Chad Moriyama » T.J. Simers

2012 Los Angeles Dodgers Season Review: Catcher

Greg Zakwin — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:35:38 +0000

After toiling in the minors for parts of nine seasons with just a couple cups of coffee to show for it, all the while watching the Dodgers treat the catcher position like it was wholly unimportant (trading Carlos Santana, allowing Joe Torre to run Russell Martin into the ground, and Rod Barajas not only being on the team but starting games as the primary backstop), A.J. Ellis finally got his shot in 2012 to be the man behind the dish.

Given the opportunity, he certainly did not disappoint, posting a 4.1 fWAR and putting forth the most productive season of any Dodger catcher since Martin’s 5.2 fWAR campaign back in 2008. In 133 games and just over 500 plate appearances, A.J. hit .270/.373/.414/.787 with a .341 wOBA. He walked in 13% of his plate appearances while whiffing just over 21% of the time, and he impressively clubbed 13 homers after never hitting more than eight in any professional season, including stops in minor-league launching pads like Albuquerque.

Two important notes though: first, Ellis did have a 12.5 % HR/FB mark, and I expect some regression in that area in 2013, probably between that mark and his 2011 mark of 8.3%. Second, A.J. did backslide with the bat in the second half (.285/.404/.425/.830 pre-break & .252/.336/.401/.737 post-break), which is not all that surprising for a guy in his first full season in the MLB who was never been known as a great hitter.

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Generally speaking, defense is difficult to quantify when looking at advanced statistics, and it’s most difficult to quantify for catchers. FanGraphs had Ellis as a slight positive behind the dish, and if you go the route of more traditional numbers, A.J. caught 32.7% of would-be baserunners and allowed eleven passed balls. He struck me as a guy who calls a good game and has a good rapport with the staff, but it’s definitely his offensive production that makes him the best option in an organization and one of the best in the NL.

As he heads into his age-32 season — and in need of a new contract that will see him on the receiving end of a nice raise — if Ellis can improve a bit with the glove, continue to draw walks and get on-base, and keep the power anywhere within range of where it was in 2012, he will once again be a boon for the club.

Matt Treanor

He’s married to an attractive and talented woman and he told off T.J. Simers. So … win.

He hit .175/.281/.282/.563 with a .251 wOBA in 2012 (with a negative fWAR) and will be replaced in 2013 by Tim Federowicz.

Well … I hope.

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Greg Zakwin is the founder of the site Plaschke Thy Sweater Is Argyle. Follow him on Twitter @ArgyledPlaschke.

What was the argument between Ned Colletti and the Dodger coaches about?

Chad Moriyama — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:18:28 +0000

Barry Bloom of MLB.com revealed through an interview that Ned Colletti and the Dodger coaching staff got into a bit of an argument after Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Padres.

MLB.com: So there was a little blowup in the clubhouse after Tuesday night’s loss here. We heard that was you.

Colletti: I had a passionate exchange in the coach’s room.

MLB.com: What was the message?

Colletti: Were you invited?

MLB.com: No, but I wish I was.

Colletti: It was just a bit of an evaluation.

Two hours later, T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times released similar information through an article of his own.

The other night after the Dodgers lost to the Padres, while the media met with Manager Don Mattingly, screaming could be heard from the nearby coaches’ dressing room.

“Passionate” screaming? General Manager Ned Colletti says with a smirk when asked if it was he.

“Yes, I had a passionate discussion with the staff, and then I had another one with a [softer] voice with Donnie. I think every once in a while you just need to recalibrate.”

Say what you want about Colletti (and I have), but he’s never given the impression of being a screaming madman type. Quite the opposite, really. So for this to happen and for these reports to go public, something really must have set him off on that particular day after the game.

While us fans probably shouldn’t overreact to it and jump to the conclusion that there’s some type of breakdown in the front office and/or clubhouse, I do feel it’s okay to wonder what exactly triggered this.

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In the top of the ninth in that game, a sequence occurred that ultimately led to the Dodgers losing by a run despite trailing by a one score with nobody out and a runner on second. When the game got to that point, Dee Gordon pinch-ran for A.J. Ellis on second, and everybody knows that Dee has enough speed to make that base represent scoring position on almost any hit. Despite that move, Mattingly opted to pinch-hit with Nick Punto and bunt Dee over to third. After Mark Ellis walked to put runners on first and third, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp went down to end the game.

