The Catching Cerberus of 2024
10/30/2024 08:00 AM
Bonus Halloween theme this week!
Happy Halloween week, readers, regulars, and irregulars of Viva El Birdos! Welcome to our haunted blog. I have some fun links to Halloween related St Louis Cardinals merchandise.
This is sort of like the Green Man from Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but more of a Gray Man with a Cardinals logo and snazzy red cuffs, belt, and high socks.
This hat looks like what happened to the Cardinals the last two seasons.
And of course there's a Cardinals luchador mask!
Baseball!
Today I want to look at the three Cardinals catchers, and the surprising amount of games Pedro Pages played. I am using baseball savant for the following catcher evaluations. First we are looking at catcher blocking.
Blocks Above Average
- Ivan Herrera was 4 blocks above average and had, believe it or not, the most block opportunities of the three catchers with 2,138 block opportunities
- Willson Contreras and Pedro Pages were both 3 blocks above average, with Pedro Pages having 2,041 block opportunities and Willson Contreras only 1,840 chances.
So, all of our catchers were good at blocking, ranked #17, #20, and #21. Really not a lot of difference to give an edge to any one catcher there if you want to choose a catcher based on blocking. Pedro Pages did score highest in the tough blocking category of the three. But I think you'd be ok going with any of the three when concerned with blocking.
Catcher Framing
- Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages tied just a hair above average in this category. No Cardinals catcher was exceptional at framing according to statcast data. Herrera and Pages weren't bad at it though.
- Willson Contreras was not among the worst at framing, but he was below average at it, and ranked #37 out of 58 catchers listed at framing. Keep in mind Herrera and Pages were at 1 Catcher Framing Runs, while Willson was at -2. So if anything Contreras wouldn't be one of your main two catchers if you prioritize framing.
Honestly when looking at all of the data, I prefer Herrera in this area! I am surprised by that a little bit. And more reason to play Herrera over Pages.
Catcher Pop Time
The average pop time of MLB catchers is 2 seconds according to baseball savant.
- Pedro Pages 1.93 seconds (well above average with fastest of all being 1.85).
- Willson Contreras 1.97 seconds (above average!).
- Ivan Herrera 1.99 (about average but not bad!).
While none of them disqualify themselves with slow pop time, Pages clearly has the edge here. I'm not sure if we are that concerned with pop time though, if none of them are bad at it, and it being (in my opinion) the least important of the 4 catcher stats we are covering here.
Catcher Throwing
Ok, the moment of truth. I think we are all thinking about it, but how bad is Herrera at throwing out baserunners? Well, not good, but that's not a surprise. Surprise!
- Willson Contreras throws runners out at an above average rate. He's not far above average, but he's better than most players at throwing runners out!
- Pedro Pages and Ivan Herrera. Both are really bad at throwing runners out, Herrera a little bit worse but not by a lot. They are ranked #52 and #54 at throwing runners out. So opponents are going to run on them.
Who should be the catcher?
Ivan Herrera should be catcher if you are into blocks above average. He is our best blocker. And I would pick Herrera for catcher framing too, because he just flat out out-hits Pages.
However, considering pop time Pages has these other two guys beat!
Willson Contreras has the best arm of the three. Between the pop time and throwing arm, you can't go wrong with Contreras.
In conclusion, I would go into 2025 with Contreras and Herrera sharing playing time at catcher and well, Pages is the odd man out here. I'm not saying he wouldn't be a valuable piece as a backup catcher to another team (or ours if Contreras is traded away), but carrying three catchers is just weird and unnecessary, and should only be a part of the past, anomalous 2024 season. Noting Contreras did miss a lot of playing time for this scenario to occur.
While part of me wonders why Herrera didn't play more, with Pages getting a lot of playing time, I can now maybe see why. They may truly value Herrera's future and wanted him to work on some things more in the minor leagues. Otherwise, I can't really see much of an explanation for it. Assign Contreras to the starters that he works best with, and Herrera can catch the other starters. When Herrera is catching, Contreras' bat needs to be in the lineup at DH (or maybe 1B?). Pages isn't really that impressive of a defensive catcher to overcome his hitting abilities.
Time will tell which of these catchers will be on the 2025 team.
...and now, for some music. Each week I will induct an album into my perfect album hall of fame. meaning all killer, no filler, start to finish, a total classic...
Album Hall of Fame
JJ Doom - 'Key to the Kuffs'
While there are more than a few options when it comes to MF Doom hall of fame level albums, the London by way of NYC and back to London rapper's career is top tier. From KMD to his later years working on collaborations with several other producers and hip-hop stalwarts, he has many classics. The most obvious inductee for Halloween is Mad Villain, but I want to pick something a little more obscure yet on the same level of excellence as 'Mad Villainy'.
You can file MF Doom under many names and aliases in the category of alternative hip hop. In his younger days he was known as Zev Love X as part of the progressive hip hop group KMD, which included his DJ brother. His brother passed away however, which caused the group to disband and for him to change his name to MF Doom (which means metalface doom due to him wearing a gladiator mask as part of his hiphop persona, and because he was a bit infatuated with the Marvel villain Dr Doom).
What you will hear with much of MF Doom's music are vintage sampling of cartoons and old commercials, helping to create a story in his songs along with his nimble but deep and somewhat monotone rapping. Which is sort of difficult to describe but he commands you to follow along with his constant flow of creating lyrical imagery and storytelling. He is also a producer at times but on JJ Doom, he pairs with another NYC producer Jneiro Jarel, and the result is one of the best hip-hop albums in history.
The album's music was actually produced in New Orleans, while DOOM rapped on it in London around the time of 2010-2012. When this album came out I was to the point of wondering if he would ever match the level of output that came from his MF Doom albums and of course Mad Villain. This one was released with him still at the top of his game and unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot more to his life, as he passed away on Halloween of 2020. On that same day I was in a car accident that totaled my vehicle I might add, which has always tripped me out.
The critics and general public don't necessarily agree with me so much as this being an absolute hip-hop classic, but I beg to differ. It even gets better with every listen and it is a work of art. I would list standout tracks but it's pointless, the whole thing flows so well together and deserves to be listened to as an album. I will add that Beth Gibbons of Portishead appears as a guest on one track if you need a selling point. Time to wrap this up and say this is the rare album that surprised me on first listen at how good it is, but somehow has gotten better and better over the years. I even own it on vinyl and that's my preferred way to hear it. It has really, really cool album art and colored records!
I could break this album down some more but I just want you to hear it, go check it out, it's easy to find out there if you like hip-hop, rap, or alternative music.
...
Ha! I want to talk about baseball more. Saggese had a three hit day today in the AFL. But there is not much 2024 baseball left, or even much of the postseason left. Did you know that Nolan Gorman has an RBI in his only postseason plate appearance? Or that Aaron Judge has a sub .200 batting average in 55 postseason games at what was the time of this writing? He has a 68 wRC+ this postseason (probably better after today). So if the Yankees have a chance to go on a tear, he will need to do just that* (and hope the Dodgers offense goes into a slump mode). *well, they didn't need him so much because they won today.
If you are ready for the hot stove to begin, here is a list of free agents. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/2024-25-mlb-free-agents.html
Hey, it's Tyler O'Neill! and Tommy Pham! and Paul Dejong! Did you know Carson Kelly and Andrew Knizner are both 30 now? And about a hundred different pitchers to choose from.
Happy Halloween week VEB!
-CFIC, Dr Howl 1&2, G.M. Bowles, etc.
