Today for the pregame we're going to discuss our primary catcher and when measuring his performance, how much patience we should have as he struggles to make it on the big league level. After last night's zero for four with three strikeouts, Closser now sports a line of .181/.280/.208. Abysmal, true, but then we hold our rookies to a different standard as we expect them to have struggles learning the ropes. The question though is at what point do you say that this is no longer just a hitch in the learning curve, but an inability to grow and develop any further.
Conventional wisdom holds that catchers are slow to develop, and that much patience is required to watch them mature. However, looking at the top tier catchers playing in the majors today shows that often this isn't quite true, in fact many of the best were near or at the top of their rookie classes. So for the pregame we're going to try and figure out JD. How long do we go before we decide we need to deal him out of our future plans for the good of the rest of the team? What potential does JD have now that makes him worth keeping?
Anyway, I'll post an in game discussion in just a little bit.