<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Toronto &#187; Jarrod Saltalamacchia</title>
	<atom:link href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/tag/jarrod-saltalamacchia/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com</link>
	<description>Comprehensive coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 03:35:47 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1</generator>
	<item>
		<title>Jarrod Saltalamacchia is Having a Historical Start to the Season</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/26/jarrod-saltalamacchia-is-having-a-historical-start-to-the-season/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/26/jarrod-saltalamacchia-is-having-a-historical-start-to-the-season/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:31:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Passador]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=10435</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Much has been made of Toronto’s historically poor start. A lot of the criticism has been deserved, but to an extent it’s an unfortunate cloud that will hang over this team’s head for the foreseeable future. Every franchise has a “worst” this or “best” that – regardless of actual performance. Some group is always stuck [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Much has been made of Toronto’s historically poor start. A lot of the criticism has been deserved, but to an extent it’s an unfortunate cloud that will hang over this team’s head for the foreseeable future. Every franchise has a “worst” this or “best” that – regardless of actual performance. Some group is always stuck at one extreme and will be held up as the benchmark until their place in history is threatened.</p>
<p>There’s no promises that the 2017 Blue Jays will be remarkable. There’s a non-zero chance that they’ll be remembered solely for this rough start. But that’s cold and heartless, robbing future fans of the stories and oddities that flutter in and out of notoriety. Because history, when it’s told, is just a collection of notable moments. Sometimes they snowball into bigger and better things. Sometimes they become parts of a sad, slow-burning tale; footnotes to a tragedy.</p>
<p>Those moments deserve their acknowledgment as well, because that’s what fandom demands. You can’t pick and choose which parts of this team to enjoy. You embrace the team at its best and its worst, warts and all. That’s not to admonish so-called “bandwagon fans,” either. I love the Jays and happen to think it’s pretty cool that other people do too regardless of how, when or why they got there. It’s just impossible to choose which parts of Jays history you care for. Newcomer or otherwise, you own Toronto’s baseball past. Unfortunate moments are woven into the franchise’s history just like the good ones.</p>
<p>Luckily for those of us who’ve sat through a tough start to 2017, we stood witness to something special. It might still be happening around us, though there’s no way to be sure until it’s gone.</p>
<p>It’d be an understatement to say that Jarrod Saltalamacchia has struggled early in his Toronto tenure, as he sits atop of the league’s leaderboard in strikeout rate among position players. Fourteen strikeouts in 22 plate appearances will do that for you.</p>
<p>He’s also found himself in tough spots far more often than he’s used to, as he currently sees pitch number one sail in for a strike 68.8 percent of the time, though it was up at 72.2 percent prior to Tuesday&#8217;s game. His previous career-high is 64.2, which came all the way back in 2009. Surely that, and in turn his overall strikeouts, will drop over time. Starting down a strike at an abnormal rate will play its part, especially when we consider that over 51 percent of his 978 career strikeouts came with him behind in the count. But we’re not necessarily interested in all of that right now – we’re amidst a historic performance, capturing the stakes of the moment.</p>
<p>While there are a few differing reports out there, it sure seems like Salty set the major league record for consecutive strikeouts by a position player with 10 straight from April 13<sup>th</sup> to the 22<sup>nd</sup>. For now we’ll say that he did it, in the process breaking the previous record of nine consecutive Ks which was shared among Mark Reynolds, Bo Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Eric Davis, Steve Balboni and Adolfo Phillips. Interestingly enough, Sandy Koufax holds the record with 12 straights Ks, a feat he accomplished all the way back in 1955.</p>
<p>But back to Salty, whose Ks in the early going give him a strikeout rate of 63.6 percent, which is easily the highest mark in Toronto franchise history when we filter out everyone who had fewer than 10 plate appearances. Even if we don’t, he’s only topped by a smattering of relievers and spot starters who aren’t actually paid to make contact with baseballs via bat.</p>
