clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Meyer's Got His Groove Back

While it's foolish to draw too many conclusions this early in spring training, it's certainly good to see Dan Meyer bounce back from his drubbing to befuddle the Giants today.

The kid tops John Sickels' list of Athletics prospects, beating out Blanton, Swisher and even Street.

Fosse and Korach were mentioning on the air today how important it is to have someone like Jason Kendall catching a kid like Meyer so the kid doesn't have to think too much about what he's throwing. In other words, he doesn't have to doubt that the right pitch is being called at the right time.

That's an interesting question addressed in Josh Suchon's article (already mentioned in some diaries earlier).

But here is the key part:

A year ago, Damian Miller arrived in the A's camp with a reputation as great at calling games, blocking pitches and throwing out runners. Miller's former Cubs pitchers raved about him and were upset when he was traded to the A's. But by the end of last season, most A's starters were requesting Adam Melhuse catch their games, while coaches became aggravated that Miller didn't follow the game plan closer with his pitch calling. Melhuse ended the year with a better catcher's ERA (4.05) than Miller (4.24).

If the count was 2-0, Miller would often automatically put down the sign for a fastball, rather than mixing off-speed pitches in a hitter's count.

Anyone else wonder why Miller is now in Milwaukee?

Of course, strangely enough, this is not the way it's portrayed in Aces where the pitchers (outside of Zito) seem more than happy with Damian catching.

My one pressing question...can we at least have this take Dan to the mound for his starts?