The Red Sox’ recall of Christian Vazquez from Triple-A Pawtucket brings into question Blake Swihart’s immediate role with the club, writes Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. Vazquez is known to be an excellent defensive backstop, whereas there have been concerns with Swihart’s glove early this season. The team made veteran Ryan Hanigan available during Spring Training, he notes, but Swihart’s struggles might make it more difficult to part with a sturdy backup like Hanigan. Drellich explores the possibility of a position change for Swihart, whose bat is his best asset, although it’s not clear that the team has entertained any such notion at this time.
A couple more items pertaining to the AL East as teams gear up for their series…
- The Rays were confident that they could cure Hank Conger’s throwing woes when they acquired him from Houston this offseason, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, but Conger permitted five stolen bases in yesterday’s contest and is 0-for-7 in throwing out runners to begin the season. An 0-for-7 skid wouldn’t necessarily be an extreme concern for many catchers, but Conger threw out just one of 43 attempted base stealers last season and has now yielded 44 consecutive stolen bases. Manager Kevin Cash acknowledged that controlling the running game is an area in which Tampa Bay needs to improve, noting that he felt Chris Archer did a good job holding runners yesterday in spite of the barrage of steals. Conger’s sudden struggles are a bit curious, considering he threw out 35 of 145 runners (24 percent) with the Angels from 2012-14 before the issue arose. Conger does grade out as an excellent pitch framer, so if the Rays can improve his throwing, they’d have the makings of a very strong defensive backstop.
- Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun looks at what could be an unexpectedly crowded corner outfield situation for the Orioles now that Adam Jones is back in the lineup. Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard and veteran Nolan Reimold have hit well thus far, and Hyun Soo Kim remains on option despite limited playing time thus far. Jones and Mark Trumbo figure to be in there virtually every day (though Trumbo can DH against lefties in place of Pedro Alvarez), but there could indeed be a carousel of sorts to be managed by Buck Showalter. I don’t know that the logjam is as pronounced as it would appear, as Rickard’s early success doesn’t strike me as overly sustainable given his high BABIP and lack of hard contact. (As Meoli points out, he’s 4-for-20 after a fast start to the season.) The club will have to carry Rickard all year, though, to keep him, so he’ll have to get his share of playing time.
I keep hearing about the idea to move Swihart to a new position but this makes absolutely no sense his greatest value is that he can play the most scarce and demanding position as soon as you move him anywhere else his bat becomes average for his new position and he loses immense value
His value lies in his long term offensive potential, not his position. Swihart is an athletic freak, a position change wouldn’t diminish his value much at all, with his defense behind the plate being what it is it could actually help.
You just have to ask yourself how many years you want to cut off the back end of his career. If you’re alright with the probability that he’ll be a useless has-been at age 34 when his non-catching contemporaries are signing four and five year contracts.
You can write that about any young catcher.
Does anyone track mph of balls catchers throw on steal attempts or the time it takes the catcher to throw the ball? Seems like those should be standard stats at this point.
I’d love to see those stats as well. Caught stealing percentage is a battery mate stat, not just the catcher. Some pitchers are terrible at holding runners, or have long deliveries. I’d also like to see stats going over pitch selection in running situations. I remember hearing Pudge focused more on throwing guys out than his pitcher getting batters out but never saw any stat that would support that. It would be cool to see how many SB are on fastballs vs breaking pitches, and how much the catchers pitch calling changes in running situations.
So many variables that have nothing to do with the catcher’s ability (pitchers, runners, situations, mgr tendencies)… and so many small, historically overlooked skills a catcher has to have. Very hard to asses them without watching them game after game.
The one interesting point I read once is that the best catchers often have crummy CS numbers because only the best base stealers even try.
“The one interesting point I read once is that the best catchers often have crummy CS numbers because only the best base stealers even try.”
Great point. Most across the board stats are irrelevant to winning as so much of what goes on in MLB is interrelated to things other players are doing, game situation, contours of the field they’re playing in, etc. Example…..
