Marlins Take Series From Mets with 7-3 Victory, Ichiro Hits 3-Run HR

[Jay]

To be fair, you don't necessarily have to have a good team to make the playoffs these days. The second wild card sort of further rewards mediocrity. I just hope the team can stay within striking distance until Alvarez and Jose comeback. With those two healthy, I think this is a pretty good team.

Another thing not being taken into account when considering April production is that it wasn't just Morse/Ozuna who struggled. Yelich is hurt and provided very little when healthy. He's better than he's performed. We also have a better catcher now than we did to start the year.

Realmuto maybe better defensively (it wasn't that hard) but he's got to show a lot more with the bat to be considered an upgrade. Salty owns a career .725 OPS (.775 vs righties) and .705 vs righties last year. Realmuto has a ways to go with his career .729 OPS in the minors.

I guess you're right about the second wild card allowing mediocrity to slip into the post season. We'll have a much better idea of where the team stands after the next road trip (nats, giants, dodgers). They really need to sweep the phillies this weekend. Losses against crappy teams like that add up quick and winning those games makes it a lot easier for a mediocre team to slip into the postseason.

[Nick]

Our catchers combined to hit .163/.218/.263 in April. Realmuto should at least be able to do significantly better than that, which I think is what "Erick" was getting at.

[Namaste]

If a 2nd Wild Card lets "mediocrity" slip into the post season, what slips into the NBA post season?

Explosive diarrhea?

[Jay]

If a 2nd Wild Card lets "mediocrity" slip into the post season, what slips into the NBA post season?

Explosive diarrhea?

Yeah. I don't pay any attention to the NBA but isn't it common that multiple teams in the postseason have losing records

- - - - - - - - - -

Our catchers combined to hit .163/.218/.263 in April. Realmuto should at least be able to do significantly better than that, which I think is what "Erick" was getting at.

Realmuto had the majority of those plate appearances. He also didn't have a .063 babip compared to a career .319 like Salty.

[thatnewguy]

He also didn't have a 50% K rate. I don't care how you frame it, Realmuto is an upgrade over Saltalamacchia. No, he is not Johnny Bench or Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate but I think it's fair to say that what he will give you with the large defensive and baserunning upgrade is enough to justify the only slight offensive upgrade that he also gives. And, despite not having taken intro to stats or whatever, I think it's fair to say that Saltamacchia at his age and with the numbers he posted last season and in the first month of this season is in decline. We're talking about the guy's career BABIP but he's not the same hitter he was in 2011. Ok, fair enough, he won't .063 and he won't strike out in 50% of PA's for the entire season but how much regression are we looking at here? He's not going to hit .317 BABIP. He's not going to hit .230 in general. Having a .300 OPB and a .700 OPS will be a struggle. He will not be able to throw the ball to any base. He will not be able to take advantage of squib hits or hit and run plays. His power is reduced. His bad speed is not there. His pitch recognition is terrible. The fact is, the poor guy couldn't hit anything over 90 MPH or on the inner half of the plate and hasn't been able to since last May. He's a liability both and behind the plate, not to mention he might have the worst lefty/right splits of any switch hitter in the game. I'm sorry, he's not good enough to be a starter on a team with playoff aspirations and if your options are Saltlamacchia or Realmuto, it's an easy decision in my mind.

[Jay]

He also didn't have a 50% K rate. I don't care how you frame it, Realmuto is an upgrade over Saltalamacchia. No, he is not Johnny Bench or Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate but I think it's fair to say that what he will give you with the large defensive and baserunning upgrade is enough to justify the only slight offensive upgrade that he also gives. And, despite not having taken intro to stats or whatever, I think it's fair to say that Saltamacchia at his age and with the numbers he posted last season and in the first month of this season is in decline. We're talking about the guy's career BABIP but he's not the same hitter he was in 2011. Ok, fair enough, he won't .063 and he won't strike out in 50% of PA's for the entire season but how much regression are we looking at here? He's not going to hit .317 BABIP. He's not going to hit .230 in general. Having a .300 OPB and a .700 OPS will be a struggle. He will not be able to throw the ball to any base. He will not be able to take advantage of squib hits or hit and run plays. His power is reduced. His bad speed is not there. His pitch recognition is terrible. The fact is, the poor guy couldn't hit anything over 90 MPH or on the inner half of the plate and hasn't been able to since last May. He's a liability both and behind the plate, not to mention he might have the worst lefty/right splits of any switch hitter in the game. I'm sorry, he's not good enough to be a starter on a team with playoff aspirations and if your options are Saltlamacchia or Realmuto, it's an easy decision in my mind.

Yes he's going to K 30% of the time; he's done it his entire career. His defense sucks. He can't hit lefties or a curveball. The organization knew these things (or should have) when they signed him yet they still did it paying him to be a starting catcher for 3 seasons.
He had a babip of .317 last year.
He did extremely bad during May and September not the entire season but April. The difference between his OPS in the 1st and 2nd half was entirely due to not hitting many home runs.
He had an OPS of .754 against power pitches last year.

Realmuto is has a .576 OPS. His .830 OPS in AA last year was contributed by some luck; without the luck it'd be lower than .830. He had played a full season at that level the year before. If he performs as well as projections he still will bat .60 points lower than you can expect from Salty. The only positive is he doesn't strike out much but an out is an out. And don't forget that the organization is stunting his long term development by setting him up to fail this season. And the replacements the organization has are even worse because the DFAed Salty.

[Bobbob1313]

He also didn't have a 50% K rate. I don't care how you frame it, Realmuto is an upgrade over Saltalamacchia.

┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻|
┻┳|
┳┻| _
┻┳| •.•) "Psst... Framing it as Realmuto vs. Saltalamacchia is silly and you should not do that."
┳┻|⊂ﾉ
┻┳|

[Namaste]

Those are really weird lines

- - - - - - - - - -

Roof open tonight.

Stanton please hit one out of the park.

Ozuna batting 4th.