewart
concurs. "Obviously there's something inside that person that allows him to
do what he's able to do, but it's more of a repetition skill, I think, than a
God-given talent."
Cervelli说：“每个人都不一样啦。但是如果你努力，而且找到人指导你，就有可能会成
真。不会差太远。”Stewart也同意：“很显然有人就是有特别的能力，但是我想更重要
的是不停重复地练习，这比天赋重要。”
Being born without the hands of a Molina brother is a handicap, but it's a
handicap that can be overcome. Now that teams know what a great receiver is
worth, and players know that they know, both sides have more incentive than
ever to focus on framing, both before and after each backstop's big league
debut.
天生不如Molina或许是某种残废，但是是一种可以克服的残废。现在球队知道一个懂得接
捕的人的价值，球员也知道球队开始关心了，大家对于接捕这件事情就更有动力了，不管
这些球员是上了大联盟或是还没都一样。
§§§
Brian Cashman has never known the feeling, but there's a certain freedom that
comes with being in charge of a bad baseball team, especially one that
isn'texpected to be good. Unburdened by the constant pressure to minimize
risk and construct a competitive roster that accompanies a club like the
Yankees, losing teams led by creative executives are able to experiment and
innovate. If you're going to be bad no matter what you do, you might as well
try to be bad in a way that will make you better eventually.
Brian Cashman从来没有过这种感觉，但是管理一支不怎样的球队却有某种自由，尤其是
没人看好你的时候。没有一天到晚又要风险评估又要建构豪华阵容的压力，由富有创意的
团队带领的弱队更有本钱实验和创新。如果你竭尽所能还是很烂，你可能会想要试试看有
没有什么方法可以摆烂之余，顺便迎接一个光明前程。
That's what we're seeing with the Astros, a rebuilding club that's currently
making the Marlins look like big spenders. Rather than risk jeopardizing
their long-term potential by trying to strike a balance between rebuilding
and respectability, the Astros decided to raze their roster, trading every
veteran who wasn't tied down and spending hardly anything on free agents.
It's a path that has led to a lot of losing, with much more to come. But it's
also allowed the Astros to completely start over, in just about every
capacity. They've restocked a formerly barren minor league system, climbing
from 26th to ninth in the Baseball Prospectus organizational rankings in a
single season. They've blazed new trails in pitcher usage patterns and
defensive shifts. And led by GM Jeff Luhnow, they've assembled a new-school,
cross-disciplinary front office with intellectual talent drawn from atypical
baseball backgrounds.
这就是我们关注太空人的原因。企图取得重建和被对手尊重的平衡可能会得冒着烂到天荒
地老的风险，宁可不要。太空人决定砍掉重练，把没什么限制的老将卖掉，不在自由球员
市场上买人。这样会让他们输掉很多比赛，但也让太空人有可以完全重新开始的机会。他
们把原本一片荒芜的农场慢慢填起来了，一季之间原本排行26名的小联盟系统爬到了第9
名。他们在轮值和防守布阵上开始了新的尝试。在总管Jeff Luhnow的带领之下，太空人
建立起一个新潮又多领域的FO。
One member of that front office is Mike Fast. And as you'd expect, given
Fast's focus on framing before he was hired, the Astros are exploring ways in
which they can make receiving skills a strength. You can't see that effort
reflected yet at the major league level; backup catcher Carlos Corporan is
about average, according to Marchi's model, and starter Jason Castro is
somewhat worse. It wouldn't matter much, anyway. A few extra strikes in the
majors right now wouldn't make the Astros' immediate outlook any less
hopeless. It's below the surface where Houston's framing future is taking
shape. That's where the Astros are seeking out the potential benefits of
developing strong receivers before they reach the big league level.
这个FO的成员之一是前面有提到的Mike Fast。跟你想的一样，Fast既然曾经关心过接捕
这件事，现在的太空人也在想要怎么样让接捕成为他们的强项。现在还没办法在大联盟层
级看出什么端倪，根据Marchi的模型，板凳捕手Corporan大概是联盟平均值，先发的
Jason Castro则更加略逊一筹。不过没差啦，现在在大联盟多几颗好球不会让太空人看起
来多了什么希望。在看不到的地方，太空人的接捕未来才正要慢慢成形，他们想在小联盟
栽培出优秀的接捕能力，再送这些球员上大联盟。
By stocking the minors with good framers, the Astros could accelerate their
pitching prospects' development or make them more attractive to other teams
by bolstering their stats with catchers who earn them extra strikes. With the
catchers themselves, Houston can simply wait until Castro and Corporan enter
the arbitration process and start to make more than they're worth, at which
point they can promote those prospects. By the time the Astros decide to make
winning at the big league level a priority, they could have a few catchers
capable of expanding the strike zone. They may have put the first phase of
that plan into action when they acquired Double-A catching prospect Max
Stassi, a 22-year-old with a reputation for strong receiving skills, in the
February trade that sent Jed Lowrie to Oakland.
