He won divisions without controversy in San Francisco ...oh wait. Spoiler: Dusty would never allow cheating
Michael Bourne...the guest in the commentators booth tonight even felt the need to call out the predictable pitch-calling by Maldy.. That's how obvious it is.
I certainly don't think Maldonado is the reason Javier and Brown have struggled. Javiers arm condition is the big issue and Brown is likely just going through typical ups and downs of a rookie in his first full season. Having said that, they've been abysmal the last month and still I doubt there was even consideration of letting Diaz have a shot. They are so set in their mind that Maldonado is the pitcher whisperer they won't even consider an alternative, even with awful results. Javier and Brown both have substantially better results with somebody else. Javier has dominant numbers the last 2 seasons with other catchers and Brown was significantly better with Diaz.
How do you find the pitcher catcher stats? I'm curious how the pitchers win/ loss records are with Maldonado vs Diaz.
It's an option. TBH kinda just seems like a "let's try anything" option. I don't have anything solid to back up the following supposition, but I really think they're intentionally handling Diaz with kid gloves for a multitude of reasons. Beyond the whole "he doesn't do things the way we want" narrative earlier in the season, I think they're just really cognizant of workload for him. Both physical and prep-wise. On the physical side: In 2022, Diaz caught 52 games for a total of 440 IP. At the halfway point of 2023, he's caught in 26 games for 185 IP. Under the pace from even last year but he wasn't anywhere near being a full-time catcher going into the season. I hope/assume they continue to build up his C innings the second half. Dunno if/how they're going to use him in the playoffs but that's potentially up to another month of the season that has to be considered. Prep-side: it's already been said that Diaz might have the most meetings and extra coaching of any player on the Stros already. More catching appearances is more stuff on the plate. The further we go into the season, the more I'm kinda convinced that Maldy is being used as cannon fodder to heavily protect Diaz's development. Looking at Diaz's monthly splits, his performance and appearances have both trended upwards over the course of the season. Diaz: Mar/Apr: 10g, 33 PA, .214/.273/.286 wRC+ 54 May: 12g, 35 PA, .235/.229/.441 wRC+ 75 Jun: 21g, 86 PA, .310/.314/.583 wRC+ 143 Jul: 7g, 28 PA, .259/.286/.593 wRC+ 138 If you told me before the season that Diaz's season would progress in this way, I would assume very positive things about the way they were handling him.
Man if you look at the expected stats March/ May was about bad luck in a small sample size more than anything. He needs to command the plate a little better (he needs consistent AB’s to do that, obviously). He needs to raise his launch angle a little bit. If either of those things happen he’s an all star. If both happen he’s a 5 or 7 War superstar (if he’s getting those AB’s while at catcher). He hits the ball so hard, on the barrel and doesn’t strike out a ton.
No arguments with any of that. He did have good expected stats vs actual production early on. I also agree he's got the ability to be an all-star catcher. All the more reason to develop him carefully. If it were Korey Lee up this year instead of Yainer, it'd be a completely different story. Korey Lee can catch 100games right away. You'd hope but not expect his bat to come along.
OK, thanks. BTW, are those batting stats the opposing team when they are catching? I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to baseball stats.
Yes, the batting stats the opposing team has against the pitcher. For BA, batters have a .236 batting average against Brown when Diaz catches him and a .269 batting average when Maldonado catches him.
Thanks. I'm not sure it's a good comparison with so few games though. They only show 6 for Diaz and 11 for Maldonado.
