Expectations of a catcher?

by greenmachine on Jun 11, 2008 11:22 AM PDT Comment 20 comments

I'm a big fan of Suzuki- I think he's a sharp kid with a bright future for either the A's or some other team. However- with his offensive abilities floundering and his tendency to kill rallies- it's natural for some to express their frustrations about him. There used to be a belief in baseball that if your team had a catcher who was an exceptional catcher ,you could live with their inability to hit the ball. The catcher wasn't really expected to be one of the big bats on the team. I guess that changed a bit over time with more powerful and consistent catchers coming up through the leagues, but my question is this- what should we expect from the catcher's position? Should we be satisfied with a Kendall type toughness with no ability to drive in runs (at least not in the AL) or should expect a Russell Martin or Posada? Just curious what everyone thinks.

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Give him some time.

I think Suzuki will develop into a very solid catcher. He will never be a power guy, but that doesn’t mean that his offensive numbers can’t improve. This is only his second full season.

by KCa's on Jun 11, 2008 12:08 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Actually its his first full season

He didn’t come up until June last year

by GusanoQuemador on Jun 11, 2008 12:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

There aren't really that many catchers who can hit well

Look on the bright side, Suzuki is better than Pudge right now (offensively), and he doesn’t call fastballs in bad situations just so he can throw out baserunners.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on Jun 11, 2008 12:18 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Personally, I can accept

his floundering on offense. What I can’t accept is that while this is happening, Bowden wastes away on the bench when a rest every 4 or 5 games would likely help out Suzuki. Catching is rough on the body and while he’s young, why blow him out like this? I almost see it like having a young pitcher throwing 120/130+ pitches a game consistently. Can their arm take it now? Probably. Will it kill his future? Probably.

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by DMOAS on Jun 11, 2008 12:31 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

If Jim Bowden's sitting on our bench,

then there’s some serious tampering going on, and I want it stopped now.

As for Bowen, I’m with you, buddy. He should start once or twice a week, or sometimes spell Suzuki in the late innings (with Barton as emergency catcher).

"You have to have a catcher or you'll have all passed balls."- Casey Stengel

by Gaijin_Suketto on Jun 11, 2008 12:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The poor guy's been sitting on the bench

for so long I even forgot his name. There’s something seriously wrong with that. And I think Bowden’s on our bench hoping to get some pointers. Not sure that’s going to work for him though.

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by DMOAS on Jun 11, 2008 1:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hope he's not in Billy Beane's luxury box trying to get pointers...

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jun 11, 2008 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

LOLBowden?

IM IN UR LUXRY BAWX TRYN 2 GIT POYNTERS

Is it prurient? I don’t know what to tell you. I think it’s odd and interesting. It’s part of life. @('.')@

by monkeyball on Jun 11, 2008 4:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

Wouldn’t want the broken chair shards to hurt him bad enough they need to replace him.

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by DMOAS on Jun 11, 2008 5:03 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of "because he's never there"...

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jun 11, 2008 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rob Bowen

It's Been A Great Year! Thanks Warriors!

by ballin on Jun 11, 2008 1:37 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Exhausted.

I think the whole game management topic is just a poor excuse to make for catchers who aren’t hitting well. Since when have the A’s had a bad pitching staff? If Kendall was so good at it, then why has there not been a decline in pitching performance since he left? Suzuki had like half a season of experience, and without looking at the stats I’m just going to say the pitching staff has been as good or maybe even better than it was when he was around. That said, I wouldn’t stick with a poor hitting catcher because he supposedly has good management skills.

As for Suzuki’s poor hitting. I think it is acceptable for now. It is a little more forgivable than someone like Kendall because the guy is basically a rookie. He is going to struggle, and doesn’t have a .300BA track record. I think a big part of it, is that when Geren moved him to the lead off spot, he just totally exhausted Suzuki. This is extremely apparent in his body language. I noticed early in the season Zooks was a lot more emotional behind the plate and it seemed like would run out to the mound all the time, at any sign of struggle from the pitchers. That has definitely subsided as of late. Suzuki put up some pretty respectable offensive numbers in the first month of the season while facing some of the best pitching in the league, so we know he is capable.

My only justification for Geren playing him so much is that he is waiting for Suzuki to catch his “second wind” and get his legs back under him. If Suzuki hasn’t started to turn things around by the end of this month Bowen should definitely start to see more starts. Zooks ranks pretty low in every offensive category for catchers this year which indicates his production shouldn’t be difficult to improve over. I sure hope he does b/c he is one of my favorite players on the team.

