Rochester 1 Toledo 2
Clete Thomas went 1 for 3 with a double. Jeff Larish walked and was hit by a pitch. Dusty Ryan doubled. Chris Lambert pitched 7.2 innings of shutout ball with 5 K’s and 1 walk. Freddy Dolsi allowed a run on 2 hits, but got the save.
New Hampshire 5 Erie 0
Scott Sizemore triple, singled, and walked and was most of the offense. Luke Stanley allowed 5 runs on 5 hits (2 homers) and 2 walks in 5 innings. Cody Satterwhite walked 2 in 2 innings but also had 3 K’s.
Sarasota 1 Lakeland 9
Jordan Newton doubled and homered. Michael Bertram and Jeramy Laster also went deep. Charlie Furbush allowed 1 run in 5 innings on 6 hits, 1 walk, and 2 K’s. Scott Green fanned 2 in his inning of work.
South Bend 1 West Michigan 3
Brent Wyatt tripled and drove in a run. Anthony Shawler pitched 6 shut out innings with just 2 K’s but no walks. Tyler Stohr got his 11th save and now posts a 1.80 ERA.
I think it is time for Dusty to come to the big leagues. Sorry Pineapple, you just aren’t cutting it offensively, in fact, neither is Laird.
I don’t know that a guy hitting .250 at AAA would be a huge upgrade over Laird (who will have his streaks).
Our defense at C has been a HUGE upgrade over last year’s debacle behind home plate. I also don’t think it can be understated how these guys have handled the staff this year. I don’t see anything in Dusty’s AAA fielding that jumps out ether way, but 14 WP in 15 games in Detroit last year doesn’t make me wish he was here.
Avila’s defense looks much better, even if you just compare their time in Erie.
Edit: “Overstated”
Fair Enough. I wouldn’t advocate removing Laird, I am more talking about Sardinha. I’d be willing to give Avila or Ryan a chance at the back up. Sardinha’s throw out percentage isn’t above average. I give him credit, he is a good catcher, but we can’t have a guy hitting sub .100 in the line up every third day. I mean, Porcello can hit better than Sardinha.
Ryan also has a 371 OBP and a 443 SLG. I think he could outhit Sardhina with his eyes closed. Sardhina doesn’t throw out many despite primarily catching Verlander who is good at holding runners on. I think his defense is probably a little overstated and Ryan could certainly catch 2 days a week without catastrophic results.
I wouldn’t bring up Avila this year. Give him some more time for refinement.
I wouldn’t touch what they have.
Leyland already plays with this type of stuff enough. Even if Ryan could way outhit Sardhina, he wouldn’t hit that well to warrant it. If you want Verlander’s dominance to continue, I’d let Dane catch him. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
If Ryan has a great year and bats north of .290, then I’d consider bringing him up this September when the rosters expand to catch. 1 for 4 at AAA won’t get it done up here. Remember his career MiLB Ba is .238.
In any event my main point is – if it ain’t broke DON’T fix it. This game is mental more than anything else, and he (JV) is rocking right now. One extra single a week from a so-so catcher is NOT worth it.
David:
Quit focusing on BA. IT is meaningless. OBP is what matters.
OBP is overrated. And to say BA is MEANINGLESS is ignorant.
What do you think OBP is made up of? Walks? Hit by pitches?
Ability to take a walk, etc. is what makes the difference between BA and OBP. OBP is not overrated it is underrated. Adam Dunn hits .250 and has a .400 obp. Polanco has a .320 ba and a .350 obp. That means that Polanco makes outs more often than Dunn. OBP is much more important and telling.
I don’t know where you’re getting these numbers from. Nearly all the time guys who hit .320 have an OB% higher than .350.
In any event, its funny that you bring up Polanco. In 2005 when I went to the fan fest, the question I asked him was “Placido how many walks are you going to take this year?” He kind of snarled at me and then said “A lot” in a sarcastic manner.
Thats beside my point which is a BA tells you a few things that OB% doesn’t as well.
1) How often the ball is put in play where a fielder isn’t. 99% of the time, with a large enough sample size the guy who is finding holes, who is able to make contact more often and/or hit the ball harder has the higher BA.
2) Walks are all fine and dandy, but does a walk score a guy on second? I guess you could counter that it doesn’t make an out and allows the next batter to come up with 2 guys on, but still it doesn’t score him.
