Josh Thole ITBSOHL applesauce: Pitchers market thinning, Dayton Moore does something typical

by Stephen Schmidt on Dec 22, 2011 9:08 AM EST in Applesauce

I've always loved that slow news days in the winter inevitably bring about an ITBSOHL type article. The Mets managed to go a whole day yesterday without cutting another minor league team, making the minority ownership offer less appealing, or cutting costs via TRAID. Largely due to that we were treated to a piece form the post about Josh Thole: big time catcher. As much as I make fun of them, I actually do enjoy when articles give me some insight into what these guys are doing in the offseason.

As mentioned above, the Mets have decided to cut out the GCL Mets in a cost cutting maneuver for next season. Matt Cerrone did a little Q&A with Kevin Goldstein yesterday for those of you interested in reading it.

One of the popular names on the pitching TRAID front has been the White Sox John Danks. It appears he'll remain the White Sox property for a while as he and the club agreed to a 5 year, 65 million dollar extension yesterday. Scratch one lefty off of potential shoppers lists before xmas.

Gio Gonzalez is another hot commodity on the TRAID market at the moment. If Ken Rosenthal is to be believed the Nationals are willing to offer a boatload for the young lefty. This would be a good time to take a look at John Sickels rankings of the Nats it appears. If Gonzalez quickly joins Danks in the off the market club I could see interest in Jon Niese picking up considerably.

Carlos Beltran seems to be nearing a decision on a new home. Rob Neyer had piece over at Baseball Nation taking a look at several of his potential landing spots.

Dayton Moore has done it again. Yuniesky Betancourt is now a Royal again, and those of us dreaming of a Francoeur/Betancourt 1-2 punch in the lineup now have something to watch next season.

Ken Rosenthal lobby Jack Z to TRAID Felix. Seriously.

The Cincinnati Reds added another pitcher to their team, agreeing to a deal for Sean Marshall of the Cubs. I'm not sure I like what they are doing this offseason...they've got a pair of good pitchers now but they've given up an awful lot as well.

BtB took a graphical look at the Jason Kubel signing and tried to determine if it was a good move or not. It probably wasn't...

Finally I'll leave you with an interesting article from Baseball Prospectus about the success of the hit and run. This one is definitely worth the time it takes to read.

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Comments

The Post article mentions that Thole led the league in passed balls

I can’t help but wonder if a lot of that is related to catching a knuckleballer? The AL leader is Saltalamacchia, who catches the other knuckleballer.

Anybody know how to look at PBs as they relate to the pitcher?

by TheBigStapler on Dec 22, 2011 9:28 AM EST reply actions

he had a ton of PB decision while catching Pelfrey also and I think they were unfair.

The official scorer just got bored putting Wild Pitch up on the board inning after inning and changed it up.

Seriously though, Pelfrey is a cause of a lot of Thole passed balls.

__________________________________________________________________
Really good kid.A very good player.Not a superstar. #BlameWilponz. Never Forget

by ScottfromPeekskill on Dec 22, 2011 10:26 AM EST up reply actions

He had an issue catching high fastballs early in the season for whatever reason.

by graves9 on Dec 22, 2011 1:10 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Can't get over lol'ing at the Yuni signing

So far, I’ve got nothing in which to hate Dandy Sal about. Please keep it that way, gm!

The artful muppet formerly known as KrmtDfrog.
Please read my sardonic wit and over-blown sense of self over at headkicklegend.com

by Cory Braiterman on Dec 22, 2011 10:42 AM EST reply actions

So you're fine with Rauch at 3.5 mil?

That was a waste when they already have Acosta, Ramirez, Francisco and Parnell. Could have set that money aside to upgrade at catcher or towards another starter.

by David G on Dec 22, 2011 12:05 PM EST up reply actions

If that's your biggest gripe with Alderson you've pretty much made hi point for him

by Stephen Schmidt on Dec 22, 2011 12:39 PM EST up reply actions

his

by Stephen Schmidt on Dec 22, 2011 12:39 PM EST up reply actions

.

