Pending Pinstripes Latest Posts
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Has Jeter Lost His Swing?
01.16.11 -
A Pitch F/X Look at Cliff Lee
12.13.10
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A Pitch F/X Look at Cliff Lee
12.13.10 -
Yankees and...Crawford?
12.03.10
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03 September 2009
Entering the 2009 season, Francisco Cervelli was coming off essentially a lost 2008 season after breaking his wrist in Spring Training after being bowled over at home plate in a spring training game against the Rays. He only had 91ABs, mostly in Double-A Trenton, hitting .308 with a .411OBP, 11:18 BB:K ratio, .374SLG .785OPS and 6 doubles. Entering this season, Cervelli was deemed a long shot to ever make a contribution to the big club until September unless a couple of injuries occurred. Well for Cervelli's sake, first Jorge Posada went down with a hamstring injury and was placed on the DL on May 6 and two days later Jose Molina, the new everyday catcher for the time being, went down with a quad injury and was also placed on the DL.
Suddenly the Yankees organization had a noticeable black hole at the catching position with both their All-Star catcher and backup catcher ailing. Francisco Cervelli, an unknown to most Yankees fans, was about to be given his chance as he was already on the 40-man roster. Some cynical Yankees fans questioned what this kid could bring after only hitting for a pitiful .190 average in 58ABs in Trenton. Cervelli surprised all, including the biggest optimists, hitting .269 in 78ABs though he only had an on-base percentage of .284, and an OPS of .630. He showed a bullet for an arm, throwing guys out at a 47.6% clip and not shy to show off his arm as he threw behind runners reminding me of another catcher on the team, Jose Molina. He also worked well with the pitchers, noticeably AJ Burnett.
This brings me to my main point in writing this article. What to do with Cervelli and Molina in 2010? Cervelli has had experience at both Triple-A and the Majors and Molina is a free agent after the season. Over the past two and a half seasons, Molina has been one of the best backup catchers the Yankees have had in recent memory as he replaced the Wil Nieves of the worlds. However, even with his great defensive skills and arm and ability to work well with pitchers, he has hit for a .220 average in 363ABs with a sub .300OBP, a 21:70 BB:K ratio, and sub .600OPS since the beginning of the 2008 season. Most of this offensive futility coming after he had to replace Posada as the everyday catcher last season but still not very good numbers.
He may not have hit in Trenton before being called up in May but he does have a .273 career average in the minors with a .367OBP and .747OPS and is only 23 years old, entering next season as a 24-year-old. I do not know if the organization thinks of Cervelli as a backup catcher or an everyday guy but entering the offseason they will have a decision to make on what to do not only with him but also whether to try to retain Molina.
I believe placing
Cervelli as the backup catcher for the 2010 season is a much better option than
re-signing Jose Molina for a couple of reasons: First both are very similar in
their games. Neither have eye-popping offensive skill sets, though Cervelli has
above-average speed for a catcher while Molina is I think even below-average
for a catcher. Both do the little things, like situational bunting and moving
runners over, as well as anyone on the team. Both are above average defensive
catchers and known well for working well with the pitching staff. Both have
great arms that maintain the running game and both can block the plate as well
as any of the catchers in the league.
The main reason however is age. Molina, will be 35 next June while Cervelli, as mentioned before is entering next season as a 24-year-old. This is also a key factor in that you also do not know how much longer Jorge will hold behind the plate as he has suffered from the injury bug over the past two seasons. Cervelli's chances of actually having to catch more games and be able to produce is, in my opinion, better than Molina's if he had to do the same thing similar to that of the 2008 season leading me to believe that Cervelli is a better option for the 2010 backup role than Molina.
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