Fun with Numbers

by Roberbola on Jul 28, 2008 8:21 PM MDT

Take a look at the following list of players and their OPS

David Wright .912

Ian Kinsler. 912

Jason Giambi .916

????????? .918

Conor Jackson .918

Hanley Ramirez .921

Grady Sizemore .921

So if you were a manager you'd probably want our mystery man above to be in the lineup as much as possible, right? That is if your goal is to score as many runs as possible.

So who is our mystery man? None other than Chris Iannetta, riding the bench tonight with Torrealba ( .693 OPS) getting the start.

Torrealba has had 9 starts already in July, to Iannetta's 14.

I can only help but wonder what our record would have been with Iannetta and his .900 OPS in our lineup more frequently the entire year.

How is this possibly justifiable? Is catcher so demanding a position for a 25-year old that he can only play in 60% of the games? Russell Martin (another 25-year old catcher) doesn't seem to have a problem. Are we playing Torrealba to showcase him for a trade?

I wonder sometimes if Hurdle really wants to win or not.

Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).

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"Are we playing Torrealba to showcase him for a trade?"

Hit the nail on the head. As far as I can tell, this is the only reason for continually playing Torrealba. That is, except for HurdleLogic.

by oo_nrb on Jul 28, 2008 11:03 PM MDT reply actions

Preaching to the choir

I liked it when we signed Torrealba in the offseason, because I liked the idea of having an experienced backup catcher, esp since Iannetta had struggled last year.

But he is playing way too much. He needs to be traded so that Iannetta gets playing time.

by kosmo99 on Jul 29, 2008 6:49 AM MDT reply actions

Depends on the starter

Torrealba seems to always catch for Jorge DLR. And last night he was catching for a journeyman fill-in, making his first start for the Rox. I would have to guess that they thought he would be more comfortable with a Spanish-speaking catcher.

Ianetta always catches for Cook and Jimenez, most likely b/c they expect them to be around for years to come, so let Ianetta build familiarity.

They both have caught Rusch in the last couple weeks. That may be more of playing match-ups for the opposing SP.

by RockyMtnRedbird on Jul 29, 2008 8:54 AM MDT reply actions

Have you guys REALLY been watching?

We all know Iannetta is the catcher of the future. He’s OPSing like .940 on the season. Torrealba’s season OPS: .698. OMG BENCH HIM.

Normally I’d hop right in and start waving the Bench Yorvy flag.

But then I noticed his line for June/July: .304/.337/.506. For an OPS of .843. That’s a pretty decent catcher right there.

So you have 7 days in a week, I start the .943 catcher 4 or 5 of those days, and the .843 3 or 4 of those days, and voila, you have a lethal catching tandem. You can’t bench an .843 bat and let him spot start 1 or 2 games here and there, he’ll go completely cold. Right now you pretty much platoon them until one gets hotter or colder again. I wager it’ll be Yorvy getting colder and Iannetta staying the course, but we’ll have to see.

But for now, I’ll take his hot bat.

It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time It's Tulowitzki!...Tulo-witzki-witzki-witzki ..... rockiesmagicnumber.blogspot.com

by Andrew Martin on Jul 29, 2008 10:31 AM MDT reply actions