Catcher 2010

[seawolf17]

I don't recall the Mets ever asking Delgado to think about being an emergency catcher. I have to assume he hasn't caught since the early 90's.

[Frayed Knot]

They didn't.
It may have been suggested briefly at some point, but by the time he got here he had enough pull to say 'Homey don't play that no more'

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't think anybody is suggesting it was ever floated. According to Noble, "Jacobs' reaction was comparable to what Delgado's would have been, or maybe less enthusiastic."

[Guest Swan Swan H]

The Mets should definitely wear their snow whites whenever Fernando Nieve pitches to Henry Blanco.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Mets should definitely wear their snow whites whenever Fernando Nieve pitches to Henry Blanco.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's excellent.

And if they have another cascade of injuries reducing them to calling up a bunch of Cory Sullivans, their linuep will be Snow, White, and the Seven Dwarves.

[bmfc1]

Please welcome Rod Barajas to the Mets.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Do I have to?

Fine.

Welcome.

"Say something nice?" Why do I have to say something nice? But... fine.

Mr. Barajas, I think you'll do better than Omir would have or will. Also, thank you for being cheaper than Bengie. And slightly less fat.

OE: Also, most people trying to grade catcher defense think you're pretty good at it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Rod Barajas, scoring from first on a double, May 2009.

[ashie62]

Rod Barajas, scoring from first on a double, May 2009.

[Valadius]

.258 OBP. Yuck.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

All joking about having 7 backup catchers aside... someone HAS to go. Which wouldn't be a problem, except... well... the organization's trying to develop a catcher at AAA, right?

Does Omir go to AA? Does Coste? Do you carry three catchers in the majors (at the expense of a reliever/more valuable PH like Carter or Evans) or at AAA (where they cannibalize each other's playing time)? Does Coste split time at 1B (where he eats into Davis'/Carter's/Evans' time)? Or do you just release the guy who was weeks away from being the ML starter?

[nymr83]

I'd break camp with Blanco as my catcher, Barajas as the backup, and Coste on the team only if he "wins" a ph slot over guys like Carter. Thole as the AAA starter, Santos either starting at AA or backing up Thole and being ready incase of injury.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's well and good, except (1) they've publickly stated that whoever starts, it won't be Blanco, who they are certain can not carry more than a backup's workload (a poor choice of statements, I think, even if true), and (2) they will get attacked if they double-demote Santos. Someone will get dealt or released.

Coste's deal was announced a minor-league one, but there he is on the 40-man.

[ashie62]

They all see time with the big club this year...God forbid the Mets fall out of it is likely the only way Thole Gets big time AB's, or, by others injury

Start with the Killer B's, Blanco & Barajas

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets invite Raul Casanova, veteran catcher of various Central American Leagues and a former Met, to Port St. Lucie.

http://www.adn.es/internacional/20100206/NWS-0033-Raul-comienzo-victoria-gracias-partido.html

[MFS62]

All joking about having 7 backup catchers aside...

[batmagadanleadoff]

Steve Chilcott phoned Jerry. He wants a second chance.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Meanwhile, Riggans should have plenty of time to watch Tom Emanski videos and heal, wherever he is.

Handicapping it, the catcher standings look like so, methinks. (Top 2 qualify.)

1) Rod Barajas
2) Henry Blanco
3) Josh Thole
4) Omir Santos
5) Chris Coste
6) Shawn Riggans (NRI)
7) Raul Casanova (NRI)
8) Ed Hearn
9) Yogi Berra
10) Braylon Edwards
11) Holden Caufield
12) Mylec Backstop

[Benjamin Grimm]

I suspect that Gary Carter is trying to talk his way onto that list.

[MFS62]

Don't forget, with knuckleballer RA Dickey in camp, you may need as many catchers as you can get.

Hey, the 1962 Mets had seven catchers during the regular season. Anyone want to do the comparisons?

