Mike Piazza and Jeff Clement
Q. And Wright's battle with the Dodgers, over Mike Piazza, means ... WHAT to me?
A. Reading through the lengthy, detailed article, you're absolutely stunned by the parallels to Jeff Clement. You could virtually stick Clement's name in there, for 70% of the occurrences of Piazza's name, and it would apply word-for-word.
Wright's analysis underlines the point that there is way, WAYYY too much bias against catchers who don't look pretty behind the plate.
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Q. But you gotta have a catcher. Or else you'll have a lot of passed balls, right?
A. One light bulb that Wright turned on for me, is that it might actually be a plus, in the long run, for a catcher to not be physically gifted!
Guys like Piazza and Clement face skepticism not just in the minors, but their Entire. Careers. In many cases this keeps them working on their skills -- and often this is the type of catcher that the pitchers like to throw to. Pitchers loved to throw to Piazza.
Jeff Clement HAS the work ethic, and has it in triplicate. He's the perfect reincarnation of Piazza defensively, and jokes aside, that is a compliment.
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Q. Would Wright prefer a young catcher, like Clement, who has awkward feet and a weak arm?
A. He wouldn't go that far. "These are wonderful gifts," as Wright puts it. But he does point out that a lot of ballet dancers don't hold up well under the pounding at catcher.
Wright points out that you'd rather have toughness, physical power, in a catcher, than nimbleness, if you can only have one. Obviously Jeff Clement, with his thick chest and brawny, short arms and legs, is in this category -- he can "take a lickin' and keep on tickin' " as Wright puts it.
Most catchers actually regress as hitters when they enter the 5-days-a-week defensive grind. Durability simply trumps footwork and arm.
You know what? I think Wright has a whale of a point there. And Clement is the living embodiment.
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Quick feet and a great arm do not matter if a catcher is never going to hit better than .170 in the big leagues, as Wright argued. Time and again he watched catchers drafted who looked great jumping out of a crouch, but who simply had no shot to hit in the major leagues.
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Q. Okay, what's this stuff about converted catchers?
A. Wright also points out that it can be a plus to grab a catcher who was converted off some other position (a statement which would send a lot of visual scouts run screaming into the night).
Like pitchers do, the catchers have mileage odometers on them. If they didn't spend ages 19 and 20 catching, they last longer.
Clement was a college catcher, going 2-3 days a week, not a high school draftee, with all those miles on him at the ages of 18-20. Also, Clement has been playing a lot of other positions since he was drafted. The mileage is light.
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Q. Yeah, but how are Clement's knees?
A. The, um, knee-jerk assumption is to write him off because of the arthroscopic surgery on his meniscus.
But who knows more about Clement's knee: me, or the Seattle Mariners and their doctors?
Is the Mariners' attitude that Clement is done as a catcher?
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Catchers are getting arthroscopic procedures done on their knees all the time. Just off the top of my head, Mike Lieberthal, Johnny Estrada, Paul Lo Duca, Sandy Alomar Jr., Tom Lampkin, Jason Varitek, Jason LaRue, a ton of guys had knee procedures done.
Didn't Alomar have like 10 knee surgeries done over the course of his career? These guys do play in pain, that's for sure.
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Q. So you're a convert now?
A. I always hollered that the M's were too taken with "pretty defense," and especially with Clement. To be fair, Clement's work ethic won the M's over quickly, and it's actually been more the blog-o-sphere that has resisted "Clement, C" more than the M's have.
Wright's terrific account of his battles with the Old Guard convinced me that .... Jeff Clement has simply been the victim of over-bias against lunch-pail defensive catchers.
I don't even think that a guy like Piazza, or Varitek, or Clement, or Posada, are necessarily minuses on defense. It seems likely that they are perceived as liabilities by the general public -- while simultaneously being graded as assets by their pitching staffs.
Clement very definitely works hard to get in tune with pitching staffs.
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Q. What about Clement developing better as a hitter, if he played 1B?
A. He would, but it's not worth it. Interestingly, Craig Wright never for a moment wavered as to which position Piazza should play -- never for a moment thought, "Well, hey, wait, if he's a 1B he'll hit that much better." Instead, he kept rattling Claire's cage about what a huge advantage it would be, to have a power-hitting catcher.
And, of course, Piazza went on to lead World Series pushes in LA, at FLA and at NYM.
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Yeah, I think that the Mariners' vision should be: (1) let Clement job-share with Johjima for a couple years, and then (2) try to get him into the HOF as a Seattle Mariner catcher.
Jeffy for Catcher!
Cheers,
Dr D
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image: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2007/03/04/mG9CLZJe.jpg