Mattingly’s decision to bunt Gordon to third increased the chances of the Dodgers scoring in that inning, but decreased their chances of winning by 3-5%. So was that the reason for the blowup? Maybe, but I doubt it. Mattingly makes moves like that all the time, so if it was going to be an issue, one would think this would have come up way sooner than September. Honestly, it’s considered more of a sin by us saber-oriented fans and bloggers than to the front office.

As such, perhaps it was just the culmination of a frustrating season? The team is having general struggles, and that was the day they fell 4.5 games back in the race for the final playoff spot. Odds are that it was probably related to those difficulties, just because I don’t think the GM goes down to rant to the field staff based on single game decisions with any type of regularity.

Then again, maybe it had something to do with how Andre Ethier was used. In the top of the eighth inning, Ethier was allowed to hit against a lefty. Not a big deal, right? Happens all the time. I didn’t think much of it either, but a recent story on the Dodgers official site basically gets the team to admit that the people in charge are having internal discussions about sitting him against lefties.

Another season is almost in the books and the Dodgers are once again mystified by outfielder Andre Ethier’s inability to hit left-handed pitching anywhere near as successfully as he does against right-handers.

“It’s something we seriously have to look at as far as how we approach it. I think he can hit left-handers. The numbers say maybe he can’t and we have to go a different route. Me believing a guy can do something and him doing it are two different things.”

Nothing concrete there to say it was the reason, but you have to read between the lines a little. The issue has obviously been an internal discussion for a while and, perhaps when combined with the status of the team in the standings, it just finally boiled over. In this case, given Mattingly’s consistent stance that Ethier can indeed hit lefties, Colletti might have even be taking the sabermetric position on this one.

Ned Colletti? Statistics over guts? What is this madness?! Look at what Don Mattingly has driven our precious GM to.

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Naturally, this is all speculation, but given the justifiably raised expectations of the team and their inability to perform despite the numerous acquisitions, one would think journalists would have made more of an effort to shed light on the situation than to just allow Colletti to get off with dodging the question.

That’s especially true given that the front office and ownership has spent all September telling fans that there’s always next year, yet their actions in handling players and making transactions have told a very different tale.

Seems to me that this would warrant further investigation than to be a throw-in question during a media session. Given that people covering the Dodgers documented and opined about every single little thing Matt Kemp did wrong in 2010 (to give an example), one would think the GM and coaches blowing up at each other as the team collapses in September would be worthy of an investigation.

I know I’d like to hear more about what transpired.

Andre Ethier’s Knee Issues Confirm Organizational Question Marks

Chad Moriyama — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:27:54 +0000

Yesterday’s shocking article by T.J. Simers about Andre Ethier’s knee had a lot of fans understandably asking a ton of questions of both him and the organization. Today, Tony Jackson got reactions out of Ned Colletti, Don Mattingly, and Andre Ethier.

Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier met with team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Sunday morning for further examination of Ethier’s right knee, in which Ethier says he has experienced gradually increasing discomfort over the past two years and where he probably will undergo minor surgery after the season.

It’s frightening that it took an article to get one of the Dodgers best players examined. Furthermore, with the Dodgers far out of the race for the playoffs, what’s the wait for on the surgery? I see absolutely no point in him playing out this season.

Edit: Ethier actually had been examined prior to this, hence the injections, but it took an article to get it “further” examined, which is still stupid.

“I got kind of blindsided by that (column),” Mattingly said. “To me, the way I read it was that Dre has been telling us he couldn’t play and we said play anyway. That definitely isn’t the case. For me, that is taking a shot at my integrity. Not just mine, but the organization, the training staff and Ned.”

“His knee has been banged up, there is no denying that. But with that, we check with him. ‘Are you OK today?’ There have been times when I will get him in the weight room after a game and say, ‘I’m giving you the day off tomorrow,’ and then he’ll come into my office and say he wants to (play).”

For his part, Ethier admitted that playing through the injury was his decision.

“It has always been my decision to keep playing and keep going,” he said. “They never said, ‘We don’t think you can go.’ It has always been, ‘You obviously can play on with this, so it’s at your discretion.’ If you physically can go out there and do it, do you tell yourself to stop?”