"Intelligence is not a genetic predisposition. Think stupid!!"

by Wright of passage on Dec 22, 2011 12:46 PM EST up reply actions

Incase you weren't paying attention

last season, its a $3.5MM well spent considering what the returns would’ve looked like if that’s what you expect to spend on “another starter”. Yes Erik Bedard signed for 1 Yr/$4.5MM with Pittsburgh and I sure as hell didn’t see him signing for such a low sum but that’s hindsight . If you’re implying we’ve got the money to throw at another starter on top of that I’d suggest you come to grips with the reality that Dillon Gee is likely a probable for the back of our rotation even with Santana’s anticipated return. Although we’ve tendered him a deal, Pelfrey has yet to sign on so the implications of any more money going into the rotation are probably nil beyond that. I have no qualms of how Sandy has strategically approached this off season whatsoever. Our bullpen was arguably the worst in the majors last year and this was priority number 1 as he stated before the madness ensued.

"Intelligence is not a genetic predisposition. Think stupid!!"

by Wright of passage on Dec 22, 2011 12:45 PM EST up reply actions

Well well well, there is another crappy catcher.

Mets Sign Rob Johnson

In lobby for: Jaime Cevallos, Zack Lutz, orange unis and Rickroll as the 7th inning song.
The Unwritten Rules of AA

by Michkin on Dec 22, 2011 12:47 PM EST up reply actions

Seriously considering changing my screen name to

“SpecialAccessToMrMet”

Although it seems a little . . . Yeah.

Also, shouldn’t we be reserving the term “TRAID” for “TRAIDS” instead of, you know, trades?

by tmu on Dec 22, 2011 12:42 PM EST reply actions

I'm a Rays fan, from DRB.

And we were talking about possible trades. I mentioned Wade Davis, Sam Fuld, and maybe Robinson Chirinos for Duda and Thole. What do you guys think of this? The guys at DRB says Thole sucks, but I haven’t heard anything bad about him.

I AM THE MONSTER - The big SCARY monsta

by sc_monsta1015 on Dec 22, 2011 1:07 PM EST reply actions

Personally, I'd much rather keep Duda and Thole.

I know Davis has the pedigree and scouting report of a big time prospect, but his pedestrian MLB numbers so far after almost 400 ML innings take a lot of shine off.

Don’t know much about Chirinos, but from his stat line, he’s looks like he could be a viable journeyman catcher, who’ll be 28 in 2012. I don’t know why we’d want that over a 25 year old Thole.

Fuld seems a fine fringy OF, but he’s 29 iirc. No dreaming on that.

Thole’s not great defensively (but I think better than the number of 2011 suggest), but as a converted 1b, there’s hope for improvement. The kid works hard and has a great approach at the plate and good strike zone judgement. Completant left-handed hitting catchers, which seems like a reasonable baseline to hope for Thole, aren’t easy to come by.

Duda, is a beast of a human being, and is the kind of kid that you have to root for. He can rake and could develop in a great three-true-outcome kind of hitter. Sure he’s bad in the field, but at least he’s something we can dream on.

At the end of the day, we’d be trading two young cheap position guys we can kinda dream on, for one young cheap pitcher than we can kinda dream on. Add in the sentimental value of the position guys being developed in-house (and the many Big Lebowski jokes), there’s no question I keep Duda and Thole.

by SoCal Metfan on Dec 22, 2011 1:26 PM EST up reply actions

Your avatar pic is great

ESPN, Mike Francesa, NY Post, NY Daily News, Fox Sports = Propaganda

by BlueChill on Dec 22, 2011 2:25 PM EST up reply actions

Wade Davis = ew.

Parker Markel, Alex Colome, or Chris Archer please.

Save Jenrry Mejia!
2012 Amazin' Avenue Offseason Plan: 2nd place

by Ogre39666 on Dec 22, 2011 4:19 PM EST up reply actions

Did you guys

see this

One day, this team is going to kill me.

by fxcarden on Dec 22, 2011 1:52 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

Sweet jeebus, I hope that's true.

The madness has to stop. I just fear that Selig might engineer the process so that someone worse might be brought in to buy the team. Can’t be worse, you think? Think Frank McCourt or Jeff Loria. Ugh. shudder

Pray for Einhorn to come back saying “I told you so.”

by SoCal Metfan on Dec 22, 2011 1:58 PM EST up reply actions