让小联盟充满这些善于接捕的捕手，太空人可以加速投手大物们的发展，或是让捕手接球
时三不五时帮你多添一颗好球的帮助之下，投手的数据看起来更加吸引其他队伍的注意。
以捕手新秀本身来说，太空人大可以等到Castro和Corporan进到仲裁阶段再来操作。等到
太空人决定开始要在大联盟积极赢球的时候，他们可能已经有几位有能力把好球带放大的
捕手了。这计画的第一步可能是今年二月时，他们用游击手Jed Lowrie跟运动家换来了2A
捕手Max Stassi，22岁的他接捕的技巧颇受好评。
The man tasked with overseeing the receiver assembly line is Mark Bailey, the
former Astros catcher and bullpen coach who accepted a new position this
season as the club's roving catching instructor, and he couldn't sound more
excited. The 51-year-old is a recent convert to the church of pitch framing,
and he's eager to spread the word. Bailey has seen the research and the
stats, and he's also studied what the catchers who produce the best stats
look like. Fast and Astros director of decision sciences Sig Mejdal have sent
him video comparing good receivers like Jose Molina and Jonathan Lucroy with
subpar receivers, and the visuals made a major impression.
被指派去监督整个接捕作业计画的人是Mark Bailey，前太空人捕手和牛棚教练，他本季
接受了巡回捕手教练的工作，他超兴奋。51岁的他最近才受到了接捕这观念的洗礼，现在
已经等不及要去传这福音了。Bailey读过资料，看过数据，也研究了那些数据最好看的捕
手看起来应该要是怎么样。他从Fast和太空人的决策科学总监Sig Mejdal那边收到一段录
影，比较了好的接捕球员，比方说Molina或Lucroy，和不怎样的球员之前的差别。大开眼
界。
"A lot of it's stuff that we already kind of knew and learned," Bailey says,
"but to really see it and look at the numbers … some of the video that I saw
was really amazing. The good and the bad. You compare, and it's like, 'Whoa.'"
Bailey说：“其中很多东西我们之前就知道了啦。但是真的看到影片，再去看数据……有
的影片真的很屌，好坏之间，你一比较下去才知道。”
That eureka moment made Bailey reevaluate what he looks for first in a
catcher.
这个思想上的冲击让Bailey重新评估自己看捕手的方式。
"In the past, it's always been the guy with the strong arm," Bailey says.
"But my opinion is moving in [the direction of framing], just by watching
this and looking at some of that research … It's always been the premium
asset back there, but this is a little bit different. This takes it a step
further."
“以前当捕手的，通常都是臂力好的人。但现在我看了这影片和研究后，我想要把这种训
练引进来。这有点不太一样，这一步踩得比较远。”
The next stage is implementing a development strategy designed to make the
most of each catcher's receiving skills, and there appears to be buy-in at
all levels of the organization. Jeff Murphy, a former minor league backstop
who spent 12 seasons as the Cardinals' bullpen catcher and catching
instructor, followed Luhnow to Houston, where he's serving in the same role
this season. Although Murphy stresses still-intangible aspects of catching —
like handling a pitching staff and calling games — to a greater degree than
Bailey, it's clear that he considers receiving skills important. Maybe a
little too important, if you ask his exhausted pupils.
下一步，就是要植入一个设计来让所有捕手好好训练接捕的策略，这导致球团的各个层级
都需要补人了。前小联盟捕手和红雀的牛棚捕手Jeff Murphy跟着Luhnow来到休士顿做一
样的工作。虽然Murphy比Bailey更强调那些捕手的无形贡献，比方说领导全场或是掌控投
手群，但他也认为接捕的技巧很重要。如果你问他那些被操得要命的学生的话，搞不好他
们会跟你说有点太重要了。
"The first day of spring training, I told them, every morning, we're going to
be in the cage at 7 a.m.," Murphy says. "And we're doing receiving drills,
and we're just working on receiving … and these guys had never been through
that type of work. And they said, 'You know what, we're not used to this.'
And I said, 'This is our time to practice.'"
