When Pressly insists on preferring someone over a catcher in which he has yet to give up an earned run with... the manager has to step in and say deal with it.
You can scream all you want about this: every pitcher with any skins on the wall has the ability to dictate their catcher. Some don't care. Some don't have viable options. Seems like JV and Framber care. Let me ask you a question since, I assume, you fall into the anti-Baker crowd... why do you want *Dusty Baker* dictating to Justin Verlander what's best for him? You don't think he's competent enough to make a line-up - but you want him choosing what's best for his best pitchers?...
Close games are indeed can be determined by one or two players especially if those one or two players can't make contact or catch/throw/frame the ball.
We better not lose close games n the playoffs with Diaz and McCormick sitting the bench. That would be unforgivable.
Managers do not move the needle as much as you think; I therefore don't scream like a toddler about it.
If that one player is pass ball happy... yes, one player can seriously make a difference in a close game.
None of them literally have the ability to dictate the lineup. The manager might take their preference under advisement, but it’s not their prerogative. Also, generally speaking, I want Dusty to utilize the resources afforded him in the most efficient manner possible. I don’t like him bc he’s pretty bad at that, particularly this season.
I've literally not. The problem is that it's impossible to quantify. Baseball does not boil down to one thing; or even two things. Losses are a combination of many things, as are wins. It is an intricate game. What you do is reduce that intricacy down to a single AHA! moment at the expense of literally anything else that might've transpired in the game. And it's just not how baseball works.
Much more so than the passed balls, you would think Maldy's world's worst pitch framing would drive them crazy. He makes them work a lot harder for their outs by failing to get called strikes.
It’s falling on deaf ears. This dude is either scarface under a different name or just another Dusty only guy.
Active Leaders in Passed Balls (Rank Player (Expeirence, Age) - Passed Ball Count) 1. Yasmani Grandal (12, 34) 95 2. Martín Maldonado (13, 36) 69 Gary Sánchez (9, 30) 69 4. Christian Vázquez (9, 32) 68 5. Mike Zunino (11, 32) 65 6. J.T. Realmuto (10, 32) 59
Alright he has contributed significantly to losses when he elects to play inferior players in prime spots in the batting order while pinch hitting with scrubs (eg Julks for Meyers, let's not forget Singleton for Chas) on a consistent basis while also trying to get starting pitchers to the magical 5 IP to qualify for the win or 6 IP for quality starts.
We had a better team last year. Everyone knows that. Look at Frambers numbers last year. Look at Verlanders numbers last year. Look at Javier last year. we could afford having the worst hitter in baseball batting 9th. This year, we cannot. Maldy shouldn't have been starting anyway because his defense was also awful last year. We were good enough to overcome it though. We aren’t this year. This is very easy to see. Only a person in denial would argue.
Who said anything about the "line-up"? Pitchers of certain ilk absolutely dictate their **catcher** (if they so choose). I promise you, this is a very common thing in baseball. You can deny it all you want: you are wrong. Some of them don't care; some of them don't have viable choices. But JV has told us - repeatedly - that he prefer Martin Maldonado, and if that's his preference, a manager is not going to go against it. Until very recently, Dusty has been patching gaping holes because of injuries. I don't always follow - or agree with - his method - but I also don't think it's swung the needle significantly. I'm curious to see how he manages this line-up now that the team is at full-strength and seemingly has too many choices.
I did not know Hey Now!, that the pitcher literally writes in the name of the catcher on the lineup card. I did know that pitchers are sometimes allowed by their manager to pick their battery mate, but I didn't know it was actually their decision to make all along. Just as a hypothetical, what would happen if a manger told JV that he had to pitch to a given catcher? Is there a clause in his contract saying he would not be required to pitch in such a scenario? Would he quit? Would he pitch poorly on purpose to passive aggressively make a statement?
You've almost got it! Yes, Maldonado hasn't changed - he's the same awful offensive catcher he's always been: so why do you think he's the reason they're not as good this year?.......... Allow me to put it another way: let's say this current line-up - everyone healthy and performing - had been available to Dusty all year... So Altuve, Pena, Alvarez, Tucker, Bregman, Brantley, Abreu, Chas/Dubon with Maldonado catching the bulk of the time - do you think this would be a 92-win team? Now, take Altuve out for 1/2 the games; Alvarez out for 1/3; Brantley 95% - but... make Diaz the primary catcher.... do you think this would be a 100-win team?...... You guys are focused on elements that don't move the needle as much as you think. You don't take your two best hitters and one of your 6/7 best hitters out of the line-up and make it better by.... improving your 9th best hitter. I'm 100% in agreement with playing Diaz over Maldonado. But I'm also realistic that, as long as the top of the line-up is missing significant time, Diaz > Maldonado is not significantly changing the results.
Also, does anyone find it funny that Chas mentioned Yainer unprompted in that Chandler article? Wonder why that came to his mind in that discussion. Could it be possible that other players on the team recognize which players are good and which players aren’t, and Dusty’s decision making is causing some friction among the players particularly with respect to Yainer?
