The Yankee Clipper: Catcher and Designated Hitter

So far in our post-All-Star Break Yankee Clipper series we've covered the Yankees' infield and outfield so far in 2010. Now let's take a moment and look at their catchers and DHs. I felt like this went together since Jorge Posada has spent so much time at DH this season. Let's take a look at how these two groups have performed and see if the Yankees may need to make some changes before the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline:

1. Jorge Posada. If you were to give Posada's year an overall grade, what would it be? I think it would have to be someplace in the B- range. Since Posada's 6th place MVP finish in 2007 (and subsequent contract extension), the Yankees backstop has missed quite a lot of time with injuries. He played in only 51 games in 2008, 111 games in 2009, but is on pace to play in 134 this season. Posada's value is almost solely in his bat behind the plate (his catching has regressed with age) so when he has to spend a lot of time at DH, it hurts his value somewhat. So far in 2010, Posada has played 36 games at catcher, 20 at DH and 1 at 1B. Those 20 games at DH blow past his previous high of 15 in 2008. Posada's .265/.373/.464 slash line is down from last year or 2007, but some of that could be attributed to trying to play through injuries. His power numbers have suffered as well as his pace of 27 doubles, 20 HR, and 65 RBI would be one of the poorest outputs of a full season in his entire career. According to FanGraphs, Posada is crushing fastballs and hitting sliders well, but any other pitch has been getting him. Posada's home-road splits have been quite pronounced this year as he's hitting exactly 300 OPS points higher in New Yankee Stadium (which reflects last year's numbers as well when he hit 253 points higher). He's also hitting lefties at a .914 OPS while hitting righties at only .784. Still, there is tremendous value in Posada's bat being in the lineup regardless of who is pitching or the location of the game and the bet here is that the Yankees will try to keep Posada in the lineup but well-rested through DH stints. The biggest problem with this is Posada is not a good career hitter as a DH. As a catcher, he's hit .280/.381/.489 for his career--and as a DH, he's at .220/.341/.352. Some players can't adjust to just playing half the game and a catcher such as Posada who is involved in every pitch thrown would seem to be the most affected by that. And 2010 has been no different as his OPS is 116 points lower when he DHs (which he's done 20 times, the most on the Yankees). If Posada can't find a way to make himself into an effective DH, the Yankees may have some troubles in 2010 and 2011. Best Month: April .310/.394/.638 with 5 HR and 12 RBI.
2. Francisco Cervelli. "The Cisco Kid" had a tremendous start to the season but has since fallen off. He's been pretty good behind the plate and looks like he has a good rapport with the pitchers, but his bat hasn't quite been keeping up. His .266/.338/.333 line and .305 wOBA looks pretty rough after a fast start. His 30 RBIs, however, is quite impressive. His caught stealing rate has also dipped a lot. Last year he threw out an unbelievable 43% of the runners who tried to steal. This year he's at 14%--which is worse than Posada's 19%. I'm not surprised to see Cervelli struggle with the bat, however. He never showed a great bat in the minors (except a brief stint in 2008 at AA) and there was little reason to think that he suddenly would have become a great hitter in the majors. But when Cervelli woke up on May 15th, he had a .415/.483/.528 line and 14 RBI. Since May 15th, he's hit .202/.277/.250 with 16 RBI. And the last month he's been dismal with a .167/.167/.250 line and 1 RBI. The problem really becomes with Cervelli how much Posada can catch. If Jorge can squat more in the second half, then Frankie's issues at catcher don't get shown as much because of the limited amount of PAs. But if Posada were to suffer another injury or will be spending more time at DH, the Yankees may be in trouble having Cervelli playing every day. Though, when you factor in that Jose Molina was a worse hitter, the Yankees are actually improved in 2010 at the backup backstop. Best Month: April .360/.448/.400.

Read more>>

Trivia Tuesday: Catchers Hitting Home Runs

With his next home run, Jorge Posada will tie Ted Simmons for first all-time in home runs by switch-hitting catchers at 248. But there are 8 other catchers with more home runs than Simmons or Posada. Can you name them?

