Saltalamacchia starting to tear it up

[Dojji]

I hope he's a coach with us. Heck, when someone hires DeMarlo Hale as a manager (which will eventually happen) go ahead and bring Tek in as the bench coach. He's worth that kind of promotion on the simple knowledge he brings to the game alone.

[BornToRun]

I hope he's a coach with us. Heck' date=' when someone hires DeMarlo Hale as a manager (which will eventually happen) go ahead and bring Tek in as the bench coach. He's worth that kind of promotion on the simple knowledge he brings to the game alone.[/quote']

 

I always thought he'd be a decent pitching coach, the guy has no peer when it comes to handling a staff. It's nice what seems to be happening, we have an above average catcher for over a decade and we've already found someone who's starting to look like the longterm replacement.

[Dojji]

More than a replacement. A true successor, an heir trained by the aging veteran. That's how you keep continuity going.

[BornToRun]

More than a replacement. A true successor' date=' an heir trained by the aging veteran. That's how you keep continuity going.[/quote']

 

We go from Varitek to Salty. I hate to imagine what the next guy's last name is gonna be.

[Dojji]

COuld just as easily be "smith."

[BornToRun]

COuld just as easily be "smith."

 

Agent Smith, "Mr. Saaallltttalaammacchiiaaaa."

[Dojji]

That would take like 2 hours the way he said it lol.

[BornToRun]

That would take like 2 hours the way he said it lol.

 

The Matrix part 4, 2 hours of Hugo Weaving saying Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

[AtWork]

You know me' date=' I'm the crazy prospect guy, so I honestly thought he [b']had a chance[/b] to do this well, at least on the offensive side of the ball. Ran into a lot of skepticism when I said so in the past though so you are right in general. His development defensively on the other hand has been a very pleasant surprise to all of us I think. Why he's outright above average as a defensive catcher, who saw that coming?.

 

I didn't mean any offense to you or any other poster, the emphasis on the no one could have predicted he would do this well was on his defense. He's never been a good defensive catcher.

 

Gary Tuck deserves a ton of credit for that.

[Dojji]

So does Tek

[SCM33]

Salty is starting to s*** it up.

 

Hitting .174 this month with an OB% of a palty .208.

[Emmz]

Hate to say that I was right, but when everyone was talking about how great Salty was, I told everyone to just enjoy the high while it lasts, because his history shows nothing to suggest his success was sustainable. I sort of got a lot of crap for that. I hope he performs well, I hope that he's a .800 OPS guy, and I don't think it's out of the question that he's capable of this, but I never got my hopes up on him. Sports fans are incredibly fickle when it comes to their players, especially the ones like Salty.

 

I'm rooting for him in every at-bat, but people really need to control themselves when they start saying stuff like how Salty's somehow one of the better offensive catchers after years of misery, simply because he was hot for a stretch.

[SCM33]

Hate to say that I was right, but when everyone was talking about how great Salty was, I told everyone to just enjoy the high while it lasts, because his history shows nothing to suggest his success was sustainable. I sort of got a lot of crap for that. I hope he performs well, I hope that he's a .800 OPS guy, and I don't think it's out of the question that he's capable of this, but I never got my hopes up on him. Sports fans are incredibly fickle when it comes to their players, especially the ones like Salty.

 

I'm rooting for him in every at-bat, but people really need to control themselves when they start saying stuff like how Salty's somehow one of the better offensive catchers after years of misery, simply because he was hot for a stretch.

 

Emmz, a700 hitter and myself have been saying the same thing all year.

 

His defense has improved, and I do root for the guy......but I just dont think hes that good.

 

Other members compare him to other catchers in baseball, well...this year has been a terrible year for catchers offensively. Being the best of the bad does not mean you are "good".

[BigPapiEnFuego]

Oh he's having a slump. Guess you guys were right, he does suck. If only we had Russell Martin

[SCM33]

Oh he's having a slump. Guess you guys were right' date=' he does suck. If only we had Russell Martin[/quote']

 

Why such a smug attitude?

 

A slump? The whole season has been a slump except for a hot streak that ended a whole month ago. Yeah, he compares well to other s***** catchers, but so what!!!! That does not make him a GOOD offensive player.

