Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend
Posted by Andy on April 5, 2011
The Red Sox watched Victor Martinez leave via free agency and then handed the starting catching job to Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
His first weekend didn't go so well.
A brief recap:
- He played every inning of the Red Sox's first 3 games
- As a batter he went 0-for-10 with 5 strikeouts.
- His WPA values for the 3 games were -0.075, -0.073, -0.086, for a total of -0.234.
- With Salty behind the plate, #1 starter Jon Lester struck out nobody with 5 earned runs in 5.1 innings, #2 starter John Lackey struck out 3 with 9 earned runs in 3,2 innings, and #3 starter Clay Buchholz struck out 3 with 4 earned runs in 6.1 innings.
- Overall, Red Sox pitchers have pitched to a 9.75 ERA over Saltalamacchia's first 3 games this year.
The good news? It just about has to get better.
April 5th, 2011 at 8:40 am
it wasnt his pitch calling that made the pitchers bad - it was their lack of location. the hitting: on him. the home runs: blame the pitchers
lester's velocity was 4-5 mph off his norm. lackey has a long history of sucking against the rangers (worst era against any team, going into the game). Clay wasnt bad - didnt have almost any baserunners, all the homers were solo shots, and just didnt get any support
should be remembered that the rangers do have one of the best offenses in the game. they did win the AL for a reason
April 5th, 2011 at 9:37 am
He was also hit by a pitch, which, while it does help his OBP, hurts.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:42 am
Hey, it's still better than Varitek would have done.
April 5th, 2011 at 10:27 am
It could have been much much worse, for as Casey Stengel once said, "You have to have a catcher because of you don't you're going to have a lot of passed balls."
There is always a bright side to everything.
April 5th, 2011 at 10:38 am
The Pre-School teacher in me loves this post. The Red Sox fan hates it.
April 5th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Do you teach pre-school?
April 5th, 2011 at 10:47 am
I think I might have to disagree with Brian. I don't think Varitek would have done worse. I think I would go with Tek until he absolutely proves that he's washed up. As a Sox fan I was most concerned about catcher entering the season, and I hope my concerns won't be realized. But I'm not ready to jump off the bridge yet - only 3 games so far.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:36 am
@7 - "think I would go with Tek until he absolutely proves that he's washed up."
You're talking about a 39-year-old catcher who put up a .293 OBP in 123 PA last year, and a .313 OBP in 325 PA the year before. I think giving Tek the starting job this year would be a very bad idea.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:38 am
Oops, typo--that's a .313 on-base in 425 PA in 2009. Still crummy.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:43 am
Not that crummy for a catcher. Our memories may be cheating us to do the offensive explosion of 1993-2006 or so, when lots of catchers were hitting 20-30 HR, driving in 100, batting over .300. The catching position is not traditionally one with a ton of offense, and I could live with a really good catcher with an OBP in the range of .310-320. The bigger issue is that playing an old guy like Varitek doesn't help with the development of a guy like Saltalamacchia. Salty's gotta play to get better.
April 5th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
That is to say if Salty can be developed. Maybe he's not the answer. Maybe another catcher? Would love to have VMart back - I know too much money already spent.
April 5th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Along with shortstop, catcher is the other spot where Theo Epstein has failed to find a long-term successor at a particular position. They haven't even developed any sort of decent back-up catcher through the farm system , let alone someone to follow Varitek.
@11/ I think the reason they didn't re-sign VMart is that (the Red Sox thought) he'd be OK this year, but in two years he wouldn't be a decent defensive catcher,and they didn't want to pay $12 million+ to a DH-type.
April 5th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
There aren't too many teams with good young catchers at the major-league level or waiting in the wings in the high minors. Sure, we can rattle off a few names, but it's certainly not a common commodity.
April 5th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
@10 - Point taken. But when the guy also can't seem to throw out baserunners anymore, well...
April 5th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Jays might have lots of trade bait, then.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
"Do you teach pre-school?"
No... I just have one trapped inside me.
Haha, seriously, I do. I teach Pre-K. That is one of my favorite books to do with the kids, especially when one of them is having a bad day.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Re: the Red Sox and SS's... was Hanley Ramirez pre-Epstein? I believe he was, but don't remember.
By the way, no one ever really talks about that deal, but could you imagine if the Sox hadn't traded HanRam? It'd be interesting to imagine what the state of the team would be if they never made that deal.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
It's a good question that's tough to imagine. No Mike Lowell or Josh Beckett. Tough to see them winning the 2007 World Series without those two guys, except they woulda had Hanley. Hard question to answer.