Colletti said he then received a call from Ethier’s agent, Nez Balelo, while the Dodgers were in Milwaukee two weeks ago informing him that Ethier was experiencing knee problems, that he might need a minor surgical procedure at some point to correct them and that they were affecting his offensive performance, which has been disappointing this season, especially since the All-Star break. “I said, ‘Can he play?’” Colletti said. “(The answer was) yeah. I had a conversation with Nez again before the game (Saturday). We talked about a lot of different topics related to Andre and related to the knee. My impression was that it was something that would have to be looked at, but it wasn’t something that had to be taken care of right now.”

Normally when a player attempts to play through the injury, I take the side of the organization and place blame on the player because his selfish macho actions are usually hurting the team, regardless of whether he thinks he’s being a knight in shining armor or not. However, in this case, where the blame shifts to the organization is in their excuses. Usually when a player hides an injury, the organization is in the dark about it (Jonathan Broxton comes to mind), but with Ethier, they admit they were aware of his knee problems but basically pushed it aside because Ethier told them he could play.

It’s ridiculous.

The excuse that Ethier told the organization he’s alright, so they couldn’t know the extent of the damage is a poor one. By nature, all players say they can play whether they are healthy or not, especially hyper competitive ones like Ethier. It’s like Clayton Kershaw saying he wants to finish games no matter the pitch count, well of course he does, he would throw 150 pitches if they would let him, but it’s up to the decision makers to tell him what’s in his best interest, if not, what’s the point of having them around?

The fact of the matter is that most guys would rather be taken off on a stretcher than take themselves out of games, and that’s where it’s on the management and training staff to step in and either look into the issue further or tell him he can no longer play with the injury.

In a way, I suppose it’s good news that Ethier is confirmed as hurt, as an injury like this could lead to a rapid drop in power, but the fact that it took an article by Simers to get a knee examination and confirm future surgery is disturbing. Either way you cut it, this issue has brought up unnecessary drama and it’s an embarrassment to have one of the few quality players the organization has left basically expose its shoddy internal communication.

Andre Ethier’s Knee Injury Could Explain Performance But Brings Up Bigger Issues

Chad Moriyama — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:03:52 +0000

As a rule of thumb, I take anything T.J. Simers writes with a grain of salt, as at times he openly uses his section of the paper to troll players, management, fans, and whoever else he wants. However, his recently published story on Andre Ethier’s knee injury is the first I had heard of it, and the comments from both him and Ned Colletti were worrying to say the least.

“Ask Ethier if he should still be playing on a right knee that will require off-season surgery, and he says, ‘If you’re expecting me to do what I’ve done in the past, no, there’s no possible way I can do that right now. You can say tough it out and give it your best shot, but it’s not going to happen.’

‘It’s only going to get worse from this point. I’ve dealt with it all season long, but as the season goes on my body wears down. That’s just the way it is — I keep getting put in the lineup, so what am I supposed to do?’”

Quite concerning, right? Arguably though, Colletti’s comments are even worse.

“‘What am I supposed to be concerned about?’ General Manager Ned Colletti says. ‘That he has those numbers [since the All-Star break], that he’s hurt or contends he’s hurt?’”

“Ask Colletti if Ethier poor performance works to the Dodgers’ advantage, and he says, ‘maybe a touch,’ before going on to say, ‘Ethier’s consistency is far greater than six weeks.’”

Now I don’t honestly believe the Dodgers are forcing him to play to save fractions of millions like Simers implies, but the miscommunication between Colletti and Ethier is still an issue that deserves to be addressed.

“‘The way it’s gone around here,’ Ethier says, ‘the only thing that is certain — is the uncertainty.’”

“‘Other than going into the training room every day and saying my knee hurts,’ Ethier says, ‘and having six-inch needles stuck into it to make it feel better, I’ve told them my mechanics are messed up because of my knee. They know. But they’ve told me, ‘grin and bear it.””

Communication problems seem to be common within the organization, for whatever reason. The training staff has a rather poor track record of keeping players on the field (probably not helping if they are instructing players to play hurt), and Colletti has criticized Kemp, Kershaw, Billingsley, and others in the past.

As many pointed out to me on Twitter yesterday, this injury could explain Ethier’s rapid drop in power, but I think it raises a far more disturbing issue that a player believes he’s injured to the extent where he can no longer perform and needs surgery but the training staff and upper management blows it off as questionable.

I’m sure comments on this issue will be made in the coming days by both Ethier and the organization with attempts to clarify the situation, and I hope it does get resolved, because as it currently stands, it’s another black mark on an organization that’s already drowning in them.