Atlanta Braves : Official Info : Press Release
Todd Pratt is 38, but we were short an old guy. He’s a better backup catcher than Eddie Perez was. I would prefer that the Braves platoon him and McCann, but more likely he’ll be assigned to catch one pitcher as the Braves normally do.
I hope this makes JC feel better about dealing away Estrada. I sure do.
Can you explain why you’d like a platoon? I can’t see a scenario where I’d want McCann platooning with Todd Pratt. Give him the playing time.
Of course, that may be too much too young…maybe that’s what you were referring to.
I’ve always liked Pratt, and he’s the perfect backup for a young lefty catcher.
He’ll give you a homer every 12-15 ABs and take a walk if it’s there. Not a great arm, but smart defensively. And he’s perfectly happy being a backup.
As long as Pratt keeps Eddie Perez off the roster, I’m fine with this. He’s a good choice for a backup.
Pratt has an enormous platoon split. Against lefties, he’s hit (career) .293/.393/.504. Against righties, it’s .239/.332/.362. Last season, it was even more dramatic — .300/.404/.700 versus .237/.309/.304. He’d certainly outhit McCann against lefthanded pitching, and since you need to rest McCann anyway… But they won’t do it.
I like this move. Any word on the price tag?
I think a platoon is a great idea – McCann only needs 120 starts max.
All right, there is a huge sample size problem here, but look at McCann’s numbers:
vs. right: .264/.335/.361
vs. left: .333/.385/.556
The OPS difference is almost 300 points. And yes, the sample sizes are very small. I do realize that. But…
How many ABs did McCann get against lefties last year?
Just checked myself. That was in 36 ABs against lefties.
More interesting number:
McCann, K/BB vs LHP: 10/2
McCann, K/BB vs RHP: 16/16
I say platoon him!
Hey, I SAID the sample size was small 😉 Guess it’s small enough to be attributed to random chance? I forgot all my AP Statistics last year afte I took the final.
I forgot all my statistics and I’m taking a research methods course right now. So there. But 36 isn’t a sufficient sample size, no.
Mickey Lichtman has studied the platoon advantage pretty thoroughly. He has concluded that RHB as a group hit 1.08 times better against LHP than against RHP and doesn’t believe in ANY platoon advantage for a particular RHB beyond the group. Interesting conclusion, whether you believe it or not.
For LHB, the advantage is larger, and he was not able to conclude that individual platoon advantages differ between hitters.
So it’s possible that McCann has a big platoon advantage, a small one, or even a reverse platoon advantage, but:
a) it’s impossible to tell without lots more data – multiple full seasons’ worth
b) our “best guess” based on this much mlb data is that he’ll hit righties about 1.15 times better than lefties (i.e. we regress his platoon advantage all the way to the population mean because sample size is so small)
c) It’s likely that Pratt’s “true” platoon advantage isn’t as big as it looks historically, which means we shouldn’t worry so much about him not getting a strictly lefty diet
All that said, I still think platooning is a good idea, but like Mac I doubt it will happen. It hasn’t in the past 10 years to my recollection.
Hey, I have an unrelated catcher question for people. Does anyone remember if there were problems between Javy and Leo when they were here? Maybe about pitch-calling? I thought I remembered that Leo didn’t like how Javy called a game, but it might have been that Javy didn’t like Leo telling him what pitches to call or something? This was brought up in a Sheehan chat on BP when he was asked about Ramon Hernandez. He didn’t explain what he meant, just said “Lopez and Mazzone aren’t a viable combination and Lopez will be dealt” and Orioles fans are now asking about it. I want to give them an answer.
btw is the godawful espn page still the only place to pick up splits? I remember Langerhans having a reverse platoon effect too, through a small number of ABs. I don’t mind avoiding a straight platoon, but if you are going to share significant time between two players, you would like to do so where the involved players have the best chance to succeed. Platoons have a bad moniker these days. Not something people want hanging around their necks, when the contract discussion time comes up.
I was trying to find McCann’s minor league splits and wasn’t having any luck and then my browser froze. Those would be good if anyone can locate them.
Re:Catcher question
Random rubbish like that keeps popping up. Javy did have some problems ( nothing big I THINK ), but noone knows what they are, since it was in the Braves clubhouse, and noone ever gets to know what happens there.
The biggest rumour was that he and Maddux didn’t get along. Maddux said that he preferred a personal catcher, so he could discuss the game with him even on the days he didn’t pitch..
Interesting thing is we suddenly are hit with a host of rumours about Leo not getting along with this guy, and not getting along with that guy. Wait till you hear the rumours about how Marte had attitude problems with Bobby Cox 🙂
In the article I read the other day Cox had nothing but praises for Marte. He did state that Marte was blocked in our organization by someone named Chipper, that’s the only reason why they had to make that trade.
