Is Victor Martinez really a catcher?

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 19:49:00 GMT, "Jumping Jack Flash"
<bar9773.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I know that some blame is to be placed on the pitchers for the fact that
>baserunners run all over the Indians.

there isn't a catcher in MLB who can consistently throw out guys who
get a great jump on the pitcher. and considering martinez was a SS,
he's probably in the upper 50 percent in terms of arm strength among
all MLB catchers.

>Still, at some point, you have to
>wonder if there isn't some value to having a catcher that can play defense?

throwing out baserunners is only a small part of being a catcher; you
have to be able to handle a pitching staff, which includes getting
their respect in being able to call a good game, etc. if someone had a
stat that showed that the pitching staff had a better ERA (call it .5
runs or more) with someone else catching, i'd say put the other guy
behind the plate even if he's hitting only .200.

>Martinez and Shoppach in the lineup at 1B/C seems better than Martinez and
>Broussard or Perez at C/1B.

if broussard/perez hit as well (or poorly) as they did last season,
they'll platoon & combine for about .260 28 HRs & 100 RBI for only $4-
5 mil in salary. and that leaves room for garko to come in next season
as broussard is signed for only a year. i rather doubt that shoppach
is capable of duplicating those numbers or even coming even remotely
close expecting martinez' #'s to improve (which i'm not so sure that
they would anyway).

>Too bad Hafner can't play a position. It will
>come to bite the team in the ass that it's two best hitters are defensive
>liabilities.

yes, it'll hurt if hafner has to go to the bench because we're playing
a NL team, but if you follow the tribe at all, you'll know that wedge
advocates a 1-9 approach to offense - and seeing that blake & boone
are off to decent starts this season, we've got a pretty balanced &
dangerous lineup - the only guy not a serious threat to go deep at any
given AB is probably michaels - who reminds me a bit of mike hargrove
who gave up power to go for a higher BA & makes the pitchers work by
making them go longer in the count.

secondly. ya gotta be kidding - half of last season's top 10 hitters
played either 1B or LF - tradtionally acknowledged as being the 2
least challenging positions defensively. and the average offensive
numbers for those two position bear that out - coco crisp's offensive
power #'s (as a CF playing in LF) put him in the bottom fourth last
season among all LF's. as a CF he'd have been middle of the pack.

and the other 5 of those top 10 hitters (by average) are probably
making at least $12-15M in a multi-year contract - numbers you're not
likely to see in a tribe payroll anytime soon for any hitter eligible
for free agency - if we're willing to pay that much, some idiot GM
would have offered them $18M/year.
"i can spell. i just can't type."
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"barry" <toisan_boy RemoveThis @nospam.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:njvf42tkv72vfm1a6q927merj5ha6dkca4@4ax.com...


> there isn't a catcher in MLB who can consistently throw out guys who
> get a great jump on the pitcher. and considering martinez was a SS,
> he's probably in the upper 50 percent in terms of arm strength among
> all MLB catchers.
>
Whose fault is that ?? Management's.
It's been a problem on this team for several years.
Every year they talk of addressing it in the spring,
every year we see results like we saw from Davis today in the regular
season.

> throwing out baserunners is only a small part of being a catcher; you
> have to be able to handle a pitching staff, which includes getting
> their respect in being able to call a good game, etc. if someone had a
> stat that showed that the pitching staff had a better ERA (call it .5
> runs or more) with someone else catching, i'd say put the other guy
> behind the plate even if he's hitting only .200.
>
We'll never know here, as VM catches almost all of the games.
I have a hard time believing that he's exceptionally good at handling
pitchers, given his age,
and the results we see when the starting pitchers begin to struggle.

> if broussard/perez hit as well (or poorly) as they did last season,
> they'll platoon & combine for about .260 28 HRs & 100 RBI for only $4-
> 5 mil in salary. and that leaves room for garko to come in next season
> as broussard is signed for only a year. i rather doubt that shoppach
> is capable of duplicating those numbers or even coming even remotely
> close expecting martinez' #'s to improve (which i'm not so sure that
> they would anyway).
>

No way does the 1B drive in 100 runs for this team...Not with Broussard
playing > 50% of the time.
A .260 BA is too low anyway for 1B, even for your hopeful prediction.
And, fretting about $4-5 million in salary at a position made for producing
runs sounds like a
"Thought" straight out of KC ......

Play Garko now.
Win now.

Regardless, the original post made a good point, and, IMHO is correct.
The Tribe would be better off with VM playing another position, and a better
defensive catcher.

Steve
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