2009 Catching Position

We always hear from managers that baseball is a team game. I am not completely convinced, I would more likely describe it as a game of individual performances combined. Maybe it's the same, maybe not. I crunched some numbers recently on how the royals performed at each position in 2009 compared to the other teams in the AL. I imagine, or at least hope that Dayton and his people have done this kind of analysis already but I think it will provide us some interesting information. At the very least it should show us which positions the Royals struggled at and where they need to improve.

Most people who followed the Royals pretty close in 2009, probably have a good idea of where we rank at each position, but a few were a surprise to me. I hope you learn something from this information.

So let's start with the catching position. Since that has been a really big focus this offseason for Dayton and some moves have already been made, it should be interesting.

The Royals had 3 players catch for them last year.

Name	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO
Brayan Pena	30	0.330	0.360	0.532	0.892	4	11	11	5	6
John Buck	46	0.288	0.329	0.569	0.898	8	16	33	9	41
Miguel Olivo	103	0.244	0.286	0.466	0.753	19	43	55	16	121

Now, as a group, lets see how they compare to the rest of the AL. The below chart is sorted by sOPS+, which essentially is how they compared to the rest of the teams catching position. 100 = league average over 100 is better than league average. I also formatted the chart as a heat chart, which if you ever look at this blog, you know I love. Red = best, Green = worst.

Team	Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	sOPS+	HR
Twins	as C	.340	.415	.516	.931	160	23
Royals	as C	.270	.310	.504	.814	124	31
Yankees	as C	.269	.330	.438	.767	113	22
Orioles	as C	.270	.343	.406	.750	109	14
Red Sox	as C	.239	.333	.417	.750	109	20
Athletics	as C	.267	.308	.435	.744	106	22
White Sox	as C	.284	.325	.417	.742	106	17
Angels	as C	.239	.317	.408	.725	102	22
Indians	as C	.225	.330	.365	.695	95	15
Rangers	as C	.234	.286	.379	.665	85	17
Mariners	as C	.224	.282	.354	.636	77	13
Blue Jays	as C	.230	.259	.374	.633	75	20
Rays	as C	.233	.276	.349	.624	74	13
Tigers	as C	.215	.295	.327	.622	74	9

This one shocked me. Utilizing the OPS+ statistic, the Royals had the second best catching core in the American League. As a group they had a relatively low OBP, which was anchored by Miguel Olivo walking only 16 times in 103 games. But the OPS is buoyed by the high SLG which came primarily from Buck and Pena. Olivo had the most homeruns in the group, but only because he played in more games. The Royals catchers also lead the AL in homeruns, I would have bet good money that we did not lead any position in homeruns.

Dayton Moore let Miguel Olivo walk in the offseason. Which according to the numbers was the right move.

The Royals just inked a deal with Jason Kendall, who did the following last year.

Name	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO
Jason Kendall	134	0.241	0.331	0.305	0.636	2	48	43	46	58

Now, so far I've been completely neglecting all other aspects of the catching position. That is primarily because personally, I have no idea how to possibly compare the three catchers in that respect. I could post pass ball numbers, but that is only skin deep. I don't know how well one would handle the pitchers over the other, which admittedly is a big part of the catching position however, I do think I can say one thing about this: neither does Dayton. Well at least in regards to signing a free agent.

I am sure that some catchers have a better ability to handle a pitching staff and a better ability to call a game from behind the plate, but I highly doubt that Dayton Moore or anyone outside of Kendalls own teamates and coaches know how well he can handle a pitching staff. It is also quite possible that he would be good with one staff and poor with another. I think it is the wildcard of all the attributes of a catcher and I won't put any emphasis on that at all in this post.

So going purely on the offensive output of the players in the last season, Kendall makes little sense. Buck outperformed Kendall in nearly every statistical category, plus he knows the pitching staff pretty well which I would imagine would give him a leg up.

I know what you are saying..."you cherry picked only one season of kendall and Buck". That is probably very true, you can look them both up on the internet if you like but let me just sum it up like this.

1. Kendalls 2009 was very similar to his 2008 and he is 35
2. Bucks 2009 was the best year of his career and he is 28

Frankly, I think we could sum up the choice of Buck vs Kendall with those two points alone. Again, this is entirely offensively focused. Kendall could be 10x the defensive catcher and 10x the game caller and it would change things somewhat. All we have is some anecdotal evidence to look at anyway. But regardless we are talking about the BACKUP catcher anyway.

Yep, backup. The Royals 2010 season isn't a contending year unless they get extremely lucky and everybody steps up big time (hint: it ain't happening), so it is (another) rebuilding year. Or at least a year to move forward. The Royals should be finding out what we have in our young players to see if they can be middle or long term answers at the position, and especially at the catching position.

Pena is no spring chicken being 27, but he has never had a chance to prove himself at the major league level. He got 64 games last year and frankly proved he can be a decent hitter.

