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I was among those wondering why Paxton was assigned to Clinton to start the year instead of AA (I don't think anybody wanted to traumatize him at High Desert). I thought, "Soft landing to shake off the rust." and left it at that. It seemed a sufficient reason. But take a look at this:
"The catcher [Steven Baron] and I were on the same page," Paxton said. "I was mixing the curve and change and keeping those guys guessing." -from David Heck's coverage of his last start.
Recently, I've come to see the value of a catcher's game-calling. Dr. D pointed this out in his Gimenez/Vargas piece but I've seen precious little of this aspect of the game expressed anywhere else. Save in derision in the form of denegrating CERA.
I've even seen Harrison Crow, an author I've come to respect, express the desire to dump Olivo, start Gimenez, and bring up Bard as a backup based soley on his hitting numbers on THIS year. As if the pitcher/catcher aspect were de-coupled from a catcher's value. (Not to mention track record, but I digress...)
Washburn threw Kenji under the bus 'cause he didn't like throwing to him. Rob Johnson sticks in the bigs because pitchers love throwing to him. This is a BIG part of the game that is getting overlooked and should be considered as a part of Olivo's value.
So getting Paxton and Steve Baron on the same page had to have been a critical deciding factor in deciding where Paxton was to have been assigned to start the year. I'm starting to realize that there are 2-3 aspects in a decision such as this that I'm routinely missing.