Escobar & Molina & Catcher's ERA

Is Kelvim Escobar a better pitcher with Jose Molina behind the plate?
Towards the end of last season, Jose Molina became Kelvim Escobar's personal catcher. Mike Scioscia was unhappy that Escobar was significantly more comfortable with one catcher behind the plate. So in spring training this year, Mike Scioscia made sure that every pitcher worked with every catcher so that there would be no preferences.

The interesting thing I noticed when I researched this was that in 2006, Escobar's era was a full run lower when Mike Napoli was behind the plate.

Before I show the numbers, I'm afraid that all I can say is that these numbers prove nothing. I was hoping to find a correlation between pitcher and catcher, but unfortunately these numbers tend to support Scioscia's thinking that the catcher doesn't make a difference. Escobar was better with Napoli last year and better with Molina this year.

Escobar's 2006 Earned Run Average

Total:  189.1 ip 3.61 era

Napoli:  60.0 ip 2.85 era
Molina: 118.1 ip 3.88 era
Mathis:  11.0 ip 4.91 era

Escobar's 2007 Earned Run Average

Total: 130.0 ip 2.91 era

Mathis:  7.2 ip 0.00 era
Molina: 61.1 ip 1.32 era
Napoli: 61.0 ip 4.87 era

This now begs the question, is Jose really that much better at calling games than Napoli?

To further this questioning I'm going to use the much maligned statistic of Catcher's ERA. You can find it at ESPN. Catcher's ERA is the ERA of the staff while that catcher is behind the plate. ex. Molina's 2007 Catcher's ERA when Escobar is pitching is 1.32.

2007 Catcher's ERA
Mathis  39.0 innings 2.08 era
Napoli 505.1 innings 4.04 era
Molina 323.0 innings 4.60 era

So these numbers again don't prove anything. Molina is great with Escobar (In 2007, but not 2006) and bad with every other pitcher? Well, I think this is why Catcher's ERA has never really caught on as a mainstream statistic.

Just for kicks here are the Angels' Catchers ERA for the past few years.

2006 Catcher's ERA
Napoli 716.1 innings 3.76 era
Molina 603.1 innings 3.98 era
Mathis 133.0 innings 5.82 era

2005 Catcher's ERA
Mathis      5.0 innings 0.00 era
B. Molina 873.1 innings 3.55 era
J. Molina 480.1 innings 3.65 era
Josh Paul 106.2 innings 5.03 era

2004 Catcher's ERA
Josh Paul 168.0 innings 4.07 era
J. Molina 524.1 innings 4.31 era
B. Molina 762.0 innings 4.31 era

2003 Catcher's ERA
Shawn Wooten  90.2 innings 3.81 era
J. Molina    332.0 innings 4.04 era
B. Molina    950.2 innings 4.32 era
Tom Gregorio  60.0 innings 5.55 era

2002 Catcher's ERA
J. Molina       210.0 innings 3.00 era
B. Molina      1014.1 innings 3.58 era
Shawn Wooten      7.0 innings 3.86 era
Jorge Fabregas  214.0 innings 4.75 era
Sal Fasano        7.0 innings 6.43 era

2001 Catcher's ERA
Jamie Burke     10.1 innings 3.48 era
Shawn Wooten   170.1 innings 3.70 era
J. Molina      103.0 innings 4.11 era
B. Molina      782.2 innings 4.19 era
Jorge Fabregas 372.1 innings 4.50 era