Hitters experiment during spring training too. Clint Barmes was using a leg kick he didn't use before and he said it was throwing off his timing so he's getting rid of it. http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/...tebook_id=16869346&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou
According to Justice, Oswalt didn't like a lot of players on the team last year. He had some sort of issue with Cory Sullivan too.
LOL...Cory Sullivan??? What the heck could he have done? I read a stat today that made me sad, Wandy had a 1.98 ERA with Castro behind the plate...
I wouldn't read too much into that. Wandy was on a roll when Castro got called up the 2nd half of the season.
I'm not sure a passed ball would count against his fpct. There's a lot of "unmeasured" things when you look at a catcher. Most recently, Mike Matheny and Brad Ausmus were freaking clinics of how to play the position. Just a real pleasure to watch. - How and when does he set up his target? - How does he receive the ball? (The less movement, the better--gets you more calls) - How well does he know the hitters in the league? - How well does he know his pitchers' mechanics? Ausmus could literally tell when a pitcher was, for example, flying open with his front shoulder, mention it to him on the hill, and save a coach's visit to the mound. - How does he move his feet? You can make up for some arm strength by the way you get yourself in position to throw. - (and this is a big one) Does he use his entire body, not just his mitt, to stop low pitches? Ausmus was historically awesome at that until the last year or so. That's why Wags and Lidge loved him--they could throw those weird sliders and he was going to stop them every time, not miss them with some lame backhanded stab.
Totally agree... very good post. Although I usually cringed when he was batting, Ausmus was a joy to watch when the 'Stros weren't batting. One thing I noticed was that when certain hitters came up, you'd see him direct the fielders into position. He scouted hitters as well so he could tell Bagwell (for example) to move towards the line, or Everett to move closer to 2nd base. Brad's absolute best attribute, in my opinion, was his brain. Great catcher, smart dude.
yep. they didn't call him "field general" for nothing. Been hearing this for years. Wouldn't mind seeing it.
It does. There is some evidence that pitch framing has significant importance. As for the rest I haven't seen any statistical evidence that any of that makes a big impact on the actual performances of hitters. You're right that there is still a lot we don't know about evaluating the defense of catchers, though. But at the same time I'm skeptical that the front office/coaches/etc know much more than anybody else. Fact is, Towles has an excellent proven track record in the minors in both hitting and in the aspects of defense we CAN measure. I don't feel like the club has ever given him a long enough look.
Really? Can you provide a link? Because my understanding of fpct is the amount of errors divided by the amount of fielding opportunities (ie a batted ball). A passed ball doesn't count as an error, does it? It is not a batted ball that is being fielded. Not saying you're wrong and I'm right; just saying that's a new one for me. You see, I was talking about the performance of the catcher. And, the catcher's performance will have more impact on the pitcher than the hitter, but you won't be able to see that with your slide rule. I get that we want to use statistics to see how much "bottom line impact" certain factors may really have on the outcome of games, but I was just talking about what makes a good defensive catcher. It might not look too sexy on your WAR or VORP or whatever the hell else you can pound out on your computer and your slide rule, but there are some damn fine defensive players out there and it's exciting to watch it. And that's the part of baseball I enjoy the most: watching it. Yeah, I did not in any way intend for my aside on C defense to be a commentary on what the FO should do with Towles or their C for the coming year. I haven't seen enough of Towles to comment on him, actually. I was only speaking in general about C defense; sorry for the confusion.
Passed balls and wild pitches are considered to be part of the act of pitching rather than fielding (and also because the catcher and the pitcher have to handle the ball so much). Thus they are kept as separate statistics and are not recorded as errors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passed_ball) Granted it's wikipedia, so that really doesn't prove much. This one also seems to indicated PB doesn't count against fpct: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/62347 (but it's not the official rulebook, either).
Yeah, I was mistaken on passed balls being considered errors. I also meant to write "pitchers", not "hitters". This is why you shouldn't post when you're tired. HOWEVER, Towles has had 4 errors and 5 passed balls 101 MLB games, to go with his 41% caught-stealing percentage. So my basic point that he's performed fine by traditional defensive statistics stands even I was incorrect on the specific numbers. In any case, while I wouldn't mind the Astros picking up guy like Jesus Flores with similar potential to Towles (so long as the cost is not high), I also wouldn't mind them finally giving Towles a real shot to prove himself. His career .297/.390/.470 line in the minors speaks for itself, I think. I just don't buy that his MLB performance is representative of his true talent level as a hitter.
I don't doubt you there. I wouldn't mind him having a shot either, especially if he looks at least like a backup and could net us something in return. As far as his defensive performance, I simply haven't been able to watch him play very much. Anyone have any observations?
wait, we still have the astros in Houston? I thought the owner was selling? He didnt sell the team? Bad news. And of course,Drayton did his annual speech of "astros have talent to contend" about 2 weeks ago...Proves hes clueless.You cant fix something if you are content with it. Drayton is content with this team. Any fans that pay $ are content also.
horse puckey. we do not have to boycott anything in some lame attempt to "prove" something with the c-note it will cost the Astros. I'll to the games because I love baseball and I love the Astros, even if I don't like where things have been the last few years. I lived through the Ford Motors Credit Company, through John McMullen, and I'll be around after McLane, too. Save the condescending bull****.
Fans have to spend money in order for the organization to spend money. Drayton proved he will spend money. I think there was a time when Drayton was ignoring the truth, but that was a few years ago. I don't think he honestly expects this team to be World Series contenders, but he is going to say what owners always say.
What do you want him to say? "Our team sucks, please don't come to the games, but if you do please buy beer and food!!!!"
zacharylevine Announcement from Astros is that Wandy Rodriguez has mild tendinitis in throwing shoulder and scratched Tuesday. -Z
