Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 26, 2006
To Catch, or Not to Catch

Josh Bard allowed four passed balls tonight as he teamed up with Tim Wakefield in a 7-1 loss to Cleveland. That gives Bard 10 passed balls on the season, seven more than any other catcher in the league. Last year, Bengie Molina led the majors with 10. In this century, only Jason LaRue has as many as 20 in a season. No one's had over 30 since Gino Petralli in 1987. Bard's on a pace for 60.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:07 PM | Defense | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Doug Mirabelli allowed 10 passed balls in his first 6 games catching Wakefield.

I have faith.

Posted by: James at April 27, 2006 12:07 AM

I still don't understand why the Sox wanted Bard over Shoppach.

Posted by: David Dean at April 27, 2006 12:40 AM

I don't know if the Sox wanted Bard over Shoppach so much as Cleveland wanted Shoppach instead of Bard to sweeten the Crisp deal...

Posted by: Matt Mackey at April 27, 2006 12:42 AM

Agreed with Mackey. We wanted Crisp badly, not entirely without reason (Damon's down years are around the corner, while Crisp was nothing but upside), and the Indians understood this so they were determined to get as much as they could get from the Sox. That's why we have Bard and not Shoppach, and Riske and not Mota. History will judge this move.

Posted by: Hunter at April 27, 2006 12:52 AM

Hunter's got it right. I mean at least Bard's been swinging the bat OK in his very limited playing time. I mean it's only been 17 AB's, but he's batting .294 with a 3/3 k/bb ratio. If he can keep his avg. above .250 and learn to catch Wake, he may end up a solid No. 2 catcher.

Since this is about Boston, I'm going to share something I figured out today. Even though Boston's been getting on base at a .354 clip, they aren't scoring runs. Why? Because the team as a whole is batting .244 with RISP. Two of the worst 3 on the team are Alex Gonzalez, at an abysmal .125, and Varitek, who's been struggling at the plate all season in general, but is hitting a robust .176 with RISP. The third worst (I think)? None other then David Ortiz, at 4/21, or .190. Though it should be noted that he's also got a .370 obp.

I'm not saying this to knock Ortiz or Varitek, though Gonzalez probably won't get much better. I'm just pointing out that, especially with Papi, who's good for about a .300 avg, this trend simply can't continue forever. And I'll just keep telling myself this until the team wakes the F up and starts putting some runs on the board...

Posted by: the other josh at April 27, 2006 01:59 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?