Reed and Fisher are under LHH. I don't know where White and Kemp are, though. I guess not suiting up for some reason.
You do. That’s what I was saying; if they option a player to the minors, he cannot then be placed on the 60 Day DL, which means the optioned (injured) player will take up a 40 man spot. For example, Martes will now take up a 40 man spot. If they need his 40 man spot for someone else, they would have to recall him, then place him on the 60 Day DL. (I am not 100% certain on this so others are welcome to chime in.)
Stubbs just keeps raking and gunning down runners. Chirinos is getting into a hitting groove. I would love to see shared catching duties between those two. At this point, Stassi might clear waivers if that's something they want to consider.
Even if Stassi cleared waivers (which seems unlikely) he could elect FA if he's outrighted. There's really no reason to do that, since spring training performance is basically meaningless.
I was basing my opinion on much more than a few spring training games. Last year we had to go out and get Maldonado (another rhh catcher) to replace him. Obviously they didn't have faith in him to carry the load. There seemed to be a rumor last year as well that our aces didn't like throwing to him. Maybe he is more serviceable this year. Hopefully, Chirinos stays healthy and can carry the load, but I do see Stubbs playing a role this season. His lefty bat, speed and 45% cs rate could benefit the team. On another note, switch-hitting Abraham Toro continues to impress. We'll see how he does starting the year at Corpus, I imagine.
Just playing devils advocate, but Stassi didn’t seem to mesh well with the rotation last year. IIRC, JV and DK didn’t like Stassi calling their games, granted DK always came off like a diva when he struggled. Wonder if Stubbs is any better from that respect.
Well that makes entirely too much sense. You're not the only one who noticed that. I sure hope Chirinos plays out.
JV said a few weeks ago he was looking to get on the same page with Chirinos because he (JV) likes to call his own game. Guess that was a subtle nod to Stassi.
Astros gave up 3.78 r/g with him as a starter. That would be a shade behind the Dodgers in r/g allowed, but considering the DH in the AL, the Astros with Stassi behind the plate were better at preventing runs than any other team was at preventing runs. Looking at games that Stassi didn't start at catcher, Astros gave up 2.98 r/g. Not sure this means anything regarding Stassi's defensive ability as it could be just bad luck with getting off days for the team. That said, pitchers don't like giving up runs. If they noticed on average they were giving up a significantly higher number of runs with Stassi at the plate (27%), Stassi would get blamed whether it was his fault or not.
Great post. I’m surprised there isn’t a stat that normalizes r/g for catchers factoring opponent, pitchers, and park. Maybe there is and I don’t know about it.
I remember last season Keuchel gave a subtle jab to Stassi's pitch calling in an interview, maybe he really is bad at it.
Fangraphs has rCERA posted which is basically that except it is basically the total number of runs earned or lost by the catcher for the season. Basically the difference in ERA between McCann and Stassi is 5 runs over about 500 innings according to this stat, or about 0.08 r/9 innings and not the rough 0.80 r/g difference we see in games that Stassi starts vs not. Pitchers impression is likely to be that of the rough number.