Last night the Tigers broadcasters were noting the speed of the pitches that Miguel Cabrera was getting. They’ve noticed that he gets pitches 3-5 MPH higher then his teammates get almost every night. Naturally, opposing pitchers are motivated to go after him with something extra. Yet he still hits .330. But it’s incorrect to compare his hitting stats to those of most hitters as it’s not a level playing field as he gets tougher pitches to hit – as do most of the better hitters in MLB.
As with data in any industry, the person looking at stats has to have a thorough background in the industry to be able to interpret them to get any true meaning out of them. In short – things are often not linear….not as they seem.
Don’t know if would go there or not. Couple of best ones I ever saw were Bob Boone and Bench. Both had career marks of 40%+ in CS% and they were getting challenged often, yet still throwing out runners at a constant 40% clip late into their careers with prolific base runners.
For catchers, they usually track “pop times”, which is the time it takes from when it hits the catcher’s mitt to when a middle-infielder catches it at second base. However, I’d agree that CS percentages are definitely influenced by the pitcher’s release time, pitch type/location and throw accuracy.
True also. Vazquez’s arm isn’t so strong as is his terrific catch and release time, which is so outstanding. Think it was/is in the 1.7-1.8 consistently, where anything under 2.0 is considered great.
Of course having a decent arm matters also, as compared to a weak one, like Varitek late career and Salty has. But getting out of the crouch can make a HUGE difference if a pitcher pays attention and has smooth mechanics on the mound.
I don’t think the plan was to have Rickard play all year anyway. I think he was expected to get 150-200 at bats as a platoon mate and late inning defensive replacement for Kim, while Reimold gets his at bats when Alvarez goes to the bench and Trumbomb is the DH. This is assuming that Alvarez starts hitting sometime soon and isn’t released on May 15.
So does this impact Swihart’s HOF status? The Red Sox fans all claimed he was the next Piazza and future first ballot HOF. What are they saying now?
Swihart is every bit as valuable / promising as he was last year. He got called up when he wasn’t even ready and STILL hit .275/.325, which is excellent for someone playing behind the plate.
I question who would compare Swihart to Piazza. That seems sarcastic.
I would ask the question why he should be moved off the plate. That power profile does not suit a 1st basement.
Right on Mark….Red Sox prospects/ist-2nd year players are always over-hyped in my opinion and anointed as HOF, but Red Sox fans never if rarely admit when they’re wrong.
Swihart may in fact go on to have a good ML career, but time will tell if he can be considered one of the best.
You have to excuse mike244’s comment about your “sarcasm” as he’s obviously a very sensitive guy when it comes to anything but positive comments about his Red Sox…probably a 2 hanky reply!
I am beyond thrilled for Tim and the rest of the staff that this site has exploded in its popularity, but good lord do I miss the days when these forums weren’t filled with ESPN commenters.
“if the Rays can improve his throwing, they’d have the makings of a very strong defensive backstop.”
Conger is 28. People need to stop talking about him like he’s some moldable prospect.
Swihart is so young, and so hyped as the next coming, that I’m really shocked that suddenly he would be considered for a position switch. This isn’t a guy like Montero, where people thought he had the bat but couldn’t stick behind the plate.
Who is considering him for a position switch? The article o think is simply speculation by a new beat writer. The redsox know Swihart is most valuable behind the plate, and has been quite good (1.6 fWAR in 90 games). The calling up of Vazquez is really a non story that’s getting to much hype. Vaz is a good defensive catcher, and the redsox rotation is struggling, and thus, Vaz may help a bit.
I just read the papers, Mike. In any major media center, the press often tries to insert itself into the narrative. Maybe that’s what they are doing here.
the evan drelich article is nothing more than an editorial meander followed by a blurb from his hs coach. i wouldn’t say its relevant.
Swihart just got optioned to AAA
So who is the Red Sox catcher of the future exactly ? And is the other going to be the back up ? If not what do you think the Braves have that would entice the Red Dox to make a move. I like Sanchez from the Yankees the best but I hear from Yankee fans he is untouchable. I also like Plawecki but I don’t see the Mets making a divisional trade. But we do need a catcher of the future unless we sign Wieters or Cervelli to play until the kid we drafted in the 2nd round last year is ready.