0-4 When Lavarnway Starts

[Oriole1940]

While I doubt that Lavarnway is to blame for the recent losses, it is true that when journeymen such as him, Rule 5 ers, over the hillers, never wasers etc., saturate a teams roster, I do not expect many good things to happen. We have been very fortunate the last couple years with Buck getting everything possible out of those kinds of marginal major leaguers, but I do not count on this sort of thing to keep happening.

[TouchemAll]

No Lavarnway fan here, as bad as that starting pitching has been pounded he's not anywhere near the problem for the losses

With that said we got a miracle out of Joseph last year, and that won't happen again. JMHO

[O-Arm36]

Did you know the Tigers are 5-1 when James McCann has more than 1 at bat?

[DrungoHazewood]

While I doubt that Lavarnway is to blame for the recent losses, it is true that when journeymen such as him, Rule 5 ers, over the hillers, never wasers etc., saturate a teams roster, I do not expect many good things to happen. We have been very fortunate the last couple years with Buck getting everything possible out of those kinds of marginal major leaguers, but I do not count on this sort of thing to keep happening.

I think this is a common thought here. That the O's success since '12 has mainly been smoke and mirrors, Duquette and Buck have been unbelievably lucky, and that unless they dramatically increase the number of stars/highly paid free agents/TOR starters/name players/etc. then one of these years (probably this year) the collapse will be immediate and ugly.

[sportsfan8703]

Tillman's ERA by catcher...

G IP HR ERA

Steve Clevenger 4 25.0 10 3.60

Jake Fox 3 15.1 10 5.87

Nick Hundley 18 116.2 36 2.78

Caleb Joseph 9 46.0 22 4.30

Ryan Lavarnway 2 7.0 14 18.00

Chad Moeller 3 12.0 11 8.25

Chris Snyder 1 6.0 3 4.50

Craig Tatum 7 38.1 24 5.63

Taylor Teagarden 5 29.1 12 3.68

Matt Wieters 70 399.0 173 3.90

Gregg Zaun 1 4.2 3 5.79

Joseph has been on the team almost a year now and only caught Tillman 9 times. So there is something to the he doesn't like throwing to him. The O's didn't bring Hundley back because they were still banking on some long shot that MW would be ready on OD. And yes I support Tillman having a personal catcher if it makes him pitch like an ACE. With Clevenger on the DL we should be looking to acquire a vet catcher that can call a good game. Maybe trade for Ward back. Bring back Teagarden.

Carlos Ruiz? He's owed 2/17. How much would the Phillies be willing to eat? Maybe we can trade Matusz for Ruiz and 4 million to balance out the salaries just for this year.

[DrungoHazewood]

Tillman's ERA by catcher...

G IP HR ERA

Steve Clevenger 4 25.0 10 3.60

Jake Fox 3 15.1 10 5.87

Nick Hundley 18 116.2 36 2.78

Caleb Joseph 9 46.0 22 4.30

Ryan Lavarnway 2 7.0 14 18.00

Chad Moeller 3 12.0 11 8.25

Chris Snyder 1 6.0 3 4.50

Craig Tatum 7 38.1 24 5.63

Taylor Teagarden 5 29.1 12 3.68

Matt Wieters 70 399.0 173 3.90

Gregg Zaun 1 4.2 3 5.79

Joseph has been on the team almost a year now and only caught Tillman 9 times. So there is something to the he doesn't like throwing to him. The O's didn't bring Hundley back because they were still banking on some long shot that MW would be ready on OD. And yes I support Tillman having a personal catcher if it makes him pitch like an ACE. With Clevenger on the DL we should be looking to acquire a vet catcher that can call a good game. Maybe trade for Ward back. Bring back Teagarden.

Or... the fact that CERA is subject to many extreme biases and cannot begin to tease the data out of the noise. Of course a personal catcher isn't going to turn Chris Tillman into Clayton Kershaw. The catchers have nothing to do with this, or if they do good luck finding actual verifiable evidence in support of that conclusion. Lists of CERA are about as relevant as a string of random numbers.

[sportsfan8703]

Or... the fact that CERA is subject to many extreme biases and cannot begin to tease the data out of the noise. Of course a personal catcher isn't going to turn Chris Tillman into Clayton Kershaw. The catchers have nothing to do with this, or if they do good luck finding actual verifiable evidence in support of that conclusion. Lists of CERA are about as relevant as a string of random numbers.

There is something to it because for whatever reason Tillman doesn't like throwing to Joseph and liked throwing to Hundley. Then the stats back that up. You're right about the randomness of the other names. But Tillman not liking throwing to Joseph is the truth. For whatever reason.

[DrungoHazewood]

There is something to it because for whatever reason Tillman doesn't like throwing to Joseph and liked throwing to Hundley. Then the stats back that up. You're right about the randomness of the other names. But Tillman not liking throwing to Joseph is the truth. For whatever reason.

Have you talked to him? Or are you just drawing that inference from the fact that his ERA is slightly higher in 46 innings with Joseph behind the plate?

[BohKnowsBmore]

I just logged in with the intent of posting a thread called "I've seen enough of Ryan Lavarnway". So this works out nicely.

He's basically no good. We can't win a game when he's calling pitches, he doesn't seem to catch any balls thrown to him when there's a play at the plate (although Caleb has been guilty of this too, and there have been bad throws as well), and he hasn't hit a lick.

It's time to bring back the Cleaver, or somebody. This isn't working.

Well as soon as Matt is back it should be the wieters/Joseph show.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mdbdotcom]

I think we do just as bad when Jim Hunter does the TV play by play. Maybe we should dump Hunter, too.

[21xxxv]

He is very flawed as a defensive catcher. O's need to consider improving this position sooner than later. And not just with Weiters potentially coming back, but long term. He could set the O's record in PB's.

[EagleOriole]

I think he's below average for sure. His offense hasn't made up for it yet.

Makes you wonder just what Clevenger did to Showalter...I would be fine with DFAing Lavarnway.

[EagleOriole]

Not a big deal if we lose him but you might be reverse jinxing him into a homerun today. It wouldn't be a surprise if he started today.

I love a good reverse jinx and full expect him to be in the lineup today.

[Crazysilver03]

Lavarnway was shuttled to multiple teams in the offseason, no one wanted to keep him. We had to. He's a smart kid (Yale) and a pretty good hitter. But if he can't defend he won't be in the majors for very long.

That is not true at all Roy. Everyone that claimed him wanted to keep him. Just not in the 40 man. But that doesn't mean what you are trying to imply. And we didn't have to keep him. We could have easily releases him.

[Bahama O's Fan]

If we are going to have defensive flawed backup catcher, I would rather it be Clevenger; at least he can hit.