April 5th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Lawrence #12, they developed Kelly Shoppach (but of course traded him a few years ago).
Dan #7, I think I've had at least a couple posts in the past couple years saying that Varitek is cooked. He keeps hanging on like Rasputin. But I think the decent offensive performance he's managed recently is because he's been rested. If they were still trying to give him 500+ PA a season, I think the numbers would be ugly.
April 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
@19/ Johnny Twisto - serves me right for not checking the recent RS rosters... Wasn't Shoppach part of the Coco Crisp trade with the Indians?? He'd have been a good back-up (lifetime 101 OPS+), but probably not a good starting catcher for the RS.
April 5th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Hanley has accrued more WAR than Beckett/Lowell (29.3 to about 24) and that gap will likely only grow. Beckett and Lowell of course had a few particularly key performances during the 2007 penant run, so even with Hanely producing more value, we can't assume they would have won. Of course, they traded a SS (who maybe should be a CF) for a 3B and a P, so it's not exactly apples-to-apples. Without Lowell, Youk likely stays at 3B and who-knows-who plays 1B (maybe Ortiz... sacrificing a ton of defense). It would be an interesting what-if.
It just strikes me because it is one of the instance where a top prospect was traded for a big name player (and despite his struggles, Beckett remains a big name player, even if it's not justified) and excels. Off the top of my head, I can't really think of one. Grady Sizemore fizzled fast... Brandon Phillips (same deal) didn't get good until another team later... a lot of the supposed top Yankee prospects (D'Angelo Jimenez anyone?) never materialized...
Can anyone think of another recent deal of similar impact? I regret the Sox ever made the deal, but I rarely hear that point argued elsewhere. Maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe we all just collectively forgot about it?
April 5th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
When the Rangers got Salty for Texiera, he was the next "Can't miss prospect". he was the center piece at the time of the trade. Now those in Boston are finding out why we let him go for a very minmial price. Arm problems (more mental from trying way to hard) he put himself in a hole he could never recover from. When Matt Treanor (who is a great guy, but not an everyday catcher) is viewed as your number one and a soft hitting Taylor Teagarden, as your number two, you know your days are numbered.
I watched most of the games, and as anti-salty as I am, it wasnt his fault. Leaving pitches up in a lineup that that has Hamilton, Beltre, Cruz, Kinsler, Young and Napoli, is not the best idea in any situation. Bostons staff will be much better, dont worry. I hope that come early October its My Rangers against Salty and the sox again. with those same number!
April 5th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
@21/... BSK Says: "Hanley has accrued more WAR than Beckett/Lowell (29.3 to about 24) and that gap will likely only grow. Beckett and Lowell of course had a few particularly key performances during the 2007 penant run, so even with Hanley producing more value, we can't assume they would have won.... ... I regret the Sox ever made the deal, but I rarely hear that point argued elsewhere..."
BSK, as a Red Sox fan, I do not regret that trade. As the cliche goes, a championship banner is forever, and it's impossible to know if they would've won the WS in 2007 with Ramirez, but without Lowell and Beckett.
OTOH, another point in your favor is that they (the RS) would also have been spared two bad contracts for shortstops if they had kept Ramirez, so there's that to consider...
April 5th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
It's hard to quantify defensive skills in the same way we can quantify offensive performance. For some reason Mike Scioscia insisted on sticking with Mathis instead of Napoli.
Mathis has a career OPS+ of 53 from 1092 PAs. Napoli has a 120 OPS+.
Mathis has oWAR of -1.5 and dWAR of -0.8. Napoli has oWAR of 13.0 and dWAR of -2.1. These numbers suggest Napoli's offense more than makes up for his defence. Lets hope Conger turns lives up to the expectation.
Conclusion, we'll swap Mathis for Salty. Maybe even Varitek!
April 6th, 2011 at 8:58 am
And not only all of that, the cat decided he wanted to stay in Varitek's room. IT HAD TO BE A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD WEEKEND! But Francona says some days are like that...even in Australia.
April 7th, 2011 at 12:05 am
@10, Andy -- Love the Seussisms.
But even though Mike Piazza's gone from the scene, Varitek has still been awful compared to his peers over the past 2 years.
For 2009-10 combined, Varitek's OPS+ ranks 45th out of 57 catchers with at least 300 total PAs. The median OPS+ of those 57 catchers was 93; Varitek was at 80.
Factoring in his futility against the running game -- almost 1 SB per game played and a 15% CS rate -- and the fact that he's now 39, I can't see any reason to think he's capable of contributing to a contender.