I do love how much the fandom's opinions can change over 48 hours. We would never lose again! just a bit ago.
This is what drives me up the wall about all the talk about game planning. The pitcher is the ultimate arbiter of what’s thrown. I sont want a lazy ass catcher not paying attention to **** but the pitcher absolutely positively has to be gameplanning the other team and if he doesn’t like what the catcher is throwing down all he has to do is shake his head. I haven’t seen any of that this year with Diaz, and Brown complimented him the other day on calling a great game, but at the end of the day it’s just a suggestion. ask a Greinke or a JV or a Clemens or any of the other dudes who would clearly tell the catcher he was going to throw whatever he wanted to. Coming up with the game plan is a collaborative effort that the pitcher And scouts should be the main drivers of.
Maldy has a 20 wRC+ lmao. He could quadruple his production and still be substantially below average.
My fellow podcast host texted me and said- it’s like when you have a roommate or a girl friend and everything they do pisses you off and you only focus on the bad and none of the good. Thought that was a really good exaMple and way to put it. I know not everyone is there but feels like most of our fanbase is.
Random thoughts: The electronic communication b/t pitcher and catcher renders a bunch of this worthless (which pitchers like it I do not know, and which use it with which catchers?), or it will pretty soon Diaz by now has caught every relief pitcher we have, are there any complaints? If Framber or whoever wants a "personal catcher" then do it. Like I said it's up to the SP. Pretty sure Maddux had one for his entire career with the Braves, that seemed to work out
Another way to look at it is that Maldy, like you and I, is closer to a traffic cone offensively than a league average hitter.
Typically, only an absolute ace gets the prerogative of having a personal catcher, and more than anything it was used as a reason to give a guy a day off on the regular because it’s insanely hard to try to catch 80% or more of your teams games. I know you know this, I’m just talking out loud here. If he hadn’t caught every bullpen arm it’s damn near all of them. Obviously with no problem as we are 6-0 when he catches. Yeah- 2 way electronics makes catcher calling a game pretty irrelevant if you want it to be.
This team wins in spite of Dusty. It's just baffling trotting Maldy out there. Especially late inning close games that we are losing. The way he lets a pitcher blow up before a hook is downright depressing also.