 

For the year, his offensive line reads: .244 AVG, .304 OB, .454 SLG, .758 OPS. I dont care what year it is, thats f***ing terrible. For people to defend his offensive production is mind boggling. What is the obsession with his s***** stats? In any other year we would ALL be talking about how s***** he is.

 

Jason Varitek, who has SUCKED for 5 of his last 6 years now and is really not regarded as an offensive catcher, has a CAREER line of: .257 AVG, .341 OB, .435 SLG, .777 OPS, which is better than Saltys production thus far.

 

I root for the kid to do well, the better he does...the better the team does, but I call a spade a spade man, and he is a spade.

 

Why do people on this board get so offended when people point out the truth? He just isnt that good. He went through a nice stretch, and he is in the middle of the pack of a bunch of s***** catchers currently in the game.

 

Facts are facts. I dont understand why so many people on this board are blind to them. I am a sox fan, just as much as you are. Why are you in denial?

[Emmz]

Oh he's having a slump. Guess you guys were right' date=' he does suck. If only we had Russell Martin[/quote']

 

Please re-read my post again, then get back to me.

 

All I said was that our fans were touting him as being an elite offensive catcher, acting like his hot streak was going to be his career norm. All I said was to not get your hopes up. I got bad news for you bud, these numbers are closer to his career averages than what he was doing before, in the last two months.

 

I expect him to be a low-to-mid .700 OPS guy with a .250 BA, and look, his season is evening out now. I told you, enjoy his hot streak while it lasted, he's not a .850-.900 OPS hitter, and y'all people who were saying to "eat crow" are sort of looking silly right now.

[BigPapiEnFuego]

Why such a smug attitude?

 

A slump? The whole season has been a slump except for a hot streak that ended a whole month ago. Yeah, he compares well to other s***** catchers, but so what!!!! That does not make him a GOOD offensive player.

 

For the year, his offensive line reads: .244 AVG, .304 OB, .454 SLG, .758 OPS. I dont care what year it is, thats f***ing terrible. For people to defend his offensive production is mind boggling. What is the obsession with his s***** stats? In any other year we would ALL be talking about how s***** he is.

 

Jason Varitek, who has SUCKED for 5 of his last 6 years now and is really not regarded as an offensive catcher, has a CAREER line of: .257 AVG, .341 OB, .435 SLG, .777 OPS, which is better than Saltys production thus far.

 

I root for the kid to do well, the better he does...the better the team does, but I call a spade a spade man, and he is a spade.

 

Why do people on this board get so offended when people point out the truth? He just isnt that good. He went through a nice stretch, and he is in the middle of the pack of a bunch of s***** catchers currently in the game.

 

Facts are facts. I dont understand why so many people on this board are blind to them. I am a sox fan, just as much as you are. Why are you in denial?

 

Every few weeks it's the same post. Over and over again. You are beating a dead horse.

 

He's only been slumping a couple weeks, not an entire month.

 

What's YOUR obsession with his s***** stats? You complain about 244 AVG, .304 OB, .454 SLG, .758 OPS. over and over again. You claim it's "terrible in any year" That's not a terrible line for a CATCHER splitting time. He's not a starter.

 

 

You keep bringing up how other catchers are s***** too which doesn't even help your case. What do you seriously expect the Red Sox to do? What where their options during the offseason? Tell me. As far as I know it was stay with Salty who could perform fine (which he is doing now no matter how hard you deny it) or get Russell Martin which would take a good amount of money and a high risk. I heard the name John Buck thrown around too, I'm sure we'd all would love to have his .227 .319 .390 .710 line and .08 WAR. Or maybe we could of gotten Ivan Rodriguez' 30 games played and .214 .276 .325 .600. instead.

 

It just makes no sense to constantly bump the same thread every few weeks just to repeat yourself like a broken record about a guy who is doing fine at one of the worst offensive positions in the game. I could understand if we are complaining about truly bad players like some of our bench players or J.D Drew or even Crawford who are performing at a level lower than average to those in their category, but this is just asinine. You people have been spolied by early 2000's Varitek too much, and by the steroid era of hard hitting catchers. Gonna have to deal with the fact that for a while we are going to have to deal with either our catcher being a defensive specialist with a s*** bat or a catcher with decent hitting skills and slightly below to average defense, like Salty. Get used to it.

