The Official Pudge Rodriguez Performance Thread

[Godzilllllla]

I agree.

It's Pudge's fault Mariano Rivera gave up a 3 run game-tying HR with Jose Molina catching him. It's also his fault Mo gave up the GW run against the Royals with Jose Molina catching him.

no, but it IS his fault he's hitting a robust .219 with a grand total of 1 RBI and a comical 1 walk since the trade. pretty awesome so far for a guy who was brought in specifically as an offensive upgrade.

[Yankee Fan in Boston]

He has stunk so far, his swing looks very week and he looks shot if you ask me, he still seems to have a gun for a arm though, the interesting question is who will be catching for the Yankees in 09.

Posada, with Molina as the backup.

[ajra21]

no doubt pudge has not been what we expected but molina couldn't have kept this up if he'd have played everyday. pudge is also catching the three starters of less quality so he's bound to have some tough games.

unless posada is just not able to catch (might be the case) i don't expect to see pudge back next year.

[yanksphan]

no, but it IS his fault he's hitting a robust .219 with a grand total of 1 RBI and a comical 1 walk since the trade. pretty awesome so far for a guy who was brought in specifically as an offensive upgrade.

He wasn't brought in as an offensive upgrade. He was brought in because we were faced with Molina being the full time starter. At the time, Molina was 5 games shy of his career high in games started. 33 isn't the age when you start stretching a catcher out...

That said - the stats you quote are indeed an offensive upgrade to a Molina/Moeller duo.

[ArodEra]

My 72 year old aunt would do better offensively than a .219 BA with 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1BB, .265 OBP, .344 SLG and a .609 OPS in 32 AB's. Especially during a crucial time of the season.

But, hey, Molina never started so many games in his career, so all is good.

[Godzilllllla]

He wasn't brought in as an offensive upgrade. He was brought in because we were faced with Molina being the full time starter. At the time, Molina was 5 games shy of his career high in games started. 33 isn't the age when you start stretching a catcher out...

That said - the stats you quote are indeed an offensive upgrade to a Molina/Moeller duo.

wrong, he WAS brought in as an offensive upgrade wtf are you talking about? do i seriously need to pull quotes from cashman? if they had wanted to just give Molina a break they would have tried to get Lo Duca or Laird or someone. they got Pudge to potentially be the full time catcher and be an offensive upgrade over Molina. and actually, you're wrong again, the stats i quoted have amazingly enough been a DOWNGRADE over Molina's stats in the same period of time.

[YESSIR!]

Is it purely coincidence that the trade for Pudge basically coincided with a ghastly plummet in the Yankees winning percentage?

[R.V.47]

Is it purely coincidence that the trade for Pudge basically coincided with a ghastly plummet in the Yankees winning percentage?

No I think the Joba injury will be the day looked back on as the day things went down the tubes for the 08 yankees.

[THEBOSS84]

No I think the Joba injury will be the day looked back on as the day things went down the tubes for the 08 yankees.

I was just about to post the same thing.

[MTYankee23]

Is it purely coincidence that the trade for Pudge basically coincided with a ghastly plummet in the Yankees winning percentage?

I'd say it had more to do with being acquired right before a 10 game road trip where we lost our ace in game 1, and which in turn seemed to set off a series of Joe G. panic moves.

[yanksphan]

wrong, he WAS brought in as an offensive upgrade wtf are you talking about? do i seriously need to pull quotes from cashman? if they had wanted to just give Molina a break they would have tried to get Lo Duca or Laird or someone. they got Pudge to potentially be the full time catcher and be an offensive upgrade over Molina. and actually, you're wrong again, the stats i quoted have amazingly enough been a DOWNGRADE over Molina's stats in the same period of time.

Easy tiger - didn't realize I had to spell this out step by step for you.

He becomes an offensive upgrade by default. Molina's numbers in small doses are fine - but play him everyday, and those numbers go down. He's not used to playing day after day and still keeping modest production. Again - he was 5 games shy of his career high with 82 games to go, and you're saying the Yankees didn't see that as a concern? They were just looking for a better bat? Please...

Don't threaten me with quotes from Cashman that don't exist. Here's Cashman's quote from after the trade:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

"He's still an everyday guy and he's a significant upgrade, in all due respect, to everything we've got," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "How it works out remains to be seen, but he's having a good year. We're excited to have the opportunity to believe that we've addressed an important area of need."

and

"You've got an everyday catcher who is still doing extremely well," Cashman said.

In both quotes he addresses the need for an everyday catcher first, and the offensive upgrade as secondary. If you've got quotes that say otherwise, bring em - I'd love to see them. Common baseball-sense tells me that you look for defensive capabilities in your catcher and offensive secondary. Otherwise the Red Sox would have let Varitek catch Wakefield, no?

If you're going to consider this a "DOWNGRADE" - you're splitting hairs:

Molina (since Pudge has been around) .233/.258/.400 (10 games)
Pudge (since joining Yankees) .219/.265/.344 (12 games)

Molina with a higher avg - Pudge gets on base more, neither of them slugging much...like I said, splitting hairs.

[ajra21]

No I think the Joba injury will be the day looked back on as the day things went down the tubes for the 08 yankees.

that coupled with wang's injury.

[jimmykey2]

wrong, he WAS brought in as an offensive upgrade wtf are you talking about? do i seriously need to pull quotes from cashman? if they had wanted to just give Molina a break they would have tried to get Lo Duca or Laird or someone. they got Pudge to potentially be the full time catcher and be an offensive upgrade over Molina. and actually, you're wrong again, the stats i quoted have amazingly enough been a DOWNGRADE over Molina's stats in the same period of time.

