Casali vs Barnhart

[RedTeamGo!]

Nobody, outside of pitchers, hitting one-something with over 150 ABs should be in a major league lineup, much less starting.

Exactly. This should be pretty much the simplest conclusion in baseball and yet it is somehow not for some people.

[KronoRed]

Can he pitch?

[Mitri]

Wish I could pull up the post where I said Tucker's contract could become a mini albatross and people laughed.

Unfortunately in the same thread I said he Trammell for Realmuto was a no-go, which looks wrong in hindsight. How good would JTR look on this team?

[Kinsm]

Barnhart is owed 7.5M$ combined over the next 2 years, that's not albatross or even mini albatross, the guy had 5.1 career bWAR entering the year - no reason to believe he'll never be good again.

[757690]

Barnhart is owed 7.5M$ combined over the next 2 years, that's not albatross or even mini albatross, the guy had 5.1 career bWAR entering the year - no reason to believe he'll never be good again.

About to post the same thing.

I can guarantee that if Tucker was placed on waivers today, he would be snatched up with his full contract, in a heartbeat. This is not even about how good Tucker is, it's about how shallow the talent pool at catcher is in the majors (8 teams right now at least could use Tucker) and how affordable his contract is, no matter how bad he is.

[Mitri]

It's money I'd rather see spent on virtually anything else. I agree that maybe *1* team would snatch him for nothing and use him as an expensive backup. So I guess mini-albatross is a strong term.

Bottom line is Tucker had no value in the winter, and there are some who really argued that he did.

[757690]

Now that Tucker is injured and Casali is getting nearly all the playing time, it seems everyone got their wish.

And it's turned out to be rather disappointing so far.

Casali has turned into Tucker at the plate, his OPS down to .711 and since Bell announced that Casali would be getting more playing time, Casali's slash line is .119/.275/.190/.465

His catcher ERA has risen to nearly the same as Tuckers, 3.40-3.87, and his caught stealing percentage is now the same as Tucker's, 21%.

And he's been less than stellar behind the plate, as is obvious to anyone watching the games.

And one more thing, Baseball Prospectus has their own system for rating a catcher's defense, and they have Tucker ranked 5th in the majors. Just one more piece of evidence that Tucker is an above average fielder at catcher.

https://legacy.baseballprospectus.co...hp?cid=2802984

[kaldaniels]

For the record my wish isn’t that Casali is the main catcher.

It’s that the Reds realize Tucker isn’t desirable as a primary catcher and a suitable upgrade is found.

Just wanted to make that clear and I imagine many are like me.

[OGB]

For the record my wish isn’t that Casali is the main catcher.

It’s that the Reds realize Tucker isn’t desirable as a primary catcher and a suitable upgrade is found.

Just wanted to make that clear and I imagine many are like me.

I'll add that all I wanted them to do apart from getting a new catcher was stop running him out there 80% of the time.
It's like saying "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas."
Casali's bat is ice cold right now, but at least they've tried playing him more instead of giving Tucker unlimited opportunities to fail.

[757690]

For the record my wish isn’t that Casali is the main catcher.

It’s that the Reds realize Tucker isn’t desirable as a primary catcher and a suitable upgrade is found.

Just wanted to make that clear and I imagine many are like me.

Read the thread. That was not the prevailing view. The title itself suggests a choice between Tucker and Casali. Many here wanted Casali as the primary catcher.

So if you want neither Tucker nor Casali, who do you want? How do the Reds upgrade?

It’s one thing to say I don’t like what the Reds have, but until you provide a replacement that the Reds can afford to get, it doesn’t matter if you like them or not.

[kaldaniels]

Read the thread. That was not the prevailing view. The title itself suggests a choice between Tucker and Casali. Many here wanted Casali as the primary catcher.

So if you want neither Tucker nor Casali, who do you want? How do the Reds upgrade?

It’s one thing to say I don’t like what the Reds have, but until you provide a replacement that the Reds can afford to get, it doesn’t matter if you like them or not.

Someone brought up Wilson Ramos as a primary trade target. Brilliant.

I don’t know the numbers as to what posters wanted what. But I do know you implied/directly stated it was everyone’s wish that Casali replace Barnhart. I just wanted to correct the record that I wasn’t in that “everyone” group. I don’t trust Casali or Farmer going forward but I want the organizations loyalty to Barnhart to end.

[757690]

Someone brought up Wilson Ramos as a primary trade target. Brilliant.
.

Thanks for the name.

Ramos has a 0.3 fWAR. He’s ranked 89 defensively by both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus. According to a post here in a different thread, the reason why the Mets are looking to trade him is because DeGroom and Thor don’t want to pitch to him anymore. And he’s guaranteed over $15M over this year and next.

[reds44]

Thanks for the name.

Ramos has a 0.3 fWAR. He’s ranked 89 defensively by both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus. According to a post here in a different thread, the reason why the Mets are looking to trade him is because DeGroom and Thor don’t want to pitch to him anymore. And he’s guaranteed over $15M over this year and next.

Something something defense something something Billy Hamilton.

Also his contract is a positive not a negative.

[Dbrown1291]

About to post the same thing.

I can guarantee that if Tucker was placed on waivers today, he would be snatched up with his full contract, in a heartbeat. This is not even about how good Tucker is, it's about how shallow the talent pool at catcher is in the majors (8 teams right now at least could use Tucker) and how affordable his contract is, no matter how bad he is.

Kind of wish they would go ahead and dump him off to somebody else because Barnhart average just isn't going to be doing it and it's only going to get worse from here

[Bourgeois Zee]

Stephen Vogt might be a name to keep an eye on.

He's old (35) and plays for the G-Men, so you know he's available. And he wouldn't cost much.

He's got a 2019 line of .268/ .347/ .500/ .847 against righties. He's bad defensively, though the bat would seem to negate much of that. Too, Vogt's been a (very) patient guy across his career, posting solid BB rates. He could see a bump playing in the humidity of the GABP as well.

Others include:

Tom Murphy, Seattle
My favorite target right now. He's still relatively young and has blossomed given consistent playing time. He's stuck in a time-share with Narvaez, who's hitting better (though Murphy's bat is quite good as well.). Seattle will deal, but the cost may be relatively high. Took a massive jump defensively last season and has kept it up this year.

Francisco Mejia, Padres
I know I'll get some grief for this, but I love targeting post-hype prospects who've not been given enough ABs. Mejia is a prime example. He's destroying the PCL league and is going to be a very good offensive player. He was actually solid behind the plate in his short stay there too. In a smaller park, he'll hit a bunch of dingers. Probably could be had relatively cheaply (for talent level), as the Pads like their catchers. (And they're young.) Worth the gamble.