What does that have to do with Dusty forcing a catcher on JV? JV has expressed a desire for personal catchers over his career (one of them being Chirinos). JV being able to work with a new catcher doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a preference on having a personal catcher. Yes, Dusty doesn’t have to listen to that preference but he’s not making JV have one.
People in organizations rarely ever say bad things about their own players, so this really has no point to it Now, Dusty has put Chas down in interviews before, but generally speaking it don't happen often
Baseball Savant doesn’t agree with you: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/martin-maldonado-455117?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb He’s above 70th percentile in blocks above average, caught stealing above average, and pop time. I don’t know all the details of blocks above average, but it’s based on expected probabilities of a passed ball and wild pitch. Theoretically another catcher caught the exact same pitches this season they’d probably have more passed balls. The stats say the number of passed balls and caught steals are a function of the Astros pitchers, not Maldy’s defense which is better than average for those things. You don’t have to believe them, but it seems the Astros do.
Maldy was a good framer, though, and the Astros had been one of the teams that excelled in framing until the past two seasons. To me, Maldy appears to be living on past reputation. If the Astros don't value framing and value his other defensive skills, they should be willing to sign Maldy for $20M/yr this offseason.
it has a point because he's constantly praised and vouched for. It's not about just Dusty. It's everyone in the organization so yeah it's definitely relevant
The short answer is - Yes. If the Astros win the World Series and the pitching continues to do well----- and Baker comes back, and Maldonado wants back - then Maldonado will be back. The pitching regressed because the team came off of a WS long season, some were in the WBC and there were serious injuries to McCullers and Garcia.... Urquidy was also injured and Verlander wasn't on the Astros for most of the season. You and others say things like "It has to be frustrating at some level to work with someone so incompetent." Yet what is that based on? Verlander and Valdez and Javier have all made it very clear that they want Maldonado catching them, and Pressly has said the same. The pitchers want Maldonado behind the plate. I can get saying his bat sucks and he is old and his skills are wavering - but the pitchers want him and the manager wants him behind the plate as well.
When Maldy was brought in he was a pretty good framer and all around a very good defensive catcher. He declined to being around average as a framer up until this season when he's become terrible. The team also worked a lot with Stassi when he was here developing his framing. As Maldy began to decline, they brought in Castro who was a good framer with the Twins. Thus, I don't see much evidence that the Astros as an org don't value pitch framing.
Sorry but he isn't above average in caught stealing lol 86 of 100 base runners stole successfully on him this year. His caught stealing percentage was 14%, ranked 35th in baseball
Can we get back to series talk? 4 pages of what to do w maldy and dusty next year... there's already threads for those topics.
Depends on if the Astros win the World Series and on whether or not Maldonado wants to come back. He has discussed retirement several times, so it is possible Maldonado doesn't want to come back. A few pitchers? You mean the Astros best pitchers? When you have a long history of a successful staff, it is smart for a front office to listen to what their best pitchers and manager have to say. Perhaps Brown digs his heels, but it is too early to know. My best guess is that IF Maldonado came back, he would at most catch half the games - leaving the other half to Diaz. I agree the Astros pitchers will not retire - the question is whether or not having Maldonado behind the plate does improve the staff and by how much. The pitchers obviously believe Maldonado does. If Crane really didn't want Maldonado catching - then he wouldn't be catching. Crane is a former pitcher, and is a very outspoken person. Sure - let's take away the catcher that Valdez is comfortable with, especially in the playoffs - sounds like a fantastic idea.
Click isn't the GM for a number of reasons - from his inability to communicate and work well with others in the organization........ to butting heads with Dusty Baker before the playoffs...... Click dug in, and Crain asked him if he wanted to bet his job on it -- he did, and you can call it luck if you want, but Baker was overwhelmingly right in the playoffs and Click was wrong.... from the trade deadline through the WS.
DeMeco Ryans didn't inherit a multiple time Super Bowl Championship team that made the conference title game every year.... so a completely different scenario.
These are the type of casuals that just started watching baseball and just boo bc everyone else is doing it and don't understand a lick of the game. Steve Martinez LOL
I agree on the pitchers in general and manager want him. I agree that some of the regression in the pitching is on the pitchers, especially the ones that got hurt. That said, the pitchers are not at fault for Maldy getting old and no longer being able to react as quickly to pitches causing the Astros to lose a lot of strikes this year during the regular season (especially on breaking balls). On Pressly, I thought he was pro-Maldy and pro-Diaz.
