Machete

[Angel Oracle]

As great as that Bandy for Machete trade proved to be for the Halos, there is still talk periodically on here about Machete sometimes struggling with pitch framing this season?

If that is really true, wouldn’t that be partly because of his lack of experience working with this season’s starting pitching.   None of these starters pitched more than a few games for the Halos in 2017.

Isn’t successful pitch framing partly through knowing your pitchers well enough?

Now that he’s been working with them for two months, I have noticed a decrease in the pitch framing critiques on here.

It’s been a while since they’ve had a catcher as good as Machete.  And no, Mathis wasn’t as good (although also not as bad as made out to be, throws to 1B after runner takes off notwithstanding).

[UndertheHalo]

I think pitch framing is the much bullshit thing to worry about.  There’s absolutely no way for a catcher to truly know what will work and what won’t.  The strike zone is so incredibly subjective.  Just worry getting your pitcher through the game.  Worry about catching the ball and throwing runners out.  And be smart about the game.  Awareness in other words. 

Maldanado is great catcher.  None better defensively.  I think he does a fine job with the pitchers.  Even the bat is fine for a catcher.   My only concern with him is that he’s a bit older.  So his game may start deteriorating.  

Edited May 30, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[Angel Oracle]

He is around 30, but hasn’t been playing MLB that long.

Keep him to 110-120 games a season, and he can be good for several more years.

He is an exception, but Boonie was still a solid catcher here in his mid to late 30s.

[jordan]

6 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

As great as that Bandy for Machete trade proved to be for the Halos, there is still talk periodically on here about Machete sometimes struggling with pitch framing this season?

If that is really true, wouldn’t that be partly because of his lack of experience working with this season’s starting pitching.   None of these starters pitched more than a few games for the Halos in 2017.

Isn’t successful pitch framing partly through knowing your pitchers well enough?

Well I would say he hadn't worked with last year's pitchers as well since last year was his first with the Angels.  But also, I would think the type of pitcher he is catching also plays into his ability to frame pitchers, lots of splits and hard sliders are tough to frame. 

One thing cannot be mistaken, and that is his cannon of an arm.  That throw last night from his knees, was Pudge'esque. 

[Jason]

I opened the thread and was immediately disappointed

[Angel Oracle]

Just now, Jason said:

I opened the thread and was immediately disappointed

But I bet you were hungry for a Snickers bar.

[Inside Pitch]

12 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

As great as that Bandy for Machete trade proved to be for the Halos, there is still talk periodically on here about Machete sometimes struggling with pitch framing this season?

If that is really true, wouldn’t that be partly because of his lack of experience working with this season’s starting pitching.   None of these starters pitched more than a few games for the Halos in 2017.

Isn’t successful pitch framing partly through knowing your pitchers well enough?

Now that he’s been working with them for two months, I have noticed a decrease in the pitch framing critiques on here.

It’s been a while since they’ve had a catcher as good as Machete.  And no, Mathis wasn’t as good (although also not as bad as made out to be, throws to 1B after runner takes off notwithstanding).

He's definitely been moving a bit too much back there. 

Other than Richards who's movement even Richards has no idea where it will end up and maybe  Ohtani who was still learning how to tinker with MLB baseballs early on, the Angels staff doesn't have a lot of guys with the sort of movement a catcher would really struggle with.   Pitch framing like other defensive components tends to need the largest possible sample size to really tell us anything.   So, while his framing has been off where he's been in the past it's early enough that it may just be noise and could still even out.

[Inside Pitch]

13 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

I think pitch framing is the much bullshit thing to worry about.  There’s absolutely no way for a catcher to truly know what will work and what won’t.  The strike zone is so incredibly subjective.  Just worry getting your pitcher through the game.  Worry about catching the ball and throwing runners out.  And be smart about the game.  Awareness in other words. 

Maldanado is great catcher.  None better defensively.  I think he does a fine job with the pitchers.  Even the bat is fine for a catcher.   My only concern with him is that he’s a bit older.  So his game may start deteriorating.  

Pitch framing tends to use pitchF/x data so while it's still subject to poor umpiring the zone it's being measured against is pretty static.   He's been a bit jittery back there, but the numbers probably paint him as having been worse than he really has because of the sample size.   

Basically, you're right to not really worry about it.

[Angel Oracle]

If anything, we can turn this into a Machete appreciation thread.

(Knock on wood.)

[fan_since79]

Can we just freeze the calendar and prolong the month of May for a few more weeks?

Maldonado in April:

19 games, 7-for-59, .119/.235/.136

Maldonado in May:

19 games, 22-for-64, .344/.368/.531

 

[Lou]

[T.G.]

I have enjoyed watching Maldonado do his thing.  I have no idea what makes a catcher a good pitch framer or how they call a game, but I do love the way he guns down would--be-stealers.  It's one of the things I love seeing the most in a game - a great catcher gunning down runners.