House is playing right now on ESPN2

[now]

Right. Brian Roberts didn't field the ball cleanly in the 9th inning of his All-Star game and opened the door for a potential National League rally. Guess that means Roberts has no business playing second in the bigs.

Hard to believe that in a 9-page thread this was the only reference to Roberts - nor did anyone respond to it. To me the coincidence and analogy is quite apt. Roberts walks and scores the tying run; then later in the ninth he makes a glaring bungle of a hit to open the gates to an NL rally. The defensive lapse is embarassingly visible; the offensive contribution is overshadowed.

Tejada's defensive play over the longer term is another example. Like the case of catcher defense, we all see defense from Miggy that is less than the stats indicate. It too is embarassing and costly at times. Does it mean Fahey or Gomez or Bynum should be playing at short instead?

[BaltimoreTerp]

I said this was his Custian moment not because I think this is evidence he's a joke, but because the Baltimore Orioles will take it that way.

I meant it in a similar way, although more along the lines of having the fans turn on him. So we agree for once

He'll only be a DH for the Orioles because they're more concerned with not being embarassed and never, ever taking a chance than they are concerned with winning games. He has no business being behind the plate 162 games a year, but as a player who's on the team for his bat he's a heck of a lot more valuable catching some games, playing first some games, and maybe even standing around at third or left occasionally for an inning or two.

See, I'm the kind of person who looked at Frank Robinson weeping over Matt LeCroy and thought "WTF?" The guy allowed some steals in one game. So frickin' what? He's a guy who can smack the ball around, and he can catch a few innings here and there. You make one odd game into something much more than it is, and suddenly Matt LeCroy's, or J.R. House's, or Jack Cust's value plummets. He's no longer that guy who can rake and occasionally play in the field, he's now a guy you won't ever play in the field, and you now have convinced yourself to rearrange your roster to accomodate your silly uncomfortableness.

For the millionth time: Figure out what a guy can do to help a team most, and let him do it. Figure out what really helps, and what really hurts, and do the former more often. And never be afraid to take a risk to win some games.

See, I agree that he should be here. I just don't see a spot for him as the roster is set now, since he shouldn't be a catcher at all unless it is in the Matt LeCroy Memorial Emergancy Catcher role.

That isn't focusing on the "Can't", it's not putting yourself into a situation where you are hurting the team more then helping. I do think he should be here, though, if we can find the space.

A lot of you folks would have thrown in the towel on the Lenn Sakata game - a shortstop catching? The embarassment! Lowenstein and Roenicke playing the infield! Oh, the mockery of the game's traditions! Might as well lose as do something that might win you more games, but just might be laughed at, too.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, since that was an emergancy situation (in other words, where we would be playing House anyway).

Plus, if the Blue Jays runners weren't stupidly anxious, Martinez doesn't pick them off, and that whole thing might have turned out different.

It's a great story, but it isn't exactly what we should be TRYING to do.

[geschinger]

I don't trust him as a catcher from everything that has been said/written in the past not because of a ridiculous sequence of pitches in one inning of one game. I'd like to see his bat up here but only after room has been made for Knott who is more deserving IMO.

[Migrant Redbird]

Yadier Molina has thrown out 11 of the 21 base runners attempting to steal against him this season, for a 52% caught stealing percentage. Last year, he and gold glover Albert Pujols worked the pickoff at 1st base to perfection 7 times. Despite that, they pulled the same trick on Brian Giles in the NLDS, which embarrassed Giles so much that he apologized to fans after the game.

Yet, I've seen Yadi lose his grip on the ball while cocking for the throw, allowing it to fly backwards. I also saw him cut loose a pick off throw during spring training that was so wild that Pujols never even budged to try to catch it.

The box score for the AAA All Star game says nothing about passed balls, but it does list 2 wild pitches. I recognize that scorers sometimes exercise poor judgment when deciding whether a particular play should be scored as a wild pitch or a passed ball -- which is why I counted both wild pitches and passed balls when I went through the Norfolk box scores to tally up the defensive stats for the Tide catchers this season.

That being said, I recognize that statistics are no substitute for scouting reports by expert observers. I most definitely am not an "expert" on anything baseball, despite over 50 years of being a fan. However, I'm not convinced that watching a TV broadcast of 3 innings of an all star game with the catcher working with an unfamiliar pitcher can qualify as "expert observation" under any criteria.

[cutfastball]

I'd like to see House actually catch before I tell MacPhail what to do. But House has caught at least one shutout at Norfolk. Which leads me to believe that if he's catching a guy with a good move (like Olson) and/or against a relatively lead-footed team, he can be valuable.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Yadier Molina has thrown out 11 of the 21 base runners attempting to steal against him this season, for a 52% caught stealing percentage. Last year, he and gold glover Albert Pujols worked the pickoff at 1st base to perfection 7 times. Despite that, they pulled the same trick on Brian Giles in the NLDS, which embarrassed Giles so much that he apologized to fans after the game.

Yet, I've seen Yadi lose his grip on the ball while cocking for the throw, allowing it to fly backwards. I also saw him cut loose a pick off throw during spring training that was so wild that Pujols never even budged to try to catch it.

The box score for the AAA All Star game says nothing about passed balls, but it does list 2 wild pitches. I recognize that scorers sometimes exercise poor judgment when deciding whether a particular play should be scored as a wild pitch or a passed ball -- which is why I counted both wild pitches and passed balls when I went through the Norfolk box scores to tally up the defensive stats for the Tide catchers this season.

That being said, I recognize that statistics are no substitute for scouting reports by expert observers. I most definitely am not an "expert" on anything baseball, despite over 50 years of being a fan. However, I'm not convinced that watching a TV broadcast of 3 innings of an all star game with the catcher working with an unfamiliar pitcher can qualify as "expert observation" under any criteria.

In a murder trial, having one witness that claims to have seen the defendant with the victim prior to the killing won't get a conviction. However, a couple of those, plus DNA evidence, fingerprints, and surveillance video? Now the evidence starts to add up.