With all the hue and cry among fans and in the blogosphere over whether Jorge Posada should or shouldn’t start in tonight’s game, one contention by those who oppose the move stood out to me, and got me thinking. When someone would cite Jorge’s defensive deficiencies (which are indisputable) they would minimize that by saying “We’ve won championships with Jorge Posada as our starting Catcher.” Remembering that Joe Girardi was on those teams as well I wondered, is that true?
The answer is yes. . . sort of. I went through the 96-03 World Series game logs last night to see exactly who caught each game and who they were paired with. Joe Girardi was our starting Catcher in 1996, although Jim Leyritz memorably substituted for him in the games that (then sophomore pitcher) Andy Pettitte started. Posada and Girardi split time in the 1998 and 1999 World Series, as they had for much of the season. From 2000 on, it was all Jorge and the WS results were mixed.
Here’s the game by game breakdown:
1996 World Series
Game 1-Jim Leyritz (Pettitte)
Game 2-Joe Girardi (Key)
Game 3-Joe Girardi (Cone)
Game 4-Joe Girardi (Rogers)
Game 5-Jim Leyritz (Pettitte)
Game 6-Joe Girardi (Key)
1998 World Series
Game 1-Posada (Wells)
Game 2-Posada (Hernandez)
Game 3- Girardi (Cone)
Game 4-Girardi (Pettitte)
1999 World Series
Game 1-Posada (Hernandez)
Game 2-Girardi (Cone)
Game 3-Girardi (Pettitte)
Game 4-Posada (Clemens)
2000 World Series-All games caught by Posada
2001 World Series-All games caught by Posada
2003 World Series-All games caught by Posada
So while it’s true we did win one (and lost 2) World Series with Posada as our everyday starting catcher, it’s also true that we had split duties among the catchers and personal catchers from 1996-1999. Girardi was clearly David Cone’s personal catcher, and David Wells has often stated that he preferred throwing to Jorge Posada. El Duque and Posada likely worked together since Jorge is bilingual, although that pairing was memorably combustible. Pettitte had a personal Catcher in 1996, but after ‘the King’ left he was willing to work with either Girardi or Posada. So its clear that personal Catchers and Yankee championships aren’t mutually exclusive.
I support the move, since I never value a bat over my starting pitcher in the playoffs. It’s simple math for me, a position player can only affect his 5 ABs while the starter can affect 30+ ABs for the opposition. Anything that helps him do his job better is more valuable to me. While I have great respect for Sabermetricians, you don’t need to be one to understand that.
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7 Responses to A little perspective on 'Personal Catchers'
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TIQ IQ
two important differences:
1. Leyritz and Girardi weren’t the black hole of doom in the lineup that Molina is, and both came up with huge hits in that 96 series. Can you see Molina taking Mark Wohlers deep or tripling off Greg Maddux (or tripling off anyone, ever?)
2. In between the two debacles at Fenway, AJ had 12 starts where he pitched to a 2.59 ERA (and most of that was the stinker in Chicago). Of those 12, Posada started ten of them, Cervelli two. Posada has also started the two best games AJ pitched all year–the 15 inning game against Boston and his 8 innings of 1-hit shutout ball at Citi Field. The point is, Burnett can and has been shutdown dominant with Posada catching him, and I’m not convinced that the benefit of having Molina catching outweighs the drag on the offense
The main difference between the two when Burnett pitches for me is the comfort level that I have with Molina blovking the spike curve, you have faith almost no balls are getting away but with Posada in the back of your head you know he isn’t great at it. Now if that’s my thinking and I’m not throwing the ball maybe it makes Burnett less likely to trust the knuckle in the dirt with Jorge.
Those are interesting and suprising stats, Steve. I’m a little shocked at the WS breakdowns, because those 98/99 teams were basically Jorge’s, according to my memory. He caught almost twice as many games as JoeG during the regular season. I think those WS starts may be somewhat deceiving. Do you have the breakdowns for the playoffs, as a whole?
It’s not even 5 AB’s that are at stake it is most likely 3. Jorge will pinch hit in a big spot and takeover, and if Molina is getting 5 AB’s in the 7 innings AJ gives us then we are probably scoring runs and pitching well so it doesn’t matter. I think the media and the players have made this into a bigger deal than it is. Is Molina a good hitter? No, but you can survive with him in the 9-hole with this line-up.
I think the players (outside of Posada) have done there best to cool things off and make it a non issue, now Jorge did stir some fire by his retarded comment basically throwing Molina under the bus with his “I just hope we win that game” which is an obvious shot at not having his bat in the line up.
In a game this important, the last thing I want is for my pitcher worrying about the catcher blocking my pitches. Molina was the right call by Joe G. and I give him a high score for making the choice.
I think Girardi ended up asking Burnett so he could say he didn’t ask but would be able to choose his catcher with out having too… However it was done Ranger is right it was the right call.