Murphy说：“春训的第一天，我告诉他们每天早上七点要集合，然后我们就开始接捕训练
，就这样一直练习。这些人从来都没有做过这种训练，他们就会说‘吼，我们不习惯这个
啦。’，我就会回‘现在是我们的练习时间。’”
If Bailey, Murphy, and the rest of the new Houston regime have their way,
that practice will translate into wins a few years from now. And if the
Astros' approach succeeds, it's bound to inspire copycats, even if no one
writes a book or makes a movie about it. All it will take is for other teams
to start asking the same simple question Bailey says he's asked himself: "Why
not try to get better?"
如果Bailey、Murphy和其他太空人的新血成功的话，这些练习就会转化成数年之后的胜利
。如果太空人的方法成功了，就会有人群起效尤，即便没人写本书或是拍部电影也一样。
这些球队只要像Bailey当初曾经问过自己的一样就好，‘干嘛不进步看看呢？’
"That's the way the game is," says Kirt Manwaring, the Giants' former Gold
Glove catcher and current catching coordinator. "Once somebody does
something, once somebody's successful at something, then they want to try to
find the method behind the madness. 'Well, what are they doing?'"
“本来就这样了啦。”巨人队的前金手套得主，现在的捕手总监Kirt Manwaring这么说。
“一旦有人开始做什么，一旦有人成功了，大家就会想知道这成功背后的因素。”
Not every baseball lifer is as open-minded as Bailey, but the Astros, the
Yankees, the Rays, and any other teams that have already started targeting
and trying to develop good framers are only the vanguard. The market for
catchers with superior receiving skills will grow more crowded as long as it
looks like an area where clubs can get an edge. As Russell Martin says, it's
"a lot easier to teach somebody how to frame a pitch than it would be to
teach them how to hit homers and drive in runs."
并不是所有棒球人都跟Bailey一样有个开明的脑袋，但是太空人、洋基、光芒还有其他也
在搞这套的球团都是先驱。现在看起来拥有好的接捕捕手确实可以让球队得到优势，所以
这市场一定会打开的。Russell Martin说得好，“要教一个人接捕，比要教他尻全垒打简
单多了。”
If you take the Astros' plan, and Manwaring's comment about copycats, to
their logical conclusion, then at some point in the not-too-distant future,
almost every team — save, perhaps, for a few with gifted offensive catchers
for whom framing aptitude is less paramount — could have someone squatting
behind the plate and stealing extra strikes. But sweeping changes to the
sport rarely come without unforeseen consequences. That kind of mass movement
toward catchers with strong receiving skills would upset the delicate balance
between batter and pitcher; if you think baseball's strikeout rates are high
now, wait until the first wave of Stepford framers arrives. If umpires start
to see nothing but good receivers, they might adjust their zones, much like a
hitter adjusts to a pitch he's shown too often. Then the framing bubble would
burst, as previous advantages have when every organization discovered them.
想想太空人的计画，再想想Manwaring说的那些模仿者的事，然后合逻辑地推理，不远的
未来，几乎每一队──或许有人在捕手这位置需要大砲，或许有人觉得接捕不重要，那可
以忽略不计──都有可能有个蹲在本垒板后方的好球小偷。但棒球的全面性变革，总是会
带来一些意外的结果。这种捕手的巨大改变可能会让投手打者的对决出现变化，如果你觉
得现在的三振比例已经很高的话，等到第一批栽培出来的接捕机器问世再说吧。如果裁判
们以后举目所见都是善于接捕的捕手的话，他们可能会调整好球带，就好像打者一直被同
样的球路伺候也会做出调整一样。如此一来，这接捕的泡沫就会破灭，群起效尤的历史循
环又要上演。
It's also possible that a greater awareness of framing could hasten the end
of umpiring as we know it. The discovery of framing has opened up a new field
of research for authors and aspiring sabermetricians, but what's good for
baseball writers isn't always good for baseball. Even if the intent isn't to
criticize umpires, it's impossible to write about framing without drawing
some attention to the fact that the rulebook strike zone is more of an
abstract concept than something that exists in the wild. The more attention
that the catcher's ability to influence the strike zone receives, the more
likely it is that Major League Baseball will act to automate it. And if the
human element goes, replaced by robo umps, then framing will go with it.
搞不好这种优异的接捕会促进我们所认知的裁判系统也说不定喔。接捕这个新发现对于棒
球作家和棒球统计学家来说是个全新可发展的领域，但是对他们好的，对棒球不一定好。
即便意不在批评裁判，但是写到接捕就不免会注意到好球带的规则是如此模糊的事实。捕
手影响裁判这回事越得到注意，MLB就越有可能改变裁判制度。如果有一天人的因素消失
了，机器人裁判取而代之，接捕的技巧也就没戏唱了。
The calls might be more accurate. But we'd lose the art that is a perfect
frame.