<p>Among those with at least 10 PAs, Saltalamacchia is pretty much alone on the non-pitcher leaderboard as a player who’s more than a footnote (to this point, though I’m no fortune teller) in Blue Jays lore. To wit, he sits above Kevin Barker (12 games), Tom Quinlan (14 games), Ted Wilborn (22 games) and Eric Crozier (14 games) in the K rate ranks.</p>
<p>But of course, it’d hardly be fair to extrapolate that kind of performance over a larger sample. Saltalamacchia owns a career K rate of 30.7 percent so it’s likely that we’re seeing some kind of miracle run of futility at the plate. In short, we know that his strikeout rate will decline. But will it be enough to keep him out of the team’s record books?</p>
<p>Among players who received at least 100 plate appearances, Juan Francisco leads the pack with a 36.3 percent mark in just 320 PAs. He has a fairly comfortable lead with Ben Shepherd and Jayson Werth at 32.5 and 31.7, respectively. Jeff Mathis is fourth at 30.0 while Melvin Upton Jr. rounds out the top five at 29.7 percent. Considering Saltalamacchia probably won&#8217;t top 250 PAs, it’s likely that he’ll crack the top five given his improbable start and career numbers. Even an extra week or two of this strikeout binge could put him close to the top when it&#8217;s all said and done.</p>
<p>Somewhere deep in the Norfolk Tides’ clubhouse, Francisco breaks into a cold sweat. His crown is up for grabs.</p>
<p>Beyond the raw totals, Salty finds himself having struck out in all seven games in which he’s made a plate appearance. It feels like more. It’s not close to history just yet.</p>
<p>If and when he gets to 10, we’ll talk. 10 straight games with a strikeout would mark the 80<sup>th</sup> such streak in team history. He’d vault into the top 50 with 11 straight, while a baker’s dozen would put him into the top 20.  Of the five 14-game streaks in Jays history, fellow contact-averse catcher J.P. Arencibia owns four. Beyond 15 games, the company becomes scarce. Saltalamacchia will need a serious run in order to approach Kelly Johnson’s team record of 22 consecutive games with a strikeout.</p>
<p>Given John Gibbons’ tendency to use Saltalamacchia as a pinch hitter so far, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to sustain this streak for much longer. But that&#8217;s the thing about such historic runs &#8211; they&#8217;re improbable until suddenly they&#8217;re the new reality.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s not about the How or the Why – it’s just about enjoying the What before it fades away. Like a shooting star that causes a gentle breeze around home plate, Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s current run could be gone in an instant. I can’t say whether or not the 2017 Blue Jays will give us anything truly memorable, but I can promise you that history has already been made. Perhaps there’s more to come.</p>
<p><em>*An immense thank you to <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/" target="_blank">Baseball Reference&#8217;s Play Index</a> for making this a relatively simple trip down memory lane</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/26/jarrod-saltalamacchia-is-having-a-historical-start-to-the-season/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why the Blue Jays Chose Ryan Goins for their Opening Day Roster</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/02/the-info-that-went-into-making-the-blue-jays-opening-day-roster-decisions/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/02/the-info-that-went-into-making-the-blue-jays-opening-day-roster-decisions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Apr 2017 20:32:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Melvin Upton Jr.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ryan Goins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=10004</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No, this won&#8217;t be the roster the Blue Jays use for all 162 games, and it probably won&#8217;t even be the roster they use a week from now, but if you&#8217;re wondering about what the Blue Jays did to their roster today despite it seeming like a bunch of backwards decisions, you aren&#8217;t alone. 12 [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>No, this won&#8217;t be the roster the Blue Jays use for all 162 games, and it probably won&#8217;t even be the roster they use a week from now, but if you&#8217;re wondering about what the Blue Jays did to their roster today despite it seeming like a bunch of backwards decisions, you aren&#8217;t alone.</p>
