State of the System: Catcher - Grade A-

[Sports Guy]

56 minutes ago, Philip said:

Where have you been? Our catchers hit better than the typical catcher, but they defend lousy.

So?  Rutschman does both very well.

You stick him with practically anyone and you have the best C situation in baseball..if he’s as good as advertised.

Either Severino or Sisco would be amongst the best back up C in the league.

 

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/hit-by-pitch/regular-season?expanded=true

They were tied for 23rd in the league in HBP.

I know big shock that folks were more talk than action right?

Eh, I think the Astros got unfairly protected earlier this year when Manfred declared that anyone who threw at them would be suspended.  In a game that loves to brag about unwritten rules and how players police themselves, that came to a screeching halt.  While the Astros FO took a hit and their manager, too, the players that orchestrated and benefitted from the cheating didn't have to deal with anything, which is a shame.  

Anyway, let's keep talking about our mediocre catchers and our one elite prospect.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

Eh, I think the Astros got unfairly protected earlier this year when Manfred declared that anyone who threw at them would be suspended.  In a game that loves to brag about unwritten rules and how players police themselves, that came to a screeching halt.  While the Astros FO took a hit and their manager, too, the players that orchestrated and benefitted from the cheating didn't have to deal with anything, which is a shame.  

Anyway, let's keep talking about our mediocre catchers and our one elite prospect.

Unfairly? 

As someone who is always against intentionally hitting someone I don't agree that anything was unfair about it.

[Moose Milligan]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Unfairly? 

As someone who is always against intentionally hitting someone I don't agree that anything was unfair about it.

As someone who intentionally threw at a few batters when playing growing up, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

[Just Regular]

51 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Ron Hunt averaged 26 per 162 games, but NL Oriole Hughie Jennings was at 36.  Jennings once had a season where he hit .401 with 36 HBP and 19 walks.  And another where he was hit by 51 pitches in 130 games.

The Diamondbacks have this guy Tim Locastro who is almost as fast as Billy Hamilton, can't really hit, but has managed to get himself HBP 27 times in 347 career PA.

In terms of Adley's ascent to All-Star teams and pushing the Orioles towards the top of that chart, Realmuto and Grandal kind of seem like the two daring anyone else to get by.   The grades do seem high in this series - I'm not sure if System means Farm only, or including the major league level.

[HowAboutThat]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Where have YOU been, Phillpe?

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-positional-power-rankings-catcher/

 

I see Baltimore way down at the end. That’s bad. How does that refute what I said? Our catchers are lousy. AR isn’t a catcher yet, he’s just a ray of hope for tomorrow.

[DrungoHazewood]

28 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/hit-by-pitch/regular-season?expanded=true

They were tied for 23rd in the league in HBP.

I know big shock that folks were more talk than action right?

Their ranking in HBP actually went down from 2018-19 to 2020. 

It's like Bob Gibson, you know, the guy who hit every 4th batter just for intimidation?  John Means hit waaaaaaaaay more batters per PA this year than Gibson ever did. 

HBP rhetoric almost always is far worse than reality.

[HowAboutThat]

30 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

So?  Rutschman does both very well.

You stick him with practically anyone and you have the best C situation in baseball..if he’s as good as advertised.

Either Severino or Sisco would be amongst the best back up C in the league.

 

That’s complete malarkey. But as I said, AR isn’t anything except potential. It is illogical to give a grade on how our catching situation is right now, completely based on a potential that is two years away.

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, Philip said:

I see Baltimore way down at the end. That’s bad. How does that refute what I said? Our catchers are lousy. AR isn’t a catcher yet, he’s just a ray of hope for tomorrow.

You said our catchers hit better than average.  That graph, along with Severino's sub-100 OPS+ and Sisco's slightly over 100 OPS+ should lead you to believe that our catchers, at best, hit average.  

[DrungoHazewood]

5 minutes ago, OrioleDog said:

The Diamondbacks have this guy Tim Locastro who is almost as fast as Billy Hamilton, can't really hit, but has managed to get himself HBP 27 times in 347 career PA.

I wish the league would tell batters who hang out with their bodies essentially in the strike zone that they're going to enforce the rules that say if you don't make an attempt to avoid the HBP you don't get first base.

Or maybe they just make the rule that the batter's box is three dimensional, and if you set up your stance with any part of your body outside the box it's illegal.  Punishment: any HBP anywhere on the batter is a strike.  Would have been awesome if they'd done that when Jose Bautista was still playing.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Philip said:

That’s complete malarkey. But as I said, AR isn’t anything except potential. It is illogical to give a grade on how our catching situation is right now, completely based on a potential that is two years away.

Lol..this doesn’t make any sense.

This rating is based on the ORGANIZATIONAL catching situation.  This isn’t, who has good ML catchers.

Rutschman is a top 5 prospect and talked about as one of the best C prospects ever.

Right now, the Orioles catching organizational C situation is one of the best in the sport just because of that.

The only reason its not an A+ is because Adley isn’t up here and performing.

Now, of course, a lot of this is based on potential but so what?  All of these types of lists are based on potential.

[HowAboutThat]

12 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

You said our catchers hit better than average.  That graph, along with Severino's sub-100 OPS+ and Sisco's slightly over 100 OPS+ should lead you to believe that our catchers, at best, hit average.  

I thought they did hit better than average. They were certainly blazing at the start of the season, but they must have really cratered. Even if it did not, there’s no justification for a good grade, Their defense is terrible, though, so that’s even less reason to give the catching a passing grade. AR May be great but he’s not even at AA yet.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Philip said:

I thought they did hit better than average. They were certainly blazing at the start of the season, but they must have really cratered. Even if it did not, there’s no justification for a good grade, Their defense is terrible, though, so that’s even less reason to give the catching a passing grade. AR May be great but he’s not even at AA yet.

To SG's point, either one is a good backup.  But AR makes everything more palatable and must be accounted for if you're looking at the entire system, not just the ML roster.  

[Sports Guy]

Let’s put this another way.

How many teams in all of baseball would trade all the C in their organization for ours?

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Ron Hunt averaged 26 per 162 games, but NL Oriole Hughie Jennings was at 36.  Jennings once had a season where he hit .401 with 36 HBP and 19 walks.  And another where he was hit by 51 pitches in 130 games.

Good 'ol Hughie. The Rudy Stein of his day!