或许这样的判决就会超精准吧，但我们也可能会失去了完美接捕的艺术。
§§§
What Francisco Cervelli wants to talk about, more than how much better he's
gotten at framing, is how much better he's still going to get. "I'm hungry,"
he says. "I want it more than everybody. I don't work to maintain, I work to
be better and better and better."
Cervelli不只想说他从接捕技巧中得到多少，他更想说的是他会继续学到多少。“我还有
点饿。我比别人想要得到的都还要多。我不想要保持现状，我想要一直不停进步。”
Cervelli's stats suggest that the work has been worth it. From 2009 to 2010,
his receiving saved the Yankees 6.3 runs in 979 innings. But from 2011 to
2013, looking much more quiet behind the plate, he's saved the Yankees 16.6
runs in 459⅓ innings — more than twice as many runs in less than half the
playing time. Cervelli was an infielder and a pitcher before the Yankees
signed him out of Venezuela and converted him to catcher, so he faced a
steeper learning curve than most professionals. But he's living proof that
receiving skills can improve over time if accompanied by proper coaching and
a desire to improve.
Cervelli的数据显示他的努力是值得的。从2009到2010的979局中，他的接捕帮洋基守住
了6.3分。2011到2013，感觉起来他比较没有挥洒空间，但他在459又1/3局中帮洋基守住
了16.6分。只有一半的上场时间，超过两倍的分数。他在跟洋基签约之前，在委内瑞拉是
一个投手和内野手，到了洋基系统才改练捕手的，所以他的学习曲线比其他的职业球员都
还要陡许多。但他证明了在合宜的指导和渴望进步的心态之下，接捕的技巧是可以随着时
间进步的。
The market-induced demise of framing might arrive one day, but it's not here
yet. Careerwise, this is the best time in baseball history to be a solid
receiver. Framing is Chris Stewart's meal ticket, too — he's saved 16.5 runs
in a little more than 8,000 pitches — and he's well aware of it.
或许有一天他们会因为市场情势所迫而必须让出位置，但还没发生。以球员的生涯来说，
现在是棒球历史上最适合优秀接捕捕手出头的时代。接捕也是Stewart的饭票，他接了
8000球左右，靠着接捕守下了16.5分，而且他自己对此知之甚详。
"Within the last two or three years it's taken over as one of the highly
sought-after skill sets for a defensive catcher," he says. "The sabermetrics
stuff coming out, they put a value on it. We actually have a number for it.
It's not a 'This guy's good' or 'This guy's bad,' it's like, 'This guy's this
good' and 'This guy's this bad.'"
他说：“过去两三年，这个技术在防守型捕手之间很抢手。统计分析的东西出现了，有人
赋予价值，我们真的有数据可以遵循。现在已经不再是印象派地说‘他是威哥’‘他逊掉
了’的时代了，要改说‘他有这么这么这么这么强’‘这个人原来是这么烂喔’了”
It's early in the season, but it's not too soon to assess the Yankees'
Cervelli / Stewart experiment. Through the game in which Cervelli was
injured, the pair had combined to catch 1,792 called pitches and saved the
Yankees a little more than five runs in the process. If we extend that to the
number of called pitches Yankees catchers caught last season, their total
contribution comes to 36 runs. A.J. Pierzynski's extended total over the
entire season has him costing the Rangers roughly seven runs. He might outhit
Cervelli and Stewart, but not by nearly enough to make up for a framing
disparity that size. Even if he came close, there would still be the
not-so-small matter of his salary, which is almost six times higher than
Cervelli's and Stewart's put together.
现在才刚开季，不过不算太早来论断洋基在捕手位置的Cervelli / Stewart实验。到
Cervelli受伤的那场比赛为止，这两个选手一共接到了1792个没被挥棒的球，在这之中靠
著接捕帮洋基守住了超过五分。如果用洋基去年接到的球数来当做基准，这两位选手今年
会帮洋基守住36分。用同样的标准来看Pierzynski，他大概会帮游骑兵多亏了7分左右。
他打击比Cervelli和Stewart还要好，但是要补上在接捕上所产生的差距，还不够。即使
最后相差并不远，但我们还没算到薪水呢。他今年的薪水可是Cervelli和Stewart相加的
几乎六倍喔。
Runs are runs, whether they're scored or saved. Now that we know how many
runs Cervelli, Stewart, and others like them are saving, those former fringe
players have become commodities that every team wants.
不管是被得一分或是守住一分，分数就是分数。现在既然我们知道Cervelli、Stewart和
其他相似的选手守下了多少分，那些原本拿来填选手名单的球员就变成了大家都想要的资
产了。