C'mon 'Stros, how many young pitchers are we gonna screw up by letting them pitch to Greg "I couldn't call a game if they told me what to call" Zaun. Let's look at the history b/t how either he or Ausmus handles their pitchers: 2001 - Ausmus catches Milcki: Yes, I know its hard to remember a time when Milcki was actually good, but for the second half of that season, he put up decent numbers... including his start in the playoffs which we lost 1-0. 2002 - Zaun catches Milcki: Does Dave even have a job anymore? 2002 - Zaun catches Redding: Timmah does good for one month... then opposing teams probably catch on to Zaun's mystical ways of calling a game, and then Redding gets tatooed, and people start putting him on the "looney bin" watch.... 2003 - Ausmus catches Redding: So far, he's been the most consistent pitcher on the staff, and Ausmus has even helped him develop a new pitch; a hard sinking 2-seamer that complements his other live fastball, and sharp curve very well. Zaun almost ruined this kid, but Bradley has saved him. 2003 - Ausmus catches Robertson (Spring Training): Mixes his pitching very well, has a sub 3.00 ERA, and makes the team as its 3rd starter. 2003 - Zaun catches Robertson: First game of season, starts of well, and then gets shelled in one inning (Zaun's fault for not telling him to pitch inside). Second game, he's solid. Then, its all downhill from there as it looks like they both had no clue what to do. Now, granted... we can't march Ausmus out there every game this year, and I do have some faith in Greg Zaun with his bat in the lineup, but I wish there was a way we could get Kirk and Ausmus together. Kirk doesn't have the dominating stuff that allows him to make mistakes... he must be mistake free. Plus, Ausmus seems to thrive at handling the guys who throw sinking/changeup pitches (see Munro, and Nelson Cruz when he was good). Also, our young pitchers seem to have a different type of confidence when Ausmus is out there catching them... like they're not all alone in this thing, and they have someone there to protect them. I don't think Zaun gives that same vibe... in fact, whenever Robertson's been pulled this year, so has Zaun (in order to not damage the confidence of our stellar Ausmus-caught bullpen) The ideal scenario would be to pair Zaun up with a veteran (Moehler) who would already seem to know the game and the hitters well enough (check that, Moehler doesn't know jack... I would have prefered to keep Shane Reynolds instead of him). Bottom line, don't be suprised if Kirk does well for a little, and then gets shelled. Its a very similiar pattern of Zaun's mystical catching... first he affected Redding, then Jeriome Robertson... hell, thank god he wasn't around when Roy and Wade were coming up. We owe a lot of our success to Brad Ausmus, and a lot of our pitcher's misfortune to Greg Zaun.
I think calling games is a highly understated part of what Ausmus brings to the table. And I definitely agree that if you catch Ausmus on anyone, it is NOT the younger starter in the group. Not that we have any old starters at this point, but stick Zaun with Miller or Oswalt and they will probably still do fine.
One needs to only watch the greatest sports movie of all time, to see how an experienced catcher can help a young pitcher. (Crash Davis helping Nuke Laloush in "Bull Durham")
Zaun also probably couldn't even call a game in a 40 and up slow pitch softball league. I cant stand the guy. I'm starting to dislike Jimy Williams too.
Why does Zaun have to catch one pitcher all the time? Why can't he just catch once a week and just catch whoever. Change it up each time. It seems to me that since Ausmus is so good for the pitchers, shouldn't all of them use him at some point. I think that if a pitcher just had Zaun catch his game every 5th start or so, then they would all gain from having Ausmus catch them 4 out of every 5 games.
Nick You maybe up to something here. Greg Zaun does not really have "any need" on this team outside of catching Jeriome. Look at what happened to Saarloos - he got shelled after having a descent start in tripple A ball. Jeriome IMHO is still better than Saarloos. Lets just make Jeriome favorite catcher, Raul Chavez, do the catching for him or Ausmus and everything will be fine.