We all know that the Royals had a woeful offense last year and the catching position was one of the few bright spots. Yet he is making nearly wholesale changes to it, and is spending loads of money on an aging veteran who likely won't improve at all. It reminds me exactly of what he did with the bullpen last year. He took one of the teams few strengths, let go of the contributors and signed overpriced old guys. It didn't work with the pen last year and I don't see it working with the catching this year. Fortunately, the offense expected out of the catching position is minor so this isn't quite as big a deal as the bullpen fiasco of last offseason.

This is supposed to be a position in review post, but with the Kendall signing I felt I had to make a comment on that.

Royals Garden Gnome

You know you want this:

2009 Dominican Summer League Team Batting Heat Chart

Below is the final installment of the hitting heat charts. This is the Dominican Summer League. The DSL Royals are highlighted. Green = worst in category and Red = best.

Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG	OPS
DSL White Sox	70	2401	442	672	111	44	30	351	961	307	469	71	58	0.375	0.4	0.28	0.775
DSL Yankees1	68	2371	412	645	118	34	30	318	921	297	589	91	33	0.361	0.388	0.272	0.749
DSL Yankees2	70	2370	441	636	112	37	38	363	936	292	506	81	37	0.36	0.395	0.268	0.755
DSL Mets	72	2502	460	662	112	27	28	369	912	345	579	193	69	0.37	0.365	0.265	0.734
DSL Rays	67	2227	422	588	99	22	19	313	788	307	482	128	59	0.37	0.354	0.264	0.724
DSL Rangers2	62	2046	341	533	95	18	16	254	712	271	368	112	46	0.361	0.348	0.261	0.709
DSL Blue Jays	69	2331	374	602	112	29	11	291	805	299	502	113	55	0.355	0.345	0.258	0.7
DSL Pirates	67	2307	336	582	115	32	20	261	821	184	442	109	55	0.32	0.356	0.252	0.676
DSL Cubs1	70	2294	357	578	89	30	28	277	811	282	510	133	48	0.343	0.354	0.252	0.697
DSL Indians	71	2403	348	604	112	19	12	283	790	256	546	102	50	0.339	0.329	0.251	0.667
DSL Cardinals	73	2376	392	595	118	36	21	307	848	300	538	143	53	0.346	0.357	0.25	0.703
DSL Braves	63	2173	325	544	96	25	13	261	729	221	429	61	31	0.335	0.335	0.25	0.671
DSL Rockies	71	2325	316	576	79	16	13	243	726	257	465	138	78	0.336	0.312	0.248	0.648
DSL Giants	71	2349	404	579	78	22	16	309	749	347	480	103	48	0.361	0.319	0.246	0.68
DSL Dodgers	70	2361	336	575	95	17	26	260	782	283	506	68	40	0.341	0.331	0.244	0.672
DSL Tigers	69	2189	370	532	80	16	33	290	743	293	460	87	34	0.347	0.339	0.243	0.687
DSL Phillies	71	2235	312	539	103	23	10	242	718	270	472	96	78	0.342	0.321	0.241	0.664
DSL Twins	69	2253	343	542	90	13	11	269	691	302	464	112	52	0.344	0.307	0.241	0.651
DSL Marlins	68	2345	331	563	87	25	13	254	739	298	459	109	56	0.336	0.315	0.24	0.651
DSL Diamondbacks	69	2320	325	552	91	18	18	250	733	293	607	68	37	0.34	0.316	0.238	0.656
DSL Cubs2	68	2250	313	534	89	26	19	233	732	247	543	111	63	0.327	0.325	0.237	0.653
DSL Reds	70	2275	312	529	98	21	20	246	729	253	525	66	44	0.322	0.32	0.233	0.643
DSL Mariners	73	2264	337	523	95	17	27	254	733	293	606	143	75	0.331	0.324	0.231	0.655
DSL Red Sox	69	2263	381	521	93	31	20	296	736	367	515	115	40	0.351	0.325	0.23	0.676
DSL Athletics	71	2252	276	511	95	16	20	217	698	228	603	93	57	0.316	0.31	0.227	0.626
DSL Orioles	71	2360	287	533	75	23	7	222	675	240	494	114	33	0.311	0.286	0.226	0.597
DSL Royals	68	2165	305	488	85	22	16	235	665	281	526	79	51	0.333	0.307	0.225	0.64
DSL Nationals	71	2347	325	522	97	23	25	254	740	352	599	99	44	0.338	0.315	0.222	0.653
DSL Padres	71	2293	384	504	91	22	26	307	717	371	597	86	41	0.345	0.313	0.22	0.657
DSL O's/Brewers	70	2260	312	488	79	18	19	239	660	260	602	95	66	0.314	0.292	0.216	0.606
DSL Rangers1	64	2054	239	440	66	10	9	173	553	241	510	77	42	0.312	0.269	0.214	0.581
DSL Angels	64	2082	292	441	92	25	11	224	616	234	546	108	51	0.301	0.296	0.212	0.596
DSL Astros	64	2099	256	443	96	17	11	183	606	251	484	103	43	0.308	0.289	0.211	0.597