Meet the Nats: Catcher
Brian Schneider opens the season as our starting catcher. He turns 28 next season, his sixth as an Expo. While he’s not a superstar at his position, he’s a very solid player. He plays excellent defense, with a strong, accurate arm, and hits pretty well--as they say--for a catcher.
Offensively, he’s not a walking machine, nor is he a strike-out machine. He’s an average contact hitter, who seems to put the ball in play. Last year, he batted .252/ .321/ .399, which is right in line with his career averages. We probably can’t expect much more than that, but when your catcher is hitting 15 home runs and 25 doubles in a year, you’re doing ok.
My simple pea-brain can’t understand the formulas Baseball Prospectus uses, but I understand what they’re trying to do. Their Equivalent Average (EQA) stat sums up his offensive contribution to a neutral setting and then assigns value along a batting-average scale so that .300 hitters are great hitters and .200 hitters don’t deserve to be in the league. Last year, his was .247, which I would guess is around average for a catcher.
But Schneider’s strength is not his hitting, it’s clearly his defense. Baseball Prospectus has argued that he deserved the Gold Glove--and from the stats I’ve seen, it’s a pretty convincing argument. He blocks the plate well, apparently, as he went the whole season without allowing a passed ball. The team did allow 43 wild pitches, which from a quick glance, seems on the high side. But given the team’s crappy pitching
Schneider has a gun. Last year, he allowed 72 stolen base attempts, and threw out an excellent 36 of them, for a 50% success rate. (Thanks for making the math easy, Brian!) The previous year, he threw out 27 out of 51 for an umm ummm greater than 50% success rate!
Back-up catcher is a slightly bigger problem. Last year it was ‘manned’ by prospect-turned stiff, Einar Diaz. He ‘hit’ .223/ .293/ .302. Here’s RHP Livan Hernandez for comparison’s sake: .247/ .256/ .370.
They’ve already released Einar, so we’re free from him for one year. Bowden has indicated that he wants a right-handed hitting back-up catcher. I’d expect it’s going to be someone from the John Flaherty mold. With Schneider holding down the full-time job, it’s not going to make a huge difference who the back-up is. Hell, for most of September, Schneider didn’t even HAVE a back-up catcher.
We’re all set for the short-term. Catcher shouldn’t be a problem for the Nationals next year. Schneider’s league-average bat and excellent defense combine for an acceptable solution. It’s not necessarily an asset, but catcher will not be the reason we’re not winning.
Offensively, he’s not a walking machine, nor is he a strike-out machine. He’s an average contact hitter, who seems to put the ball in play. Last year, he batted .252/ .321/ .399, which is right in line with his career averages. We probably can’t expect much more than that, but when your catcher is hitting 15 home runs and 25 doubles in a year, you’re doing ok.
My simple pea-brain can’t understand the formulas Baseball Prospectus uses, but I understand what they’re trying to do. Their Equivalent Average (EQA) stat sums up his offensive contribution to a neutral setting and then assigns value along a batting-average scale so that .300 hitters are great hitters and .200 hitters don’t deserve to be in the league. Last year, his was .247, which I would guess is around average for a catcher.
But Schneider’s strength is not his hitting, it’s clearly his defense. Baseball Prospectus has argued that he deserved the Gold Glove--and from the stats I’ve seen, it’s a pretty convincing argument. He blocks the plate well, apparently, as he went the whole season without allowing a passed ball. The team did allow 43 wild pitches, which from a quick glance, seems on the high side. But given the team’s crappy pitching
Schneider has a gun. Last year, he allowed 72 stolen base attempts, and threw out an excellent 36 of them, for a 50% success rate. (Thanks for making the math easy, Brian!) The previous year, he threw out 27 out of 51 for an umm ummm greater than 50% success rate!
Back-up catcher is a slightly bigger problem. Last year it was ‘manned’ by prospect-turned stiff, Einar Diaz. He ‘hit’ .223/ .293/ .302. Here’s RHP Livan Hernandez for comparison’s sake: .247/ .256/ .370.
They’ve already released Einar, so we’re free from him for one year. Bowden has indicated that he wants a right-handed hitting back-up catcher. I’d expect it’s going to be someone from the John Flaherty mold. With Schneider holding down the full-time job, it’s not going to make a huge difference who the back-up is. Hell, for most of September, Schneider didn’t even HAVE a back-up catcher.
We’re all set for the short-term. Catcher shouldn’t be a problem for the Nationals next year. Schneider’s league-average bat and excellent defense combine for an acceptable solution. It’s not necessarily an asset, but catcher will not be the reason we’re not winning.
posted by Chris Needham at
11:12 AM
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