Saturday, August 18, 2007
As Goes the Catcher
As goes the Catcher so goes the season, or so it seems anyway in 2007, for the pennant contenders. The Dodgers and Indians sprinted out to strong starts behind catchers, Russell Martin and Victor Martinez. As their catchers have cooled, so have the teams' fortunes. The Dodgers were 12 games over July 3rd and their hard hitting catcher Martin was averaging .306, he has since slide to .289 and had only 16 of his 71 RBIs. The Dodgers have lost nine games to .500 and fallen out of 1st place. The Indians peaked at 19 games over .500 on that very same July 3rd. Victor Martinez was hitting .324, since then he has slipped to .302 and had only 21 of his 88 RBI’s. The Indians have given back six games to break even.
The Mets have weathered the storm in their division hanging on to a 3 game lead coming into today. They have survived, in part, because when their starting catcher Paul Lo Duca went down he was able replaced by super-sub Ramon Castro.
The Cubs whole season was kick started by their catcher at the time, albeit Michael Barrett did it via a dugout fight with ace pitcher Victor Zambrano. Which not only cranked up Zambrano’s motor, he has been lights out since then, but fired up the entire Cubs franchise. They have leaped from 4th place and 8 games under .500 to 3 games over and the lead. The currently disabled Barrett was shipped to San Diego for Padres catcher Jason Kendall, who has rebounded from an early season slump raising his batting average by more than 40 points since arriving in the friendly confines.
The Braves plethora of young catchers allowed them to swing a big deal at the trading deadline. They were quite happy with the performance of All-Star Brian McCann, who is sitting on a career .299 average in almost 1000 at-bats. He meant the Braves could trade a top prospect, young, switch hitting catcher and the longest last name in MLB history, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The talented Saltalamacchia brought back big hitting Texas 1st baseman, Mark Texiera, a local Georgia Tech alum, who has really lengthened the middle of the Braves batting order.
A couple of catchers who have slid statisically backward from terrific seasons last year, to have good, but not great seasons this year, have seen their teams do the same. As A.L. batting champion Joe Mauer has looked more mortal, so the Twins have hovered around .500. They were ten games over at this point in 2006. Likewise, Ivan Rodriguez in Detroit has been good but not stellar. He no longer guns down runners at the ridiculous rates he once did and his on-base percentage is an anemic .290. He is still a clutch hitter, and aces at blocking balls in the dirt. The Tigers 14 games off of last year’s pace are still in the thick of the race.
The recently thirty-six year old, free agent to be Jorge Posada has played at a superstar level all year in the Bronx. Playing a silent but deadly, second man to A-Rod’s headline grabbing season. Can he keep it up as the Yanks drive for the playoffs? And in another borough in New York, now Ramon Castro has joined Lo Duca among the temporarily disabled. Will light hitting Mike DiFelice herald a fade in Queens?
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for another exciting episode of As Goes the Catcher...
The Mets have weathered the storm in their division hanging on to a 3 game lead coming into today. They have survived, in part, because when their starting catcher Paul Lo Duca went down he was able replaced by super-sub Ramon Castro.
The Cubs whole season was kick started by their catcher at the time, albeit Michael Barrett did it via a dugout fight with ace pitcher Victor Zambrano. Which not only cranked up Zambrano’s motor, he has been lights out since then, but fired up the entire Cubs franchise. They have leaped from 4th place and 8 games under .500 to 3 games over and the lead. The currently disabled Barrett was shipped to San Diego for Padres catcher Jason Kendall, who has rebounded from an early season slump raising his batting average by more than 40 points since arriving in the friendly confines.
The Braves plethora of young catchers allowed them to swing a big deal at the trading deadline. They were quite happy with the performance of All-Star Brian McCann, who is sitting on a career .299 average in almost 1000 at-bats. He meant the Braves could trade a top prospect, young, switch hitting catcher and the longest last name in MLB history, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The talented Saltalamacchia brought back big hitting Texas 1st baseman, Mark Texiera, a local Georgia Tech alum, who has really lengthened the middle of the Braves batting order.
A couple of catchers who have slid statisically backward from terrific seasons last year, to have good, but not great seasons this year, have seen their teams do the same. As A.L. batting champion Joe Mauer has looked more mortal, so the Twins have hovered around .500. They were ten games over at this point in 2006. Likewise, Ivan Rodriguez in Detroit has been good but not stellar. He no longer guns down runners at the ridiculous rates he once did and his on-base percentage is an anemic .290. He is still a clutch hitter, and aces at blocking balls in the dirt. The Tigers 14 games off of last year’s pace are still in the thick of the race.
The recently thirty-six year old, free agent to be Jorge Posada has played at a superstar level all year in the Bronx. Playing a silent but deadly, second man to A-Rod’s headline grabbing season. Can he keep it up as the Yanks drive for the playoffs? And in another borough in New York, now Ramon Castro has joined Lo Duca among the temporarily disabled. Will light hitting Mike DiFelice herald a fade in Queens?
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for another exciting episode of As Goes the Catcher...
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