Yahoo stats is my favorite place for quick splits.
I tried that, I didn’t see any minor league splits. McCann had no data before 2005.
What was the point of the last para in this “article”?
And theres something disgusting about noting the Braves as a “division” of a corportation. I mean ok, yeah techincally they are but thats not how you talk about a team. Also why do you mention that in a blurb about Todd Pratt? fokkering MLB.com
“The Atlanta Braves, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is Major League Baseball’s winningest franchise since 1991. Since then, Braves teams have earned a record 14 consecutive division championships, five National League pennants and a World Series title. Based in Atlanta since 1966, the Braves franchise is the longest continuously operating franchise in Major League Baseball. Atlanta Braves games are telecast nationally on TBS and regionally on Turner South; the Braves can be heard locally on 640 GST and 96 Rock in Atlanta and regionally on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.”
I don’t know of anywhere you can get minor league splits. Baseball America just added G/F ratio for pitchers. Maybe milb.com has it.
Baseball America had a pretty good stat page, but nothing si on there now. Surfing the minorleaguebaseball page is pretty hard too..found nothing there.
Be on alert for Jose Vizcaino. He is one of those guys you know Bobby likes, and would want to put in a Julio role. Jose can play all over the field, but I am not sure this would be a wise pick up.
NMS — The “article” is a press release. In just about every press release I have ever seen, the last paragraph is a corporate blurb like this.
Minor league splits exist but I think you have to pay for them.
Something I just figured out.
Since the 1990 season, the Braves farm system has produced 14 players by my count who have played in at least one All Star game. here’s my list:
Steve Avery, Chipper, David Justice, Javy Lopez, Klesko, Andruw, Millwood, Jason Schmidt, Raffy Furcal, Marcus Giles, Mark Wohlers, Jermaine Dye, Vinny Castilla, and Odalis Perez
On average, we’ve developed roughly one future All Star every season of Schuerholtz’s tenure. That’s amazing.
To put that number in perspective, I used the Lahman database to get a rough idea of the number of different players to appear in an All Star game who debuted in the 1990 season or later. There are roughly 230 people to do so. Meaning given expansion over the 1990s, that works out to roughly 8 players for any non-expansion team. We’ve developed almost twice as many as that.
So I pay $40 a year for BP and don’t get minor league splits? Nice. I also shell out for Insider and may need to bump up to Plus membership for $20 on another board so I can get past the 500-free post limit (thank you for not making us pay to use this site, Mac, I’d be broke by now!). So paying for McCann’s LHP splits, I think, is not happening.
How do you classify someone as a player from the Braves’ system? Drafted, developed?
For instance, Estrada spent a year at AAA Richmond, where he had an explosion in his hitting stats. Does he count as one from our system? 🙂
Something I just realised. Have been listening to bob dylan all day! no wonder I am feeling so blue 🙁
Estrada doesn’t count. My list only included players who were drafted by us or signed as international free agents.
I like the Braves moves. I was all for the Estrada move. Estrada runs like an old lady. Pratt was a good pickup but the guy I wanted them to get was Doug Marribelli. The Red Sox traded him to the Brewers for Loretta. I think Marribelli would have come at a high cost. But I am satisfied with Pratt.
Speaking of Javy and Leo, I read an article somewhere within the last two days about how the Orioles were thinking about moving Javy to first, but after they got Leo they changed their minds and decided to let him catch 100+ games because Leo would call the pitches through the pitcher like he did in Atlanta. I didn’t think pitches were called from the dugout in Atlanta. Have I missed something?
Godot said, “Wait till you hear the rumours about how Marte had attitude problems with Bobby Cox.”
For those in the know, we know that this is a real reason players get traded away from our team. It’s a big factor in why Cappellan was traded. It’s never the only factor, but certainly a consideration.
I am proud to support a team who doesn’t air their dirty laundry in public yet tends to get rid of jerks.
Whoa! That’s a cool blockquote trick.
I doubt it’s some after-the-fact leak, so much as it’s a case of the beat writers knowing all the time that player X isn’t melding well for some reason or another, but them respecting/fearing Cox enough not to talk about it until that player leaves.
“NMS — The “article” is a press release. ”
D’oh!
I just saw the “this story not subj to the approval of …ect” line at the bottom and assumed it was something from one the mlb.com “beatwriters”
my fault
that site still sucks tho
0f course now that i actually read what macs link says up there it says PRESS RELEASE
God im stupid enough to work for mtv