Molina wasn't giving any offense (as is Pudge now), so you're making the assumption that the pitching would be better if Molina was the full-time catcher?

If so, what is that based on? Please don't say caught stealings. The same people in the 'pen have stunk regardless of who's catching them. Mo has blown games with both catchers. Pettitte has had an awful start with each catcher. Each catcher is a caddy for the 2 best starters since the trade, Molina for Moose (2.33 ERA) and Pudge for Ponson (2.99 ERA).

[Godzilllllla]

Molina wasn't giving any offense (as is Pudge now), so you're making the assumption that the pitching would be better if Molina was the full-time catcher?

If so, what is that based on? Please don't say caught stealings. The same people in the 'pen have stunk regardless of who's catching them. Mo has blown games with both catchers. Pettitte has had an awful start with each catcher. Each catcher is a caddy for the 2 best starters since the trade, Molina for Moose (2.33 ERA) and Pudge for Ponson (2.99 ERA).

i never mentioned anything involving our pitchers performance with Pudge catching as opposed to Molina. i only was talking about offense. he was supposed to bring us more punch from the catcher position, and amazingly he has been even less effective than Molina. that is all i said.

[mrmike98]

Missing Posada's offense has really hurt. Having said that, the catching duo flies under the radar compared to some of the noted offensive busts sustained this season.

Meanwhile I for one have not given up.

[Messerwhitescooter]

Meanwhile I for one have not given up.

I would love to see Pudge bust loose and go on a hot streak.

[R.V.47]

Missing Posada's offense has really hurt. Having said that, the catching duo flies under the radar compared to some of the noted offensive busts sustained this season.

Meanwhile I for one have not given up.

Not having a healthy Posada will definitly be looked back on as a critical loss. The fact that he still leads all catchers on the team in homers with 3 (I know Pudge has 6 but only 1 with NYY) basically shows why.

[effdamets]

Not having a healthy Posada will definitly be looked back on as a critical loss. The fact that he still leads all catchers on the team in homers with 3 (I know Pudge has 6 but only 1 with NYY) basically shows why.

I agree.

Overall - I think the Yankees rely too heavily on the HR and when they don't hit 'em, they rarely win.

[ppa79]

Not having a healthy Posada will definitly be looked back on as a critical loss. The fact that he still leads all catchers on the team in homers with 3 (I know Pudge has 6 but only 1 with NYY) basically shows why.

WOW, thats sad.

[TheBamTino24]

Not having a healthy Posada will definitly be looked back on as a critical loss. The fact that he still leads all catchers on the team in homers with 3 (I know Pudge has 6 but only 1 with NYY) basically shows why.

I'm not really worried about HR. What you post is interesting in a quirky way, IMHO. It's hard to believe that Posada still leads NYY catchers in HR. Anyway, I didn't think we'd get another season like 2007 (.338/.426/.543) from Posada. That was his career year. But his career average (.277/.380/.477) is excellent and would've been more than good for the 2008 Yankees, even though it technically represented a big dropoff.

Offensively Pudge (.219/.265/.344 in 32 AB) has not been a great upgrade over Molina (.227/.276/.316 in 225 AB) &/or Moeller (.227/.310/.333 in 75 AB). Funny that he has the worst OBP of the 3.

Look at Posada's production compared to that trio. Wow. Certainly a huge loss in production that has to account for a large part of the lack of production this season. It's hard to replace that when it comes from the catcher position. You're not going to find a replacement catcher who produces like that, so you'd basically need a multiple regulars to pick up.

He needs to heat up if we're going to make a run:

DET: .295/.338/.417
NYY: .219/.265/.344

[Messerwhitescooter]

DET: .295/.338/.417
NYY: .219/.265/.344

Wow quite a drop off. he should talk to nady about how not to press

[sabermet prospectus]

You know I was thinking about it and pudge has to be one of the more overated players in history. I mean his offense was all about playing in texas, valuing high batting average over high obp and possibly taking PEDS. I mean strictly offensively posada is easily a better player then pudge.

And his defense, well thats overated too because the most important thing a catcher has to do is work with the pitchers and every pitcher hates this guy. Ok he is great at blocking the plate and he has a gun for an arm but then I started thinking even his percentage of throwing out runners is overated because this guy only called fastballs when guys were on base. He never had to deal with breaking pitches.

So I mean when you think about it this guy gets talked about as the greatest catcher ever and Im sorry but if every pitcher youve worked with hates you, you are not the greatest catcher ever. No way is this guy above guys like bench or berra.

[ArodEra]

Just for ha-has.

Chad Moeller, offensively. 75 AB, .227 BA, 1 HR. 8 RBI, 6BB, .310 OBP, .643 OPS.

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez: 35 AB, .229 BA, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, .270 OBP. .613 OPS.

[yanksphan]

Just for ha-has.

Chad Moeller, offensively. 75 AB, .227 BA, 1 HR. 8 RBI, 6BB, .310 OBP, .643 OPS.

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez: 35 AB, .229 BA, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, .270 OBP. .613 OPS.

Ha ha, you used 3 times the sample size to compare one player to another.

Ha ha

Ha ha ha

ha

[ajra21]

Ha ha, you used 3 times the sample size to compare one player to another.

Ha ha

Ha ha ha

ha

i am laughing too.