Thanks.

If Thole were your 2nd catcher then I can see bringing him along and playing him for 50 games a year. Not ideal but workable. He’s decent in some areas but his technique in some areas is all wrong. He backhands the ball instead of sliding over, his cup is too straight and more than a few times he’s actually just flat out missed the ball right in the air. Even let the ball hit the umpire on the fly. Believe it or not that pisses off the umpire.

Hitting is not the issue. He doesn’t kill your lineup. Doesn’t give you a lot but he’s perfectly acceptable offensively, it’s the defensive part that’s a problem. Grote was a GREAT defensive catcher. Ever think he may have been part of the young Met pitchers success? They all had a world of talent but they even started out dominating aside from Ryan who was only occasionally dominating.

It’s easy to overlook the importance of having a really good defensive catcher but it shows up on the field.

Because the New Indian GM traded prospects for a veteran, it doesn’t count?

Not sure I follow I your logic here.

My point is you can provide your team with solutions beyond just waiting till the last minute. But you have to be looking for those opportunities when they arise. Maybe even plan for them as best you can. How can anybody find fault with those three trades?

Henry Blanco is now 40 years old which is like 60 in catcher years. Sorry, but at this point, he would no longer be a help that ship has sailed.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/37316/mets-add-johnson-to-catching-mix

Just from an overall confidence level alone I don’t think Thole is helping the staff and rarely do you see guys go same pitch, same location 3-5 times in a row. I know your not dealing with swing and miss stuff and he’s probably setting down the exact script written up for him but still….

Sure, there’s a lot to be said for throwing out runners and passed balls (Thole was clearly poor at both), but those are tangible skills. If a pitcher doesn’t feel comfortable with a catcher, it’s a mental thing the catcher has no control over. Pelfrey’s a headcase. Does that mean Thole’s a bad catcher?

R.A Dickey in 2010: 2.84 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, in 173 IP

R.A Dickey in 2011: 3.28 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, in 208 IP

Jon Niese in 2010: 4.20 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, in 173 IP

Jon Niese in 2011: 4.40 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, in 157 IP

Mike Pelfrey in 2010: 3.66 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, in 204 IP

Mike Pelfrey in 2011: 4.74 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, in 193 IP

Pelfrey and Dickey’s BB/9 and K/9 were almost exactly the same. However Jon Niese’s was better last year than in 2010….But I think that had more do with him getting better as a pitcher than about the Mets catchers.

Cleveland got 3 everyday starting position players in trades for absolutely nothing cause they had their to the ground. They were looking at solving problems beforehand. 3 positions taken care of for 6-10 years at absolutely no cost to the team and coincidentally 2 positions that have been a long term nemises of ours.

Asdrubal Cabrera, Chin So Choi and Carlos Santana. A SS, RFer and catcher, cost to acquire them? As close to nothing as it gets. All terrific players making league minimum.

Mark Shapiro who was the Indian Gm isn’t known as a skilled talent evaluator. His drafts have been horrendous and yet he was able to pull off these heists and this is just an example of many such opportunities that exist, if your looking. If your focus is never removed from this year, you don’t see the opportunity.

Yeah prospects bust but they can also be obtained at very little cost so what did you lose? A 1B with a year left in his career? Expensive free agents bust all the time, wind up clogging your roster and preventing you from spending elsewhere. Which hurts more?

I think if Mark Shapiro could do it why couldn’t we do the same?

BB/9 K/9
Dickey: 2.3 (3.0) 5.8 (5.5)
Capuano: 2.6 (2.9) 8.1 (7.5)
Niese: 2.5 (3.0) 7.9 (7.6)
Pelfrey: 3.0 (3.2) 4.9 (5.1)
Gee was a rookie and had no numbers to compare.

So it looks like all four pitchers improved in each stat, except for Pelfrey’s K/9, which decreased by a negligible amount (over 200 innings, it’s a decrease of 4 K’s, or one every 50 innings. I’m not sure what defensive metrics you read about, but those are always flawed, especially in the case of catchers. Just look at the numbers.

The framing of the pitches and the pitch selection by Josh were awful. It is so predicable that it actually is boring to watch. When Henry Blanco was behind the plate, just about every pitcher improved. Rod Barajas was good but not as good as Henry. (Of course Rod hits better.)