<p>12 PM Eastern was the deadline for the team to set its opening day roster, and the Blue Jays did so by designating Mike Bolsinger for assignment, selecting the contract of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, releasing Melvin Upton Jr., recalling Dominic Leone from Buffalo, and placing Roberto Osuna, Dalton Pompey, Bo Schultz, and Glenn Sparman on the disabled list with various injuries. These moves meant that the out of options Ryan Goins made the team while Ryan Tepera got the last spot in the bullpen. Yes, Ryan Goins, he of the career -1.2 WARP, beat out Melvin Upton for the final position player spot on the Blue Jays roster. Why? Well, it&#8217;s a confusing decision, but according to a club source, this was the thinking involved:</p>
<p>The Blue Jays were listening to trade offers on both Upton and Goins recently, trying to gauge the market for the two players they needed to choose from for the last roster spot. While the market for Upton was non-existent, the market for Goins was actually pretty decent, with multiple teams making offers for the 29-year-old utility man. One American League team was even intent on trading for Goins and giving him a short term starting role before settling him into their utility role once their club returned to health. However, despite multiple names being tossed around, the two clubs were not able to come to agreement that the Blue Jays liked. So, the Blue Jays decided to release Melvin Upton, and hold on to Goins, knowing that a lot of teams won&#8217;t even want to pick up Upton for the remainder of his 2017 contract, and there is a good chance that he re-signs with the club and heads to the minors. For Goins on the other hand, the interest in him is still viable, and even though he secured his spot on the Blue Jays opening day roster, he may still be traded.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays were targeting catchers in their trade talks, hoping to upgrade on Jarrod Saltalamacchia before purchasing his contract and making it guaranteed for the 2017 season. With that deadline officially gone, you can expect the club to stop their pursuit of a backup catcher, despite their internal concerns with his throwing ability.</p>
<p>With the current roster, the Blue Jays plan on handing the bulk of left field playing time to Steve Pearce. Although the coaches do really like Ezequiel Carrera, they like him a lot more off of the bench than they do as a starter. That leaves the Blue Jays with Justin Smoak playing at first base, Steve Pearce in left field, and Zeke off of the bench. Although that doesn&#8217;t seem ideal, if the Blue Jays would have kept Upton, it would have been the same thing but Smoak would have been on the bench as well. The Blue Jays in effect chose Justin Smoak over Melvin Upton. That decision, although questionable, actually makes a lot more sense.</p>
<p>Over the past three seasons, Smoak has been the better hitter, slashing .216/.297/.403 to Upton&#8217;s .229/.295/.377, and the Blue Jays like his defense at first base a lot more than they like Upton&#8217;s in the corner outfield spots. They thought Upton was much more comfortable in centre field, a position currently occupied by Kevin Pillar, who isn&#8217;t going anywhere anytime soon. With Darrell Ceciliani available in Buffalo to play left field or centre field, and the newly acquired Chris Coghlan also in Buffalo, the Blue Jays felt comfortable enough with the outfield depth to let go of Upton, especially given they believe they have a strong chance to retain him.</p>
<p>The danger of the Blue Jays decisions today is that they are relying on Steve Pearce, a player who has played over 100 games in a season just once in his career, to stay healthy. Obviously the club is the organization that knows his health the best, and if they feel comfortable making that decision, it seems like it could be a smart one. Pearce has praised the work of the high performance department, and has said he feels different because of them. Whether that carries into the regular season, and for how long, remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Lastly, the question of Angel Pagan still remains. The Blue Jays have the money to spend on Pagan because he represents a clear upgrade, but Pagan wants a team where he can be guaranteed a starting spot. He&#8217;s still a free agent because of that, and despite the Blue Jays having tried to sign him, he refuses to agree to sign with them because they will not guarantee that starting left field job. If Pagan moves off of these demands, Pagan could still find his way to Toronto, though the club source indicated he doesn&#8217;t view it as very likely at this point.</p>
