I bet you came here looking for John Axford, but like Waldo and Carmen Sandiego before him, you just can't seem to find that guy on this blog no matter how many times and how hard you look. I'm still tweaking that article so I can't post it today, but I for sure will have it tomorrow. I have time to work on it today because it is Saturday, and I don't have shit else to do. But today I will give you the backup catching duo of Wil Nieves and George Kottaras. That's right, 2 backups. And the only reason that there are 2 is because #1 catcher Jonathon Lucroy will start the season on the DL after breaking his pinky early in Spring Training. As soon as he comes off the DL (sometime in the 1st week of April) one of these 2 catchers will be cut or sent to the minor leagues, but that is a decision that will be made when the time comes. For now both of them will be on the 25 man roster on Opening Day. Sorry for getting this article up a little late, and if you are reading this it might not even be finished. I'm going to post this little blurb and the video and constantly add to it throughout the day. I totally forgot how challenging and stressful it is to meet deadlines and to constantly comes up with new ideas and content every day, and to be honest the lack of sleep I've suffered this week has really taken it's toll on me. I slept in until 11 am (I normally wake up around 730am) then I had to run some errands Timmy style and now I'm finally back home at 3pm to post this. So having said that, he's that little intro and the video for the backup catching spot. More content and the stat lines will follow.
Lucroy is expected to play 4 out of every 5 days, meaning that he will start 128 games. That leaves 34 games for the backup. Last year Kottaras was the personal catcher for Randy Wolf and started every game that Wolf did. Because he bridged the gap between the every day catchers Zaun and Lucroy, he played in a total of 67 games last year. For the most part he was unimpressive both offensively and defensively. At the plate he tried so desperately to bat his weight (190 pounds) and finished with a .203 batting average, although he did hit 9 homeruns and had 26 RBIs. And because he also walked 33 times, his on base percentage was .303, which is normally not very good except for the fact that it is 100 points above his average. Hopefully that means if he can bat in the .240 range he would post an OBP of .340 which would be a very good percentage. But that's only speculation, but we don't have to speculate on how bad he is defensively. He's known more for his bat than his glove, which says a lot about his defense because his bat sucked last year. He's not very good at blocking balls in the dirt and he's absolutely terrible at throwing out baserunners. He only threw out 8 of 44 people stealing a base, resulting in a horrendous 18% success rate. I'd go so far as to say that I could steal 2nd base off of Kottaras, but we all know that it isn't true because I can't even steal someone's identity on the internet without being out of breath. I'm so out of shape that when I walk out to get my mail it measures on the Richter Scale. The pavement cracks when I fall down and I've got more chins than Chinatown. When I go to the beach I'm a lucky man because I'm the only one who gets a tan. So I guess that means I'm the only person who's not running on Kottaras. But what he does have is experience with the pitching staff because he worked with them last year. Based upon that alone he might have the edge over Wil Nieves.
But you still can't count out Wil Nieves from being the backup catcher when Lucroy does return. That's because Nieves is a career backup catcher in the Major Leagues and knows exactly who he is and what his role will be. At the age of 33 (Kottaras is 28) Nieves has been around a while and has seen a lot of action at the Minor and Major League level. Sure the argument can be made that the most games he's ever played in a year is 72 and that he has only 5 years in the big leagues under his belt. But when you consider that in the minors he has played in 929 games (at roughly that 72 games per year) in 13 minor league seasons he has experience catching both young and older players. You can't teach experience, and although Kottaras knows this staff, Nieves has probably seen every kind of pitcher there is just by the sheer volume of games played in all of the levels of baseball. Even though he's an outsider to the organization, he did spend the last 3 seasons with the Washington Nationals so he should have a good idea of how to call a game against the batters of the National League. Plus he should be a good mentor to Lucroy, something that Kottaras cannot do because he and Lucroy are on the same level.But how about the other aspects of Nieves' game? Offensively he's probably worse than Kottaras. How can you get much worse than a .203 batting average you ask? I'll tell you. Even though he might have a better batting average (.241 average in his 3 years in Washington) he only takes about half as many walks for a .288 OBP which is only 40 points higher. Then you also have to consider that Nieves has no power (5 career homeruns) and averages right around 20 RBIs per year. So basically he's a black hole when he's in front of the plate. That isn't necessarily a bad thing because the other 8 guys in the lineup (yes, I'm even including the pitcher) should be able to produce all of the runs. Nieves is more of a defensive catcher, and he threw out 32% of would be base stealers last year. He also is better at blocking balls in the dirt and staying in front of the ball.
The Brewers are taking a gamble on the backup catching position because it's really a 50/50 shot. Do you bet on black (offense) or red (defense)? You can't bet on both because then you break even every time. Unless you're getting free drinks like in Las Vegas, there's no point to doing that. So who will the Brewers keep when Lucroy comes off the DL - Kottaras or Nieves? For more on that, we go to our correspondent in the field, Scott Reck.
That asshole seems to think that the Brewers are going to keep defense over offense, and for the first time in my life I agree with that portly bastard. The Brewers have plenty of offense, but they aren't a team that is necessarily known for their glovework. I just can't see them adding to a strength at the expense of improving a weakness. So I'm going to go ahead and say that Nieves will be the backup catcher for the 2011 season. But honestly it could go either way. And even though I've made up my mind, the Brewers don't give a shit about what I think and they will do whatever they want with or without my input. So I have no choice but to present a stat line for both players. These are based upon that player being the backup to Lucroy for the entire 2011 season:
Kottaras - .234 avg, 8 HRs, 24 RBIs, 59 games played
Nieves - .225 avg, 2 HRs, 18 RBIs, 54 games played
The backup catcher isn't a very important role on the team. Other than giving the starter the a day off you never see him contribute on the field because a backup catcher will rarely pinch hit. But he spends as much time studying film, reading scouting reports, working with the pitchers and speaking with the coaches as the starting catcher. But you will probably not see that. But you definitely will see closer John Axford jogging to the mound and on this blog tomorrow. You may sometimes notice when a game is lost due to a poor game by the starter, but you for sure notice (it ain't hard to miss!) when a game is lost when the closer blows a save. Hopefully not too much of that happens this year, but it's going to be difficult for John Axford to match his rookie season. I'm one of those who think that he can, but that my friends (for reals this time), is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Roll out the Barrel! We'll have a Barrel of Fun!
- pookon -
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email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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