 

Oh and just as a side note here I realized while thinking about this and mentioning the steroid era... Ever notice it was the season after MLB instituted a steroid policy with suspensions that Varitek immediately plunged offensively and started getting injured a bit? Seriously. 2006. I know correlation does not equal causation but it is interesting.

[BigPapiEnFuego]

Please re-read my post again, then get back to me.

 

All I said was that our fans were touting him as being an elite offensive catcher, acting like his hot streak was going to be his career norm. All I said was to not get your hopes up. I got bad news for you bud, these numbers are closer to his career averages than what he was doing before, in the last two months.

 

I expect him to be a low-to-mid .700 OPS guy with a .250 BA, and look, his season is evening out now. I told you, enjoy his hot streak while it lasted, he's not a .850-.900 OPS hitter, and y'all people who were saying to "eat crow" are sort of looking silly right now.

 

I read your post fine enough. My post wasn't even really directed at you. No one really touted him as an elite offensive catcher. I don't know where you got that from. I'm pretty sure people expected him to perform to career averages and possibly slightly exceed those averages because of increased playing time and more experience. He's lived up that. He was due for a slump. Slumps happen. He could break out of it at any minute and go back to being how he was, and there is nothing that says that cannot happen. You can point to his history, but I'm not going to really take much stock in 300 something games that were scattered over 5 years because of things like trades and call ups and send downs.

[Emmz]

I read your post fine enough. My post wasn't even really directed at you. No one really touted him as an elite offensive catcher. I don't know where you got that from. I'm pretty sure people expected him to perform to career averages and possibly slightly exceed those averages because of increased playing time and more experience. He's lived up that. He was due for a slump. Slumps happen. He could break out of it at any minute and go back to being how he was' date=' and there is nothing that says that cannot happen. You can point to his history, but I'm not going to really take much stock in 300 something games that were scattered over 5 years because of things like trades and call ups and send downs.[/quote']

 

Did you even read earlier posts in this thread? Have you read the game threads over the last two months? It's all about sample sizes. Everyone calling him an elite offensive catcher, and better than Russell Martin was using his hot streak to compare to Russell who's playing every day with less protection than Salty.

 

His sample size of success is extremely small, while his sample size of failure is substantial. If he performed to career averages or slightly above, then you're essentially agreeing with us that he's not very good. Salty is not very good, he's just average at best, and that's all I've ever said. I'll have to gather some earlier quotes from this thread and others.

[Emmz]

Salty's number since May 15 (which is the benchmark we've used consistently here)

 

.294/.363/.573/.940

 

Overall season numbers are approaching .800 OPS.

 

Victor Martinez only leads Salty by about .018 in the season OPS department.

 

This kid is no longer in any sense of the word replaceable. He's one of the better catchers in the league offensively and he's a better catcher right now taking all his strengths and weaknesses than VMart. Who saw that coming?

 

Here's one....

 

You're ridiculous. He's a top 3 catcher in the AL. You give me 3 better catchers in the AL. Out of all catchers in the AL with at least 200 PA' date=' he's 3rd in OPS.[/quote']

 

Here's two.....

 

... straight from the horses mouth

 

Am I seriously reading what I am reading? Did I teleport somehow into April? Goddamn the guy is hitting well and fielding well the last few months and STILL you people aren't satisfied. This is ridiculous.

 

that's three!..... I'm not done yet I'm sure.....

 

pff' date=' please, His overall numbers are a .771 OPS at the moment (.240/.320/.452), which is well above average from the catching position, and is in fact above average for hitters in general. You get .450 slugging and average OBP from the catching position you're doing well. His glove and arm are both average, neither an asset nor a liability. Taken as a whole the guy is pretty much replicating what you could have expected from Varitek in an average year, at least in terms of the numbers, and that's with a month and a half uberslump thrown in. [b']He'd have to really tail off before he's in any way a spare part.[/b]

 

Also, I suppose using the same logic that people use to defend Crawford, to back up a guy who's indisputably been worth the investment so far, is so evil.

 

I don't think Salty will ever be where Tek was defensively, but he's got the upside to reach heights of offense Varitek couldn't touch, and he's already a better defender than VMart. This kid could easily be a star for us.

 

Oooo, good one, almost predicted his fate with that one, that gives us four....

 

Since May 15, arbitrary date selected since that's when he happened to hit his forst homer, and alwso interesting because it's a little over 2 months of hitting, and a combined ~100-120 PA here's Salty's line.