<p>There you have it. That&#8217;s the decision making that went into releasing Melvin Upton and keeping Ryan Goins. Will it work out? Who knows. But there is always more than meets the eye, and just because the season starts tomorrow, doesn&#8217;t mean Ross Atkins is going to stop working to improve.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: © Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/02/the-info-that-went-into-making-the-blue-jays-opening-day-roster-decisions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Report: Blue Jays Were Finalists for Catcher Derek Norris</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/24/report-blue-jays-were-finalists-for-catcher-derek-norris/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/24/report-blue-jays-were-finalists-for-catcher-derek-norris/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Derek Norris]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=9759</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Derek Norris, the former top catching prospect who has bounced around recently and was released by the Washington Nationals on March 15th, signed with the Tampa Bay Rays today. Of more note to this website is that Norris was deciding between the Rays and the Blue Jays according to Robert Murray of FanRag Sports, but [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Derek Norris, the former top catching prospect who has bounced around recently and was released by the Washington Nationals on March 15th, signed with the Tampa Bay Rays today. Of more note to this website is that Norris was deciding between the Rays and the Blue Jays according to Robert Murray of FanRag Sports, but ended up choosing Tampa because they were offering more playing time, in contrast to the Blue Jays, who offered more money.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Norris was deciding between the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rays?src=hash">#Rays</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a>, league source says. Toronto offered more $, he chose more playing with Tampa.</p>
<p>&mdash; Robert Murray (@RobertMurrayFRS) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertMurrayFRS/status/845341348077039616">March 24, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>This does have some implications for the Blue Jays and tells us what Ross Atkins thinks about the current state of his ball club. First, it is important to note that Atkins and his staff clearly viewed Norris as an upgrade over Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the current option in the backup role behind Russell Martin. For their careers, they have been virtually identical on the offensive side of things, with Norris putting up a triple slash of .233/.309/.380, and Salty at .234/.309/.413. However, defensively Norris takes the cake. He has a reputation of being a good receiver and a good pitch framer, with 19.9 framing runs over the past two seasons. In contrast, Salty has cost his team 16.3 runs in that department over the same sample.</p>
<p>The dollar amount they offered to Norris likely wasn&#8217;t that much; reading anything into this about the Blue Jays&#8217; payroll situation would be unwise given this info. If he were to take the place of Salty, that would have meant the team would have been off the hook for Salty&#8217;s salary because his $1.5 million deal is only guaranteed in the major leagues.</p>
<p>Although it should be obvious, it is good to see that the team isn&#8217;t going to sit back and be comfortable with that they have if better options arise. For example, if Angel Pagan, who has been <a href="https://twitter.com/GideonTurk/status/844972882354720768" target="_blank">tied with the club for a while now</a>, decides that he is willing to settle for a position that isn&#8217;t full time, the Blue Jays don&#8217;t seem like they&#8217;ll be letting that opportunity pass them by without making their best effort to bring him, or any other player, in to help the team win ballgames. With just about a week left of Spring Training, most of the Blue Jays&#8217; roster is set, but today showed that it can change pretty quickly, especially as players on the fringe of the rosters are being released or made available in trade.</p>
<p>If all goes well, maybe Angel Pagan is playing for the Blue Jays next week, because the current options of Melvin Upton and Ezequiel Carrera are able to be upgraded upon, just like Norris would have been an upgrade over Jarrod Saltalamacchia.</p>
<p>Real baseball. Soon.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: © Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/24/report-blue-jays-were-finalists-for-catcher-derek-norris/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Russell Martin on the Art of Pitch Calling: A Masters in Communication</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/07/the-art-of-pitch-calling-a-masters-in-communication/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/07/the-art-of-pitch-calling-a-masters-in-communication/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2017 11:22:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joshua Howsam]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blue jays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reese McGuire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russell Martin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=9239</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.&#8221; - Bob Feller DUNEDIN &#8211; Catcher defense is an interesting thing. When trying to evaluate it, most of the talk has shifted towards pitch framing (or [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center"><em>&#8220;If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience,<br />
