Speaking of the Joe Nathan deal...
It seemed, for a little while there, that our catcher had finally won over the fans. After a dreadful April (.517 OPS) and that nutty card-playing incident that Andrew Baggarly just had to expose, it seemed we finally had a catcher who could hit. A.J.'s batting average topped out at .305 just before the All-Star Break, and touched .300 as late as August 18. "It's hard to find a catcher who can hit," I once wrote in this space (referencing the Lo Duca trade), and at the time I was pretty happy with ours.
But the more I examine A.J.'s numbers, the worse he looks. His September slump has been excruciating -- .440 OPS, two extra-base hits all month -- and quite possibly has been caused by an extremely heavy workload (only two days off). But still, an everyday catcher hitting .276 with a little power is still a fairly rare find, right? Maybe even top ten in the majors?
It's the little things A.J. does, or doesn't do, that are most destructive:
- He's caught only 15 of 66 potential base-stealers this year -- a .227 clip, well below his .312 coming into 2004. That's fourth worst in the league (hey, what's Charles Johnson doing down there?). Damian Miller, who costs the A's half a million dollars less this year, has a .442 rate. The 51 baserunners who have succeeded in stealing off A.J. also represent his career high, despite catching in 112 games compared with last year's 135. Defense is the new OBP, isn't it?
- Although he's among the toughest hitters to strike out in the league, he's still not working the count. A.J. is dead last in the majors in pitches per at-bat, with 3.1, though I admit Vlad Guerrero is right behind him. But Vlad often crushes one of the first pitches he sees. A.J.'s bouncers to second are all too commonplace. Which brings me to the last stat....
- With 26 (mostly memorable) GIDPs, Pierzynski is leading the league in another ignominious category, and nearing historic territory. Ouch.
Yes, I'm bashing a player I've defended before. And although I wasn't one of the people booing him off the field on Sunday, I realize that might have been his final razzing in a home Giants uniform.
A catcher who hits .300. Even if we hadn't overpaid (Nathan, Boof, Liriano), was he still worth obtaining?
