Jarrod Saltalamacchia -- best starting catcher by OPS and SLG in the American League

[Dojji]

He'd have to slump extensively for multiple months to get that bad. That's what it took for him to wind up with his numbers last year.

[BornToRun]

Only way to find out is for them to play the season.

[Emmz]

He'd have to slump extensively for multiple months to get that bad. That's what it took for him to wind up with his numbers last year.

 

His career suggests he's more than capable. Like BTR said, only way to find out is to see what happens. I don't think he's incapable of .800 OPS, I just don't see why everyone's boning up again. It was pathetic last year, and it still is this year. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. If you made the prediction "I think he finishes with .850 OPS", it's fine and dandy, but you're practically congratulating him on that, 60 games into the year, when you make these threads. This is basically an "eat crow, bitches" thing to do, a la last year. You ended up being wrong, he slumped for a couple months at the end.

 

Why don't you and SFF understand this very simple concept. You have to try to debate realism, and convince everyone they should eat their crow. I'll leave it at that.

[Dojji]

Just because you're vicious enough to hold that kind of grudge doesn't mean everyone is. Sure I like Salty, but I think having a catcher whose bat could put him in the All Star Game is fodder for conversation in the main board regardless of what happens from now on.

 

Or is commenting on good news as it happens suddenly automatically nefarious in your mind? Are you that desperate to insulate yourself from any suspicion that you might need to admit to being wrong that you'll lash out blindly for multiple pages in a thread created to notice and draw response to good news about your own team?

 

It's people like you overreacting, fishing for reasons to suspect others of ulterior motives and creating grudge matches where none need exist that keep the main board so sparse of actual interesting threads.

 

You are a generous handful of genuinely intelligent comments away from trollhood.

[jung]

Well I am repeating myself here but I still insist that the big change for Salty was going from a more standard approach to plate appearances which really never suited his best attributes very well to swinging for the fences every swing of every at bat.

 

He is the one guy that does not bother me when he is still doing it with two strikes cause that is the best thing he can do for this team. He has got the kind of strength that allows him to dump the thing into the stands even when he does not catch it right as long as he is putting a HR swing on the ball. If the Sox have to depend on Salty for base hits and to run station to station on the base paths the Sox are in way more trouble than the more pessimistic of our forum members think.

 

I still don't know if Magaden got Salty to change his approach at the plate or if V did it or if somebody else did but it has been the best thing anybody could have done for Salty. I do think it forces us to wait till the end of the season to see what the result is cause to the best of my knowledge Salty has never done this before and we should have a different standard to hold him to, one that is less inclined to BA and more to OPS or maybe Slugging.

 

Now his fielding is another story but I think we will have to see how this works out for Salty at the plate over a full season.

[evilhand]

There are some good indications that Salty has turned the corner. The first is that he's 27, the age you'd expect a player to start his prime years. Add to that the fact that he took a very nice step forward last year in his age 26 season and flashed moments of this kind of dominance here and there.

 

I don't think anyone is going to argue that he's likely to be a .900 OPS hitter for the next 4-6 years, but expecting him to drop back down to his career averages is ignoring the fact that those numbers include his age 22-25 seasons, an age range where most guys haven't even cracked the major league roster yet.

 

At the moment, his ISO is .297, a jump up from last year's .215 which will probably come down a bit, but his walk rate is 6.2%, almost exactly the same as his 6.3 from 2011. So his increased BA and OBP are both dependent on a 2.5% increase in his contact rate and an almost 8% jump in his HR/FB rate.

 

So some regression is very likely, but I think some people here need to be reminded of what regression means. Or, more specifically, what it doesn't mean.

 

When a player is due to regress, it means he's due to return to his true talent level, not that a hot streak is due to be cancelled out by an equivalent cold streak. ZIPS has him hitting .239/.300/.446 the rest of the way, which seems reasonable. If he's actually in the middle of a break out year, he'll probably hit better than that, but for now let's assume last year was a demonstration of about what to expect.

 

That would leave him with a .306 OBP and a .495 SLG on the season which would still leave him as one of the more valuable hitting catchers in the game. And .801 OPS would have been good for 8th best in the majors last year among catchers with 300 or more PAs.

[Emmz]

Just because you're vicious enough to hold that kind of grudge doesn't mean everyone is. Sure I like Salty, but I think having a catcher whose bat could put him in the All Star Game is fodder for conversation in the main board regardless of what happens from now on.

 

Or is commenting on good news as it happens suddenly automatically nefarious in your mind? Are you that desperate to insulate yourself from any suspicion that you might need to admit to being wrong that you'll lash out blindly for multiple pages in a thread created to notice and draw response to good news about your own team?

 

It's people like you overreacting, fishing for reasons to suspect others of ulterior motives and creating grudge matches where none need exist that keep the main board so sparse of actual interesting threads.

 

You are a generous handful of genuinely intelligent comments away from trollhood.

Vicious? I've very very seldom lost my cool posting here. Usually when I do, granted, it's from your ignorance/hypocritical ass-talkery.

 

You keep making these useless threads, and yeah it looks like a passive attempt to get people to eat their crow. Where do I need to admit being wrong? Drop the straw man defense bro. I never said Salty is incapable. I think he's probably going to fade, and it's early to have this guy's children yet, that's about the extent of what's been said.

 

Pull your head out of your ass.

[Cocos Disciples]

Alright well this was fun. Really don't understand how a fight breaks out in a thread about how good our catcher is doing. Closed for now.