it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.&#8221; </em>- Bob Feller</p>
<p>DUNEDIN &#8211; Catcher defense is an interesting thing. When trying to evaluate it, most of the talk has shifted towards pitch framing (or receiving), with cursory mentions of “controlling the running game” and blocking ability. This makes some sense, as we have data to quantify all of these things. But if you were to ask most catchers, their primary objective is guiding a pitcher through the game &#8211; pitch calling.</p>
<p>As a pitcher, this area of the game has always held the deepest fascination for me. There is something truly unique in the battle between the batter and the battery, yet it often goes completely unnoticed by anybody but the most die hard of baseball fans. In an effort to correct that, I talked to the Blue Jays catchers (and a pitcher) to see how they approach this esoteric segment of the game.</p>
<p>For Russell Martin, everything begins with communication:</p>
<p><em>“Most pitchers &#8211; young or old &#8211; have a good idea of what they like to do when they go out on the mound…just talking to the guys is the first aspect of my preparation; I feel like it helps build the chemistry with the player itself; just listening to what Marco has to say, just listening to what Stroman likes to say, listening to what the pitching coach has to say too. Everybody&#8217;s got information and my job is to keep the information that&#8217;s helpful to me and what I&#8217;m trying to accomplish.</em></p>
<p>It’s a simple enough concept to get your head around: Ask the guy what he wants to throw beforehand, so that things go much smoother in the game. But communication doesn’t just mean asking, “what do you want to throw?” If that were the case, there would be no such thing as a good pitch calling catcher. Communication also means knowing when to put your foot down.</p>
<p>For the most part, a catcher will suggest a pitch and the pitcher will throw it. If the guy on the mound wants to throw something else, they’ll shake off and the catcher will suggest a different pitch. However, that&#8217;s not always the case.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;There are times, [and] it&#8217;s not often, where your gut will tell you, &#8216;ugh, I don&#8217;t really feel like it&#8217;s the situation&#8217; or you feel like a hitter is sitting on a certain pitch and that&#8217;s the pitch the pitcher wants to throw. There are times where time needs to be called and you need to have a quick conversation with the guy on the mound.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m just trying to help them, or guide them through a game, using what they have that day.”</em></p>
<p>Even that is a fine line, however. There are considerations beyond simply getting to the &#8216;right&#8217; pitch for the situation:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;You have to be very intuitive when you go talk to [the pitcher]&#8230;the best pitch is the one that&#8217;s going to be thrown with conviction. So if the pitcher really believes in the pitch that he&#8217;s going to make, it&#8217;s probably the best pitch. Because if I go up there and I talk to him and say, &#8216;hey, I was thinking this&#8217; and he just goes off what I was thinking, but he doesn&#8217;t throw the pitch with conviction, then it&#8217;s not necessarily the pitch that I was thinking anymore.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>That’s something we hear about with occasional frequency on the broadcast, but never really much in depth. It can be difficult to get your head around the idea that merely suggesting a curveball when the pitcher was thinking fastball could mean you get a bad curveball instead. People expect that a major league pitcher should have confidence in all of his stuff. Martin agrees, noting that it&#8217;s &#8220;the job of the pitcher.&#8221; However, while a pitcher can try to make himself believe it, &#8220;sometimes what we say as people is not necessarily how feel inside.&#8221; In fact, Marco Estrada <a title="Marco Estrada Embraces Leadership Role; Ready to Repeat 2015" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/16/marco-estrada-embraces-his-leadership-role-ready-to-repeat-2015/" target="_blank">had to teach himself to trust all of his stuff</a> as recently as last year.</p>
<p>Communication matters and it&#8217;s more than just talking to someone; you have to know just what to say. Martin happens to be one of the best in the game at reading pitches, so when he talks, pitchers listen. We saw some evidence of this last year with J.A. Happ.</p>