Later

[ashie62]

Meanwhile, Riggans should have plenty of time to watch Tom Emanski videos and heal, wherever he is.

Handicapping it, the catcher standings look like so, methinks. (Top 2 qualify.)

1) Rod Barajas
2) Henry Blanco
3) Josh Thole
4) Omir Santos
5) Chris Coste
6) Shawn Riggans (NRI)
7) Raul Casanova (NRI)
8) Ed Hearn
9) Yogi Berra
10) Braylon Edwards
11) Holden Caufield
12) Mylec Backstop[/quote:1uxi9tjg]


Bengie who?

[metirish]

Marty Noble

Omir


Santos endures quick change of fate
Barajas addition turns No. 1 catcher into Triple-A backup

By Marty Noble / MLB.com 02/21/10 4:32 PM EST PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Stuck in a vat of boiling helplessness, Omir Santos stood with little to say and less to hope. He had arrived here last week as the most likely candidate for the Mets' No. 1 catching assignment. When he arrived in camp Sunday morning, Santos was, at least, fourth on the club's depth chart. "There's nothing I can do," were the words that came from the vat. Twenty-four hours earlier, Rod Barajas was merely a rumor, or, at best, a potential obstacle. Santos had lived much of the offseason with the knowledge the Mets hoped to sign free agent Bengie Molina. Then, when that possibility passed, a threat of Yorvit Torrealba moving to the Mets had its run as a possibility. And now this: a veteran catcher with home run pop in his bat is coming. Chest protectors, shinguards and masks offer no protection from disappointment. This one hit Santos like a foul tip off the unshielded shoulder. Twenty-eight-year-old catchers with modest offensive credentials and relatively few big league at-bats are not an endangered species. Second chances don't come in abundance. Santos was a regular catcher in the Majors most of last season. He started 74 games, had 281 big league at-bats -- 271 more than he had accumulated before last season. He beat Jonathan Papelbon in Fenway, hit a slam for his first big league home run and made some late-in-the-game contributions. The pitchers liked throwing to him. And now, with Henry Blanco to serve as Barajas' understudy, and Josh Thole all but certain to play regularly for the Mets' Triple-A Buffalo affiliate, Santos is unlikely to work up a sweat this summer. "What can I do? I didn't know until [saturday] morning," Santos said. "My brother called me from Puerto Rico. He knows a lot of people. He knew before I did. "[The Mets] want experience. [barajas] has more than I do. Now I come to the park every day and do my work. That's what I was doing."

[smg58]

Omir was better than Barajas last year, and only needs to give the Mets a reason to think he'll be better again this year. He shouldn't go in thinking he's already sunk.

[ashie62]

Give em Hell Omir

[Valadius]

Omir should be thinking, "Henry Blanco can kiss my ass."

[MFS62]

Tom Verducci said on WFAN that the Barajas signing will give his old team a sandwich draft pick.
I thought that was only done if his new team signed him to a major league contract. Rod was signed to a minor league deal.
Someone please shine the light on this.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I believe they actually gave him a major-league deal (with "easy-to-reach" $1M in incentives, besides).

[MFS62]