Put your answers in the comments below. Good luck (and no cheating)!

Bonus question from ESPN's TMI blog: Mark Buehrle is set to face the Rays for the first time since his perfect game last July. Besides Buehrle, who are the only two pitchers with a World Series title and multiple no-hitters including a perfect game all with the same team?

The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Catcher

The NCAA tournament is heating up and so is The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge here at NYaT. The preliminary rounds are about done for the pitchers (more poll results below) after closers, right-handed starters and left-handed starters were all voted upon, so now it's time to move on to their battery-mates. One rule for the hitters in our bracket challenge: only offense is rewarded. We'll mention defense as we see fit, but since I can't tell you how good a catcher Bill Dickey was, we'll just have to compare him to Jorge Posada on the offensive merits. And this one was a difficult category for that.

The Yankees have had 5 catchers play 1000 games for them and all 5 were legitimate candidates for this poll. Elston Howard and Thurman Munson both won MVPs, Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra both are in the Hall of Fame and Jorge Posada is one of the best offensive catchers of his generation. I decided to take three from them and only one from the Mets. So, without further ado, let's get to the candidates (all stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs):

Yankees:

Yogi Berra: 3 MVP awards. 18 All-Star games. 10 World Series rings. And from 1951-1956 when he won 3 MVPs, came in second twice, third once and fourth once, there was perhaps not better player in the American League--especially considering the position Berra played. 358 HR and 1430 RBI were amazing numbers for a catcher and his 704 BB to 411 SO ratio was simply amazing for any position. A .370 wOBA (weighted on base average from FanGraphs) ties him for 10th all-time among catchers with Jorge Posada (min. 5500 PA) and his 5.5% strikeout percentage is a great testament to his ability to make contact. Berra was a great postseason performer too, putting up a .357 OBA and batting .274/.359/.452 with 12 HR across 14 World Series. His best World Series was probably in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers where he hit .360/.448/.800 with 3 HR and 10 RBI. Amazingly, it took Berra two ballots to get into the Hall of Fame and even when he was elected, it was only 85.6% of the vote. But he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown in 1972. (picture from Dave's Dugout)

Bill Dickey: I didn't realize how good Bill Dickey was until I went back and looked through the statistics. His .394 career wOBA is second all-time among catchers to Mickey Cochrane (min. 2000 PA). That's higher than Mike Piazza, Joe Mauer, Jorge Posada, Berra or almost any other catcher. Dickey leads all Yankee catchers in the slashes Triple Crown: batting average (.313), OBP (.382), and SLG (.486). His 617 XBH ranks him second behind Berra and despite over 1500 less ABs, Dickey only trails Berra by 179 hits. Here's one of the most amazing stats: Dickey only struck out 289 times in his career (to 678 walks) and only struck out more than 22 times twice in his whole career. Dickey never won an MVP award, but playing next to Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gerhig really hurt him in that cause. Dickey's 1936-1938 was one of the best three-year runs a catcher has put up in Major League history. Dickey was an 11-time All-Star and won 7 World Series rings (in 8 chances). The two most amazing parts are that Dickey only played catcher in his 17 years in the bigs and that it took a ridiculous 9 years to get Dickey into the Hall of Fame. (picture from CharlesPaolino's Blog)

Read more>>

A Perfect Game Postscript: Wise, Obama, and a Question

The ESPN crew breaking down the perfect game including the DeWayne Wise highlight about 1:28 in:



That has to be one of the best catches ever, especially considering the circumstances. Mark Buehrle said he owes DeWayne Wise more than a steak sandwich for that one. I would agree. Maybe a new watch.

And after he pitched a perfect game, he got a call from the White Sox most famous fan, Barack Obama:



Also, a question: a perfect game is 27 up, 27 down, no hits, walks, hit batters, or errors. But let's say the last batter pops one up but the catcher drops it in foul territory. They give him an error. But the pitcher gets the guy out on the next pitch. Is it a perfect game? I think it should be, but technically, because of the error is it one? If anyone can answer that correctly, they get big kudos, because no one has ever been able to answer that for me.