<p>The tall lefty was coming off one of the best ten start stretches a pitcher can have, posting a 1.37 ERA and 9.6 K/9 through the end of the 2015 season with Pittsburgh. He had that extreme success while throwing an inordinate number of fourseam fastballs. Yet right from the get-go, Martin was calling way more <em>twoseamers</em> to go with that fourseamer.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/Brooksbaseball-Chart-6.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-9246" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/Brooksbaseball-Chart-6-1024x683.jpeg" alt="Brooksbaseball-Chart (6)" width="500" height="333" /></a></p>
<p>It wasn’t just some random experiment, either. Martin knew what he was doing:</p>
<p><em>“[Happ]&#8217;s able to locate that fourseam fastball up and in on righties&#8217; hands and then the two-seamer, it’s a pitch that&#8217;s moving out of the zone at the bottom of the zone. So, having to cover the up and in and then down and away; one moving away from you, the other one boring in on you. That’s TOUGH to do. You can put a ball that&#8217;s not moving in those spots and they&#8217;re hard to hit, right? So if you can get a little velocity with that and a little movement, it&#8217;s even harder.”</em></p>
<p>Without that read from Martin and then the ability to get that across to Happ, we may have only seen fourseam Happ all year. Thankfully, he and Martin were on the same page. Happ:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;I was focused a little bit on mechanics and just being aggressive in Pittsburgh. And here I just started tinkering a little bit &#8211; trying to keep that same mindset, but also keep that two-seamer because I know in the past that has been a big pitch for me.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;I always say [the pitcher/catcher relationship] is an underrated thing and it’s nice to have a spring training &#8211; especially when you&#8217;re on a new team &#8211; to get to know that new catcher and develop that relationship. They know how you pitch, how you work, how your stuff works and plays. That&#8217;s huge to have a guy who understands that.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>The results speak for themselves, as Happ had easily the best season of his career, very heavily due to his pitch mix. However, when I mentioned <a title="How J.A. Happ Evolved Into One of Baseball’s Best" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/31/how-j-a-happ-evolved-into-one-of-baseballs-best/" target="_blank">Happ’s unique fastball movement</a> and asked if it was part of the decision to change things up, Martin wasn’t fully aware:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;I felt it, but I didn&#8217;t know that…I&#8217;m glad there are people out there that are gathering that information and giving it a numerical meaning and explaining why it&#8217;s effective. For me it&#8217;s more of an instinctual thing. What I&#8217;m seeing from behind the plate is guys not hit the ball hard and guys having a hard time catching up to it. And it&#8217;s like a more simplistic way, but then if you want to quantify it with data, that&#8217;s great &#8211; I&#8217;m all for that.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>It makes some sense. As a catcher, it’s Martin’s job to see the pitches and, “[try] to stay one step ahead&#8230;finding out what works in certain situations against a certain type of hitter.” He needs to be able to read the swings and the quality of the pitches with his eyes, even if PITCHf/x data might suggest something else. Essentially, raw &#8220;stuff&#8221; isn&#8217;t the major factor when it comes to Martin&#8217;s pitch-calling:</p>
<p><em>“A pitcher can have a nasty cutter, but if that cutter is down the middle a lot, there&#8217;s a good chance hitters are going to get good swings on it. Then I don&#8217;t know what the numbers are on that pitch, but I don&#8217;t even need to know the numbers. I&#8217;m like ok, if this guy makes mistakes with this pitch often in the middle of the plate, it&#8217;s not a high percentage quality pitch. But if he has another pitch that he locates and when he misses, he misses off the plate &#8211; and when he gets it, it&#8217;s in a hard area to hit with any power&#8230; There are certain pitches that are just tough to hit.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;In all honesty, every pitcher has strengths and things he&#8217;s not as good at. I wouldn&#8217;t call them weaknesses, because every single pitcher&#8217;s pitches are good. There are just certain pitches that they command a bit better, that they have more confidence in. And you have to know your pitcher.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>So while Martin appreciates our attempts to see the why, it seems he prefers to trust his own intuition. He makes the best selection with what his eyes tell him &#8211; monitoring stuff, location, and hitter swings &#8211; but not the numbers. It has gotten him this far, so there’s no reason to doubt it. But even if he doesn’t know it, he is still subconsciously embracing the data and passing it onto the next generation. When I spoke to catching prospect Reese McGuire, he had this to say:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;We&#8217;re constantly trying to learn as catchers and Russell and [Jarrod Saltalamacchia] have both been tremendous with leading that.&#8221; </em></p>