I believe they actually gave him a major-league deal (with "easy-to-reach" $1M in incentives, besides).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The Times' David Waldstein provides a nice splash of ST color on young Mr. Thole's time in Venezuela this winter, an awesome nickname, and one tough fiancee on whom JT should put a ring, double-quick.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. � Josh Thole bought his fianc�e a box of Frosted Flakes, a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, kissed her and walked out of the Best Western hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, for a three-day trip. Thole�s fianc�e, Kathryn Poe, who does not speak Spanish and was warned not to challenge fate on the streets of one of South America�s more dangerous cities, holed up in her room for 72 hours until Thole returned. Over the three days, she worked her way through the cereal, ate peanut butter until she could stomach no more and demonstrated her ingenuity by toasting pieces of bread on the coffee machine�s heating plate. �I was kind of proud of that one,� Poe said in a telephone interview. �But it was a tough three days. By the end I felt like I was literally starving.� Patience and resourcefulness are two qualities every minor league baseball player�s girlfriend or wife needs in abundance, but the endurance Poe demonstrated for those three days in early October was remarkable. So if it takes a few more months or years for Thole (pronounced TOE-lee) to complete his transformation into a catcher and make it permanently in the majors, they can both tough it out. Thole will probably start the season in Class AAA Buffalo, but he certainly appears on his way to a starting job with the Mets. Considering the way he played at the end of last season � hitting .321 in 17 games for the Mets in September, after being called up from Class AA Binghamton, and then flirting with .400 in the caldron of the Venezuelan winter league � Thole, like his fianc�e, has shown the mettle and determination to succeed anywhere. Poe is originally from Owego, N.Y., population 3,700. Thole grew up 40 miles outside St. Louis in Breese, an Illinois hamlet, population 4,000. Caracas on the other hand, is a crowded city of more than four million, spiced by music, food, snarled traffic and talk of baseball, but where kidnappings and other violence are all too frequent and where foreigners are cautioned not to venture out alone. Baseball players and their families have been targets of violence, too, which is why the winter league is blanketed with security. Thole acknowledged he was concerned about going, but said he had been so focused on the experience he would gain by catching every day that he refused to be consumed by anxiety. He was told that when he arrived at the airport he would be met by a security agent for his team, Leones del Caracas, who would then pass him off to a Major League Baseball security official. �I was still very nervous,� Thole said. �What if there is no one there when I get off the plane? What if I go with the wrong people? Then when you drive in from the airport, you see the barrios and all the terribly poor neighborhoods and I thought, Wow, this is what I�m really getting myself into.� While Thole was in Venezuela, the country�s president, Hugo Ch�vez, warned the populace that war with neighboring Colombia could be imminent. Thole was also there when the mother of the former Mets pitcher Victor Zambrano was kidnapped for ransom. Despite all of this, Thole not only persevered, he prospered, hitting .381 and driving in 28 runs in 44 games for the Venezuelan champions, earning him the nickname el Infierno, the Inferno. Nevertheless, when the Zambrano kidnapping occurred, the Mets checked with Thole to make sure he was O.K. He said that he was and that he had no intention of coming home before his scheduled Dec. 8 departure. But he also followed their advice to be careful. For the two months he was there, he ate outside the hotel complex only once, and that was with people who knew Caracas. Still, Thole said he came to embrace Caracas while he was there. �It was a fantastic experience,� he said. �I loved it, and my fianc�e loved it, too, except for those three days when she was alone in the hotel. It was pretty intense at times, but over all it was great, and the way people treated us was unbelievable.� Passion for baseball is feverish in Venezuela, and even Thole�s brief time in the majors could not prepare him for what he saw � the rollicking stadiums, the cheerleaders in front of the dugouts, the blaring reggaet�n music. In one game against archrival Magallanes of Valencia, Thole was catching when he noticed his center fielder turn and stare past the outfield wall. A brawl had broken out in the bleachers and the game was stopped for 10 minutes as the fans, players and umpires all watched. Thole went out to the mound and took it all in with the pitcher, whose name he could not recall. �He shrugged and said, �This happens every day here,� � Thole recalled. �Then the police came.� The first game Poe attended, she was driven to the stadium by the brother of the team bus driver. Driving in Caracas can get inventive, and at one point Poe�s car ended up on the sidewalk, scattering pedestrians who seemed not overly surprised. Inside the stadium, she attracted curious questions from fans. When they found out she was the future wife of el Infierno, their affection grew. �People were really very nice,� Poe said. �I met some wives who were bilingual, and they helped me out a lot. More than once I had beer dumped on me. But you know, it�s all part of the experience.� So were the Frosted Flakes and peanut butter. Poe and Thole can do without those items for a while. The rest of it, they�ll take. �You know what?� Thole said. �I would love to go back next year.