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MLB 2011 Part 1

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Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Surprising nobody had any comments on the Jorge Posada situation in NY. It's kind of a sad way for his career to seemingly come to an end.
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

I don't think it's as big of a deal as they're making it out to be. If I'm Girardi, I would have given him the day off. Take a deep breath and say, "Fine. You need a day." and leave it at that. Now, on Sunday, I'd slot him in the order hitting 8th or 9th. And if he asks for a day off again, it's time for a sit-down with Girardi, Posada, and Cashman, right there on the spot. It's mid-May and Posada is hitting .165. He doesn't have much leverage here. It's not early anymore. Oh, and Jesus Montero is hitting .336 in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

When Magglio returns from the DL, and if he continues to struggle, Detroit is going to have to have that conversation as well.
 
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Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Considering that they face lefties today and tomorrow, and that Posada does not have a hit against lefties yet this year in 24 ABs this year - I would not be surprised if he is not in the lineup the next couple days.

FWIW, Ortiz is totally behind Posada on this - especially considering that he recently had the same thing happen to him. Difference is that Ortiz is about 5 years younger. I think Posada's situation is closer for Veritek, except the Red Sox don't really have the catching prospects on the farm like the Yankees do.

Thoughts on Posada as a HOF candidate? Career .273 hitter with 267 HRs primarily as a catcher. Five time All Star and Silver Slugger winner.
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Well, what David Ortiz thinks is neither here nor there. Posada is, what, 39 now? 39 year old catchers (even though he's a DH now) are like 44 year old position players. It's the position that wears out the man, and at that particular position, when a player starts to slip, it's nearly always irreversible. It's the position, not the player. Hell, Johnny Bench started his decline at age 29. And no, I'm not touching the PED conversation here with a 10-foot-pole.

Rob Neyer wrote a nice piece a few years ago about how quickly catchers decline and wear down, and I wish I still had access to it. He analyzed virtually every good catcher in the last 70 years or so, and concluded that more or less, the threshhold for catchers is either age 32 or 1500 games caught. After that the production dropped off dramatically. While that doesn't necessarily hold true for Posada, the closest peer he has, both in age and recent production, is Ivan Rodriguez. People can sit here and say, "well, Pudge is still catching everyday. What's the problem?", but they're not paying attention to his production over the last 5 years.

Pudge's career totals, year by year

You could easily argue that he has been in decline since 2004, looking at his SLG, his homers and RBI. His slugging % has declined every single year since 2004. His punch at the plate is gone, and his ability to get on base is down as well, due mostly to his laughable walk totals the past few years.

Enough about Pudge. Back to Jorge. You can argue that he's been in decline since a fabulous 2007 season, where he hit .338-20-90. Throwing out the 2008 season due to injury (admittedly dangerous since he was a 37 year old catcher at the time), his AVG, OBP, and SLG have also declined every year since '07. All signs point to him being done after this season, or sooner, regardless of contract status.

Posada's lifetime stats

P.S. Oh, and Twins fans? You can go ahead and use this any way you wish with regards to your catching situation as well.
 
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Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Twins don't have a catching situation. Drew Butera is the man! :D

Oh and Posada is not a hall of famer. But he does have those rings to console him.
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

I liked the first Pepsi/Field of Dreams commercial, but the 2nd one with Rollie Fingers giving the delivery guy a mustache, not so much.
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Aroldis Chapman: 10 ER, 12 BB in his last 1 1/3 IP? :eek:

I think we found his weakness: he lost the strike zone.
 
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This is one of my favorite logos in sports. Just love seeing it the uniforms and tv.

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Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Oh and Posada is not a hall of famer. But he does have those rings to console him.

Why do you think Posada is not a HOFer? He was never on a steroid list and clearly one of the best offensive catchers of his era. 5 Silver Sluggers. 5 All Star games. 267 career homers. For a catcher those are real good numbers.
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Why do you think Posada is not a HOFer? He was never on a steroid list and clearly one of the best offensive catchers of his era. 5 Silver Sluggers. 5 All Star games. 267 career homers. For a catcher those are real good numbers.
All-Star games are too arbitrary to be used as a reason to be a hall of famer...were they deserved or were they Yankee fans voting too much?
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

Why do you think Posada is not a HOFer? He was never on a steroid list and clearly one of the best offensive catchers of his era. 5 Silver Sluggers. 5 All Star games. 267 career homers. For a catcher those are real good numbers.

He doesn't have the numbers. His similar players on baseball-reference.com include Javy Lopez, Lance Parrish and Benito Santiago.
link
 
Re: MLB 2011 Part 1

He doesn't have the numbers. His similar players on baseball-reference.com include Javy Lopez, Lance Parrish and Benito Santiago.
link
I think this is a bit of a red herring argument. He's also got some Hall of Famers in his top 10 comps, and most players (even Hall of Famers) will have a mix of overwhelming and underwhelming names. Jim Rice's top 10 comps include Ellis Burks and Dave Parker and Chili Davis, does that mean he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame? (Well, he shouldn't, but that's a discussion for another day.) Andre Dawson's top 10 include Parker and Harold Baines. Greg Maddux is a stone-cold lock, do we keep him out because he's got a pretty strong comparison to Rick Reuschel?

Back in January Joe Posnanski wrote a phenomenal blog post called The Willie Mays Hall Of Fame that pointed out the problem with this line of thinking. I'm pretty sure I linked it then, but it's worth a read if anyone hasn't seen it yet.
 
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