"Give Rod the Nod" Campaign

Mets fans want to see Rod Barajas in the All-Star game, and we can certainly help by going here to vote.

The 34-year old Barajas has been a revelation for the Mets, both with his bat and his glove.  He currently leads all catchers in homeruns and RBIs, and his slugging percentage is second only to Miguel Olivo.

That said, the most important contribution he's making just might be with his personality.  Barajas has developed exceptional relationships with his pitchers and the amount of "shaking off" from last year to this year is noticeably less.

If you look at the stats, Barajas is certainly above average defensively, with the 9th best CERA in MLB to go along with the 4th best RF in the NL.  He does fall short in terms of throwing this year, but he commands the game from behind the plate, works well with the staff, and I have not seen him make a bad decision all year. 

Speaking of throwing--Barajas has an excellent arm and has thrown out 33% of baserunners in his career, and 34% just last year.  His totals this year are down, but they are also not running on him very often.  By season's end I fully expect that stat to normalize back toward the mean.

NL Catcher Sortable Fielding
RK	PLAYER	TEAM	GP	GS	FULL	TC	PO	A	E	DP	FPCT	RF	ZR	PB	CSB	CS	CS%	CERA
1	Geovany Soto	CHC	43	39	340	327	312	14	1	1	.997	8.64	3.012	1	30	8	.211	4.46
2	Russell Martin	LAD	46	45	404	387	357	25	5	1	.987	8.52	2.972	3	23	10	.303	3.99
3	Bengie Molina	SFO	40	37	320	303	281	21	1	1	.997	8.49	2.931	1	37	7	.159	3.29
4	Rod Barajas	NYM	41	39	349	328	314	12	2	3	.994	8.40	3.021	1	15	2	.118	4.23
5	Miguel Olivo	COL	38	38	335	303	274	26	3	2	.990	8.07	3.083	3	13	16	.552	3.46
6	Brian McCann	ATL	41	39	331	294	273	16	5	3	.983	7.87	3.170	1	23	9	.281	4.08
7	Yadier Molina	STL	46	45	403	350	323	25	2	5	.994	7.78	3.237	2	10	13	.565	2.52
8	Chris Snyder	ARI	41	39	345	286	260	26	0	0	1.000	7.47	3.395	2	25	11	.306	5.93
9	Carlos Ruiz	PHI	39	38	334	272	247	24	1	2	.996	7.30	3.463	1	24	7	.226	3.55
10	Ryan Doumit	PIT	44	42	367	299	276	21	2	1	.993	7.28	3.485	4	41	4	.089	5.09

There are certainly some great choices for all-star this year at catcher, but for many reasons, it's time for Mets fans to get out and vote to "Give Rod the Nod".

The current popular vote totals for National League catcher are:

1	Yadier Molina, Cardinals	316,795
2	Carlos Ruiz, Phillies	259,227
3	Ivan Rodriguez, Nationals	247,998
4	Brian McCann, Braves	203,377
5	Russell Martin, Dodgers	160,698

Barajas 2010 Season Stats
SPLITS	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Season	42	149	22	40	8	0	11	30	4	20	0	0	.268	.291	.544	.835
Career	855	2670	321	641	157	1	103	385	147	464	2	2	.240	.284	.415	.699
Last 7 days	5	18	2	5	1	0	1	6	0	0	0	0	.278	.263	.500	.763
Projected	151	536	79	144	29	0	40	108	14	72	0	0	.268	.291	.544	.835