Not too much luck with the two bobblehead players this year, maybe thats why the third one is a historic player….

What about Barry?
"Barry who?" Forst said, and I felt like I was in the middle of a knock-knock joke.

by KMoAsFan on Jun 11, 2008 2:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

A "poor excuse"? What?

It has nothing to do with being an excuse. It’s evaluating overall productivity. The problem is that nobody (including the A’s) know exactly how valuable his defensive contributions are because the position is so unique.

Adam Everett was a very good major leaguer for his time with Houston even though he couldn’t hit a lick. Why? He is (or was) one of the best defensive short stops anybody has ever seen. He saved so many runs defensively that it far outweighed his offensive shortcomings.

So do you not believe a catcher can have this kind of defensive impact? If so, I guess that’s arguable. It’s just a pointless argument because there’s no way for us to know.

Something else interesting: Suzuki has a HUGE home/road split. He’s .285/.343/.366 at home and .207/.277/.217 on the road.

http://bocropleasestopswingingatbadpitches.blogspot.com/

by thejd44 on Jun 11, 2008 3:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Even if a catcher can have that kind of defensive impact

I’m pretty sure that Suzuki’s defense isn’t on a “possibly top 10 defensive players ever at the position ever” level that Kennedy’s defense at SS was/is.

Granted this is without looking at any numbers at all, but I’d say that his defense isn’t good enough to outweigh his bad hitting.

by mikev on Jun 11, 2008 3:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Didn't say anything about defense.

I didn’t say one thing about defense. I said game management. A.K.A calling pitches, making sure everyone is in position, calming pitchers, knowing batters, etc.

What about Barry?
"Barry who?" Forst said, and I felt like I was in the middle of a knock-knock joke.

by KMoAsFan on Jun 11, 2008 5:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

As I said on last night's wrap thread, I think Suzuki is capable of improving

He’s going to have to, though, because right now he isn’t good enough. He’s a solid defensive catcher, but not an amazing one. He needs to bring his OPS up to the high 600s to be an effective player (adjusted for park, that’s about league-average for catchers). Not an outrageous thing to ask of him.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Jun 11, 2008 4:34 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

true,

and it looks like he’ll have the time to improve, too.

I don’t see Landon Powell coming up anytime soon…

"You have to have a catcher or you'll have all passed balls."- Casey Stengel

by Gaijin_Suketto on Jun 11, 2008 5:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Comparing Suzuki to Kendall

offensively the difference is that Kendall could only get bloop hits or weak hits, whereas Suzuki has the ability to hit the ball hard.

But even then, Suzuki is a horrible hitter. He constantly GIDP’s like Kendall did, killing rallies.

I just hope that Landon Powell regains his stroke and comes up and claims the catcher spot.

by Zonis on Jun 11, 2008 6:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Suzuki is doing fine this year but I still think Bowen should get to play more

If our back-up catcher was some has been I would say Suzuki should get to play as much as he has.

If Suzuki was hitting .300 while Bowen hit .200 then I would say Suzuki should get to play as much as he has.

However, I think Bowen should get a few more starts. I think it might help Suzuki in long run to have a few more days off.

GO OAKLAND

by Yellowhorse on Jun 11, 2008 9:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah, for the most part...

I don’t like burying the backup catcher on the bench. I like keeping players sharp and getting every player on the roster (except starters and long relievers) into at least two games a week to keep them reasonably sharp.

I’d like to see Suzuki catch no more than 5 days a week, which means Bowen catches once or twice a week.

I’d also like to see Bowen pinch hit sometimes in favorable situations. I think that the possible reward of a key pinch hit or two is worth the risk of possibly having Barton come into a game as the emergency catcher.

Seriously, for an emergency catcher to come into a game, either:
A- the regular catcher gets hurt
B- it’s the seventeenth gdamn inning and the regular catcher is too f*ing tired to put the gear back on.

Neither of these situations happens very often, and even if the emergency catcher does have to come in, that doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily going to lose you the game.

The A’s have seemed very hesitant over the years to actually let their backup catchers play. If Bowen completely sucked, I wouldn’t want to let him play either, but he walks some and he can hit the crap out of a fastball, so keep him sharp, especially during the upcoming NL road trip.

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"You have to have a catcher or you'll have all passed balls."- Casey Stengel

by Gaijin_Suketto on Jun 11, 2008 10:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs