Sunday, July 11, 2010

Call up Kratz! We won't say we told ya so....

Almost a month ago we threw up a post in support of the great Erik Kratz. Since then the movement has grown steadily, now there is even an Erik Kratz Tracker on Twitter (@ekratztracker). We certainly didn't start this movement, but I'd like to think we were on the forefront.

Since that time Kratz has stayed pretty steady, although he has dipped a bit. His average is still around .300 and his OPS is .947. What has happened since that time for the players blocking him?

Well since June 13th Ryan Doumit is boasting a stat line of .244/.303/.366, if you can't add he has an OPS of .669 in that span. Couple in easily the worst defense in the league, and the fact that EVERYONE runs on him and you the worst starting catcher in the league.

Why not look to his backup you might say? If he is the worst the backup has to be just as good if not better correct? NO! Since we sounded our first alarm for Kratz Jarmaillo's average managed to go down from .172 to .164. His OPS also dropped from .505 to .489. He is 1 for 9 since we first called for Kratz, with that one hit being a single.

One good thing in my eyes out of Jaramillo? He has gunned 38% of potential basestealers. That goes a long way in proving that it isn't only the pitchers. It shows me that Doumit's problem with baserunners is his own. Maybe guys like John Wehner will stop blaming the pitchers everytime someone steal on Doumit..... or maybe he just sucks at his job?

Anyway, when will management make the right choice? If anything they have proven to be stubborn, and overly loyal. Whether it's scrubs like Church and Crosby taking time from younger players like Milledge and Cedeno, or popular scrubs like Doumit just sucking out loud this FO has a hard time turning the ship. It's a very troubling trend.

I've seen it speculated that these moves are being made by Huntington to increase Church's trade value with other teams, if that's true Neil Huntington is a moron and should be fired. Short of walking on the Allegheny River to catch a homerun I don't see us getting much more than a PTBNL for Church.

1 comment:

Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls said...

I had no idea Jaromillo had thrown out 38% of would-be base-stealers. That's interesting. I've always like Jaromillo, but I am interested to see what Kratz will do. I hope he gets more than spot playing time on Sundays. I hate to say it, but it's becoming clearer that they have to move Doumit sooner or later. A 10% rate throwing out base-stealers just isn't nearly good enough -- he presents a real dilemma.