 

.280 BA

.363 OBP

.576 SLG

.939 OPS

8 HR

17 XBH

 

1:2 bb/k ratio (not great, not terrible)

 

Combine that with being at least a non-liability on D (his glove isn't great, but he's a big league catcher defensively) and I think we may have a winner here. Looks like the real Saltalamacchia might have arrived after that rough first month and a half.

 

Which is, you know, awesome.

 

There's five posts praising Salty's AMAZING offensive gifts....

[Emmz]

Every few weeks it's the same post. Over and over again. You are beating a dead horse.

 

He's only been slumping a couple weeks, not an entire month.

 

What's YOUR obsession with his s***** stats? You complain about 244 AVG, .304 OB, .454 SLG, .758 OPS. over and over again. You claim it's "terrible in any year" That's not a terrible line for a CATCHER splitting time. He's not a starter.

 

 

You keep bringing up how other catchers are s***** too which doesn't even help your case. What do you seriously expect the Red Sox to do? What where their options during the offseason? Tell me. As far as I know it was stay with Salty who could perform fine (which he is doing now no matter how hard you deny it) or get Russell Martin which would take a good amount of money and a high risk. I heard the name John Buck thrown around too, I'm sure we'd all would love to have his .227 .319 .390 .710 line and .08 WAR. Or maybe we could of gotten Ivan Rodriguez' 30 games played and .214 .276 .325 .600. instead.

 

It just makes no sense to constantly bump the same thread every few weeks just to repeat yourself like a broken record about a guy who is doing fine at one of the worst offensive positions in the game. I could understand if we are complaining about truly bad players like some of our bench players or J.D Drew or even Crawford who are performing at a level lower than average to those in their category, but this is just asinine. You people have been spolied by early 2000's Varitek too much, and by the steroid era of hard hitting catchers. Gonna have to deal with the fact that for a while we are going to have to deal with either our catcher being a defensive specialist with a s*** bat or a catcher with decent hitting skills and slightly below to average defense, like Salty. Get used to it.

 

Oh and just as a side note here I realized while thinking about this and mentioning the steroid era... Ever notice it was the season after MLB instituted a steroid policy with suspensions that Varitek immediately plunged offensively and started getting injured a bit? Seriously. 2006. I know correlation does not equal causation but it is interesting.

 

This is a forum for discussion. I don't think Salty is pure garbage, I just find it sort of annoying how much this forum likes to pump him up like he's so good, and thinking he's going to maintain his hot streak. He's a career .245 hitter with .700-.750 OPS, that's all I expect him to be, I think that's all a700 or SCM expects him to be as well, but you guys want to pretend he's a .850 OPS hitter. I love this team, and I don't want them to be saddled with a mediocre offensive AND defensive catcher for the years to come.

 

Salty is not the answer until he provides at least a couple seasons of sample sizes. That's substantial, 2 months of hot streaking is not.

 

Granted, a few weeks of going cold doesn't either, but it's actually bringing him down to career average range, which is what I expect.

 

Finally, I would like to remind people, that everything but his slugging pct. is on par with career averages, this is a classic symptom of a fluke season.

[YAZMAN]

Lavarnway is helping Salty pack his bags as we speak. Lavs will be Tek's meal ticket for the next two seasons.

[SoxFanForsyth]

This is a forum for discussion. I don't think Salty is pure garbage, I just find it sort of annoying how much this forum likes to pump him up like he's so good, and thinking he's going to maintain his hot streak. He's a career .245 hitter with .700-.750 OPS, that's all I expect him to be, I think that's all a700 or SCM expects him to be as well, but you guys want to pretend he's a .850 OPS hitter. I love this team, and I don't want them to be saddled with a mediocre offensive AND defensive catcher for the years to come.

 

Salty is not the answer until he provides at least a couple seasons of sample sizes. That's substantial, 2 months of hot streaking is not.

 

Granted, a few weeks of going cold doesn't either, but it's actually bringing him down to career average range, which is what I expect.

 

Finally, I would like to remind people, that everything but his slugging pct. is on par with career averages, this is a classic symptom of a fluke season.

 

It's truly a shame that players don't peak from 27-30. Oh wait, they do. But at least they don't begin to play better with consistent playing time. Oh wait, they do.

 

You talk all this about his career numbers, but the guy is 26 years old. When Varitek was 26 years old, his line was .257/.311/.410.

