NY Sports Dog: Talk Me Off the Ledge: Rod Barajas

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Talk Me Off the Ledge: Rod Barajas


First it was Benjie Molina, now, according to Metsblog and other sources, it's Rod Barajas.

Why, why, why?

This is the same Rod Barajas that put up the following stats in 2009:

  • .213 BA and .241 OBP against RH pitching
  • .214 BA and .234 OBP at home
  • 8 walks in 299 plate appearances in the second half of the season
  • .163 BA and .195 OBP in games played that his team lost
  • .661 OPS on the year
If you're fooled by a few homeruns, please stop reading now and go back to your fingerpainting. This is a player that cannot get on base and doesn't have high pedigree fielding chops to make up for the lack of hitting. Is he an above average fielder? Yes, but not enough to offset the hole in the lineup his bat brings.

Can we not just stick with Thole and Santos or Blanco and call it a day? Do we truly need to chase after every marginal catcher in baseball?

Talk me off the ledge please.

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4 comments:

Paul Hadsall said...

The Mets don't have any catchers that can hit well enough to justify a starting lineup spot.

I don't really know of any defensive stats that quantify the most important aspect of the position - do his pitchers trust him?

If Barajas is willing to take a cheap minor league deal -- which is what I believe is being offered -- it doesn't hurt to take a look. (Of course, he probably won't help very much either.)

Ed Ryan said...

Dave here's a little food for thought, check out this article if you would - not trying to change your mind just giving you the counter points ...

ed
http://metsfever.blogspot.com/2010/01/this-is-why-we-need-to-sign-rod-barjas.html

Dave Singer said...

Ed--Toronto was 22nd in ERA last year, not "The Blue jays lead the league in ERA in 2008 and were amongst the best last year as well." as you wrote.

They went from 3.49 in 2008 to 4.47 last year, almost the worst in baseball (and worse than the Mets).

I liked your article overall, but I think that mistake is worthy of a retraction tomorrow.

Ed Ryan said...

Dave,

First I'd like to thamk you for helping Mack with the spring training pieces, I love his stuff and glad he made it.

As for your response to my barajas piece I'm sorry i didn't see it until today. It was based on the below article by MLB, maybe my wording was strong to support my arguement but based on that source I wouldnt consider it inaccurate in need of retraction unless MLB needed to as well.....

"In '08, the Jays boasted the best pitching staff in baseball, and the club's patchwork cast remained respectable in '09."
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091012&content_id=7440046&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor

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