<p><em>&#8220;I think that [PITCHf/x data and Statcast] is the next step &#8211; that&#8217;s the next level &#8211; when they&#8217;re going to have a little bit more information. I&#8217;ve already heard Russell and Salty talk about that too, where a certain pitcher, he&#8217;s coming from a certain side of the rubber and he might not get a certain call percentage wise, say he gets screwed on a strike because of the angle his ball is coming across the plate.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>That was very fun to hear, as it&#8217;s not something we ever really consider when looking at whether a pitch was called correctly. We tend to blame the umpire or credit the catcher&#8217;s receiving, but it sounds like it&#8217;s also a big part of the catcher knowing what pitches are easier and tougher for an umpire to call correctly and then calling pitches in or away from those locations. That information can be huge in getting or not getting strikes in key spots.</p>
<p>Pitch sequencing is a constant game of cat-and-mouse, with the pitchers and catchers trying to outsmart the best hitters in the world. Get this guy to reach for this, or to totally misread that. Change your angle on this to make him miss that. It’s fascinating to watch and just as fun to learn. Martin is the professor teaching a master class.</p>
<p><em>“My goal…is to stay one step ahead and find out what works in certain situations against a certain type of hitter. The game changes &#8211; the hitters are trying to make adjustments too &#8211; and there&#8217;s not just one right call I can make, but as long as I know my pitcher and he believes that I know him and we feel confident together, then we&#8217;re a better team.”</em></p>
<p>A better team? That&#8217;s a good call.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo © Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/03/07/the-art-of-pitch-calling-a-masters-in-communication/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Being Optimistic about Jarrod Saltalamacchia</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/02/23/being-optimistic-about-jarrod-saltalamacchia/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/02/23/being-optimistic-about-jarrod-saltalamacchia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 2017 15:03:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dave Church]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[josh thole]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=9113</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays have a fantastic starting catcher in Russell Martin. He&#8217;s everything you want in a catcher: a solid hitter, a good defender, and someone who can handle a pitching staff well. Even in the first stages of a potential decline, he&#8217;s the best the Jays have ever had at the position and one [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Blue Jays have a fantastic starting catcher in Russell Martin. He&#8217;s everything you want in a catcher: a solid hitter, a good defender, and someone who can handle a pitching staff well. Even in the <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/12/13/russell-martin-going-forward/">first stages of a potential decline</a>, he&#8217;s the best the Jays have ever had at the position and one of the best backstops in baseball.</p>
<p>After a stretch where Martin caught R.A. Dickey in the first season of his Jays contract, the usual backup catcher to Martin has been Josh Thole, who served as Dickey&#8217;s personal catcher. This was a source of some frustration for Jays fans, as Thole wasn&#8217;t very good. He was the opposite of Martin: He couldn&#8217;t seem to hit or defend.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a good thing for a backup catcher to have at least one bankable skill. Maybe they&#8217;re a good defender, a catch-and-throw guy. Maybe they&#8217;re someone with occasional pop and the ability to make good contact, as old friend Dioner Navarro flashed occasionally. Thole&#8217;s one skill was jumping on the Dickey knuckleball grenade, but a personal catcher for a back-end starter who isn&#8217;t skilled with the bat or the glove doesn&#8217;t do a whole lot for the roster.</p>