 

Hell, by the time Varitek had 1,153 AB (Salty has 1,081), he was hitting .258/.331/.432. Salty's career numbers right now are .248/.313/.404. And Varitek was 28 by the time he had 1,000 AB, Salty is 26.

 

Varitek, from ages 29-33, hit .280/.361/.470, but you're telling me that Salty can't develop his skills any further because he's a 26 year old who has over 1,000 AB in the MLB? That's absolutely ridiculous. You act like, by the time they're 25 years old, players will have career numbers that they will trend toward rather than getting better. That's absurd.

 

Players will develop better pitch recognition, which will lead to higher OBP, higher SLG as they will be able to adjust and react better to offspeed stuff, and a higher average. Just because his plate discipline hasn't developed as quickly as his recognition, that doesn't mean it's a fluke season. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Palodios]

Oh and just as a side note here I realized while thinking about this and mentioning the steroid era... Ever notice it was the season after MLB instituted a steroid policy with suspensions that Varitek immediately plunged offensively and started getting injured a bit? Seriously. 2006. I know correlation does not equal causation but it is interesting.

 

Varitek hit 7 home runs over 36 games last year. I think that being an aging catcher just makes you injured and lose your pop. Not everyone is like Pudge who will catch forever.

[Palodios]

This is a forum for discussion. I don't think Salty is pure garbage' date=' I just find it sort of annoying how much this forum likes to pump him up like he's so good, and thinking he's going to maintain his hot streak. He's a career .245 hitter with .700-.750 OPS, that's all I expect him to be, I think that's all a700 or SCM expects him to be as well, but you guys want to pretend he's a .850 OPS hitter. [b']I love this team, and I don't want them to be saddled with a mediocre offensive AND defensive catcher for the years to come[/b].

 

Salty is not the answer until he provides at least a couple seasons of sample sizes. That's substantial, 2 months of hot streaking is not.

 

Granted, a few weeks of going cold doesn't either, but it's actually bringing him down to career average range, which is what I expect.

 

Finally, I would like to remind people, that everything but his slugging pct. is on par with career averages, this is a classic symptom of a fluke season.

 

Are your standards at catcher unrealistic because you've seen so much of Mauer and Varitek? League average at that position is absolutely abysmal. There has been an influx of young phenom catchers, and what has happened to them? Posey is out for the season. Wieters has a .720 OPS. Montero is probably going to end up a DH/1B. Veterans age fast and either retire early or move to another position.

 

At the beginning of the season, we had a few options. Trade for Suziki... .672 OPS. Sign John Buck, .702 OPS. My personal choice, Miguel Olivo, is hitting .210 with a .610 OPS. Victor Martinez is hitting .815, but doesn't catch anymore, and would cost a significant amount more.

[SoxSport]

For years, I've been seeing posts in different Red Sox chatgroups about two players, "Hanley" and "Salty".

 

Turns out those posters were right on both counts.

 

Maybe the Red sox ought to rotate the GM job around the chat groups every year. The manager, too, mind you. The manager, too.

[SoxSport]

Lavarnway is helping Salty pack his bags as we speak. Lavs will be Tek's meal ticket for the next two seasons.

 

Time to put Tek and Wake out to pasture.

 

Not necessarily the same pasture.

[Dojji]

Lavarnway is helping Salty pack his bags as we speak. Lavs will be Tek's meal ticket for the next two seasons.

 

Lavarnway really isn't ready to be a starting catcher.

 

What I suspect will happen is that Salty sticks around, and Lavarnway will catch on the days Salty isn't catching, and DH on other days. It's working pretty well for Mike Napoli.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Lavarnway really isn't ready to be a starting catcher.

 

What I suspect will happen is that Salty sticks around, and Lavarnway will catch on the days Salty isn't catching, and DH on other days. It's working pretty well for Mike Napoli.

 

Yup. This sounds like the situation that I would envision as well. And by the way - is anyone else incredibly impressed with Lavarnway's patience at the plate?? It seems like he'll go down 0-2 and then work it back to even or 3-2 before the AB ends. It's ridiculous. If he's already this patient, he could very well be an OBP beast in the future.

[a700hitter]

Varitek is a fossil and his OPS is .725. Salty's is .758 and falling. I wouldn't be getting him ready for HOF induction.