3) Pitchers usually try to avoid walking fast guys(by pitching around them) and walk slower power threats.
4) One of the main points of baseball is TO HIT THE BALL! You usually don’t see a lot of good hitters with low BA, you do however see several bad hitters with decent OB% and a bad BA
I’m not saying OB% isn’t important, it just isn’t as big a deal as people like the A’s have made it out to be.
Answer me this. If Dusty Ryan has a .238 career MiLB ba, and is hitting .250 this year (and lets assume average slugging for a catcher) – without knowing his OB% would you consider him to be a good hitter?
But there are plenty of stats much more important than BA or OB%. For all I care throw them both out the window.
At the moment I like Runs Produced, and Runs Created a lot.
Just to jump in here, too.
Bill is right. The knock on Ryan has nothing to do with his hitting. MILB.com has him at a 814 OPS, fourth highest on the Hens. It’s that his defense and game-calling wasn’t quite up to speed last year. I’m sure the game-calling thing could be dealt with by coaching. I don’t know how much his fielding has improved, of course.
Second, I don’t think you rank Sadinha above “average” defensively unless someone tells me what I’m missing here. The career .176 caught stealing %? Ryan was 6 for 13 in chances last September.
Finally, Avila has got at least another year in the minors to continue working on some things, I would expect
The real question is, how much does Verlander love the guy? If Dane is responsible in any significant manner for JV’s success this year, it is well worth the offensive black hole. No backup catcher is going to hit enough to be worth a run a game. If his partnership with JV results in one less run per game they play, he’s doing a good job. The beauty of this line of reasoning, of course, being that there is absolutely no way to know.
I agree with you in fact I basically posted as much. Getting the minimal upgrade in offense every fifth day is very highly likely not worth what he and JV have going. Not even close!
I just have to wonder how long we can keep going with such minimal output across the board from this offense. The problems are not only at catcher, we just aren’t hitting with ducks on the pond. I think Leyland has definitely tinkered with the line-up too much. I think it is time for him to just plug guys in and leave them there, with the exception of days off. 1 through 5 should be pretty consistent. Let them work out of their collective slump in their actual slot.
I’d like to find out how Ryan is doing in calling games in Toledo, because if he has shown improvement, I would say make the move. I’m sorry, but together Laird and Sardinha are barely above the Mendoza line. I love their game calling, but how long is that going to save us? Our lack of offense has been our crux so far this season.
It is kind of funny to hear the complaining. We ARE IN FIRST PLACE!
We are in the middle of the pack in RS/G. If Ordonez and Poly or even Ordonez starts to pick up their RS and RBI pace then we in the top few teams in offensive production.
With a 3.94 team ERA (Good for #2 behind Seattle) I’m not worried.
I’m not complaining, I just think the team has room for improvement, especially if we want to make it in and through the playoffs. The team has just been horrendous against the East and I think we need more punch if we are going to beat those teams. Polly had a nice game last night, maybe that is a start of something…
I can agree with that.
If Ordonez and/or Poly start hitting like they have in recent years, and Cabby and Inge continue on this year’s pace and we have a few other guys chip in (also like this year) we are in fine shape.
I have yet to hear about Carlos Guillen 🙁
Laird has caught 3 of Verlander’s last 5 starts.
Sardinha sometimes gets pulled for a pinch hitter late in the game. Laird has had only 6 full games off since Treanor got hurt. Laird was a much better hitter in April when he got more rest. With Sardinha on the team, Laird isn’t allowed to get as much rest.
Whatever management decides to do is fine with me. I’m sure the organization has it’s reasons why Ryan isn’t here right now and why we traded for 2 catchers (Laird/Treanor) and held onto Sardinha. I do wish we’d trade for another catcher though. I’m kind of tired of having our real back-up catcher being hurt every year. Which was Vance Wilson and now Treanor.
IMO, AVG and OBP are equally important. AVG is your ability to get hits and drive in runs. OBP is your ability to get on base and score runs.
SLG is probably more important that both of them though.
OPS is better yet.
There is a lot to be desired from both statistics. Each does tell you several things though.
On one hand I’m inclined to say – the more stats the better. But, it can become confusing and boring fast.
Sometimes it seems as if there are almost too many ways to evaluate a player.