... or so it looks from section 329.
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=== Rob Johnson ===
Some good amigos are having fun scarecrowing Johnson dummies, and playing "beginner circus knife thrower" with them. You know, like Kurt Russell 's fellow merc in Escape from New York.
Dr. D sighs in disgust, saunters over and pulls the knives out in similar fashion :- )
It really is weird, and weird-looking, and weirder-pondering, that RJ drops so many pitches. How does that happen at his level? It's not an accident. The first game we watched RJ at Cheney, he dropped five pitches, you know, just dropped them and they sort of Weebled away from him a step or two. We wondered how a AAA catcher could do that...
............
As far as RJ's defense, leave us not forget that Johnson's CERA was 3.22 last year. This year, it has ballooned all the way to ... 3.60, and don't forget, kiddies, that has been with Felix and four Rainiers against the Angels, Tigers, Rays and Rangers.
Granted, Moore's is about the same, but you've still got the fact that Johnson has been the number one catcher for a 115 ERA+ staff, and that's with four starting pitchers who won their jobs by default.
The dropped balls are yuuugly, but Wakamatsu is aware of them. He weighs these drops against all the other things and comes up with W+X+Y+Z = 115.
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Offensively, Johnson is a young catcher with a sparkling 11:16 EYE and a tragic .211 BABIP. Let's not call for the standing eight count just yet. He's covering up and throwing a few head-butts from the corner.
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=== Adam Moore ===
Mr. Moore, on the other hand, is a different subject. His EYE is 2:18 and his batters'-box hit points are down to single digits. On this one, you can stop da fight.
Moore looks to me like he needs to collect himself, go down to Cheney and slow the pulse to
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=== Josh Bard ===
This is the kind of get-no-thanks STOPLOSS! move that GM's slap down onto the backgammon board constantly. Time to exploit the farsightedness.
Bard has a lifetime OPS+ of 92; Adam Moore's OPS+ is 10. There's a very realistic chance to add offense, even if it be two games a week.
Remember when Josh Wilson came up and won a game or two by.... what do they call that again... oh yeah. Hitting a couple of balls hard? That's all it takes to improve from zero.
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=== Dr's R/X ===
Not meaning to be at all condescending :- ) we (literally) wonder what the holdup is here. Bard has seven hits in the last week, a homer last night, is tanned, rested and ready to go.
Bring Bard on up, match him and Johnson against their most-favored pitchers and score a coupla bases here and there.
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Cheers,
Dr D
I do not understand why Bard wasn't up when Moore went 1 for 26 or whatever it was to start his season and struck out 8 times without a walk.
He was not ready...we have learned that...he needs to go down and get hot again. He'll be back.
Bard is a certified MLB (TM) hitter...not great...but better than a guy who is completely and totally lost at the plate.