This issue has come up on a number of occasions on this blog, and was brought up in the comments of the last post. I want to put the idea that Jorge Posada does not call a good game to bed. People have this idea that because strong willed guys like Randy Johnson, El Duque, and Mike Mussina threw to the backup catcher rather than the equally stubborn Posada, Jorge must not have called a good game. Here are some objective numbers that use CERA (catcher’s ERA, the team’s ERA when he is catching) to dispel this notion. The stats are courtesy of a commenter on Lohud named no. 27:
2007: +.01
Team ERA- 4.49
Posada CERA- 4.50
2006: -.04
Team ERA- 4.41
Posada CERA- 4.37
2005: +.15
Team ERA- 4.52
Posada CERA- 4.67
2004: -.04
Team ERA- 4.69
Posada CERA- 4.65
2003: +.11
Team ERA- 4.02
Posada CERA- 4.13
Summer of Sam dvdrip
2002: -.07
Team ERA- 3.87
Posada CERA- 3.80
The only years Posada’s CERA was significantly above the team ERA was in 2003 and 2005. In 2005, Randy Johnson was the Yankees best pitcher and Posada didn’t catch him. If you take out Johnson’s stats, the team ERA is 4.65 compared to Posada’s 4.67 CERA. Not significant.
In 2003, Posada’s CERA was .11 higher than the team ERA. I’m not sure why that would be. At the same time, you could look at Jason Varitek’s CERA for 2005. He’s supposed to be one of the best game callers in baseball and his CERA that year was 5.03, much higher than the team ERA of 4.74.
Basically, Yankee pitchers over the relevant time frame pitched just as well with Jorge behind the plate as they did with anybody else. Posada has never been a great defensive catcher, but his game calling skills are, and always have been, just fine.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
3 Responses to Posada's Game Calling Ability
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Excellent piece. One thing the critics of his game-calling miss is that a very high percentage of pitches were called from the bench throughout the Torre era (especially in games RJ, Cone, Moose, or El Duque weren’t in).
I do think he has some issues defensively, but they’re (obviously) more than made up for with his offense and his leadership.
I think his game calling abilities are fine. His stubborn streak and intensity makes a bad fit with some of the more temperamental or sensitive types which is often interpreted as a knock on his game calling
Exactly. They both want to be in control, and some pitchers cannot handle that. Other pitchers need the catcher to be in control.