<p>The biggest name to come out of the Jays&#8217; search for a backup catcher <em>this</em> offseason was Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and that&#8217;s not just referring to the length of his actual name. Saltalamacchia was a familiar name to Jays fans, as he was the starting catcher for the Red Sox from 2011-2013. That was also the most successful three year stretch of his career. His time in the majors since has been less notable, as a disastrous stretch with the Marlins demoted him to backup catcher territory. After a dismal year and a half in Miami, he showed a flash of life in Arizona before a bad 2016 with the Detroit Tigers.</p>
<p>Even in that forgettable 2016, Saltalamacchia still had one modest skill: power. 12 homers in 292 at-bats might not seem like much, but after four years of watching Josh Thole&#8217;s pea-shooter at-bats, even a mild threat to go yard might have Jays fans more comfortable with Martin resting occasionally. Thole&#8217;s highest slugging percentage with the Jays was .278. .278! That&#8217;s not his batting average! How is that even possible?</p>
<p>Saltalamacchia&#8217;s defense doesn&#8217;t grade out especially well, proving <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Nichols_Law_Of_Catcher_Defense">Nichol&#8217;s Law of Catcher Defense</a> true in at least one instance, though Thole dragged that law through the mud by being bad at both. And if you don&#8217;t like strikeouts, he&#8217;s not going to be much help there either: <a href="http://www.brooksbaseball.net/h_landing.php?player=457454&amp;time=month&amp;startDate=03/31/2016&amp;endDate=02/22/2017&amp;s_type=2">Brooks Baseball</a> has his likelihood to swing and miss anywhere between &#8220;high&#8221; and &#8220;disastrously high&#8221;, depending on your preferred flavor of pitch. He&#8217;s gonna flail a lot to sell out for that power.</p>
<p>We could compare slash lines, but after taking a shot at Thole&#8217;s slugging percentage before, we know how that&#8217;ll play out. Even Saltalamacchia&#8217;s avert-your-eyes-bad .171/.284/.346 represents an improvement over what the Jays got from Thole and the returning Navarro last season. And there&#8217;s always the chance Saltalamacchia finds his groove for a while again, as he did with Arizona for a time in 2015. That&#8217;s where that past success can play into what we might expect: he did it before! He can do it again, right?</p>
<p>No amount of improvement from the backup catcher will hide the fact that if Russell Martin is down for an extended period of time, the Jays are in trouble. This is why they didn&#8217;t invest heavily in the position before, and why they ended up with Saltalamacchia this offseason. For one out of every five days, the gains will be marginal, but the perception is much better with a proven commodity in place. There is some benefit to the newfound ability to pick and choose when Martin rests, as opposed to &#8220;Dickey is starting,&#8221; but the modest investment the front office made will pay off more in the optics than on the field. And that&#8217;s perfectly fine.</p>
<p>Is Jarrod Saltalamacchia a good backup catcher? Probably. The Jays got a recognizable name with prior success without paying out the nose, hoping that his more recent time in Miami and Detroit isn&#8217;t completely indicative of his actual skill. And if he is in decline, it&#8217;s not that much of a loss, playing one or two days a week at a position where the bar for performance isn&#8217;t set terribly high. He&#8217;ll wander into a meatball, hit a dinger, and we&#8217;ll count our lucky stars that a bench player contributed something substantial. After the last few years of dreading every day off for the starting catcher, the Jays will take what they can get.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: © Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/02/23/being-optimistic-about-jarrod-saltalamacchia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Report: Blue Jays and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia &#8220;Nearing Agreement&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/01/24/report-blue-jays-and-c-jarrod-saltalamacchia-nearing-agreement/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/01/24/report-blue-jays-and-c-jarrod-saltalamacchia-nearing-agreement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2017 22:32:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jarrod Saltalamacchia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=8719</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays *may* have found their back up catcher for 2017 according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. The team and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia are nearing an agreement on a minor league deal that will pay Salty $1.25M if he makes the majors, plus an additional $250K in incentives. The [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Blue Jays *may* have found their back up catcher for 2017 according to <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/824014940268822528" target="_blank">Shi Davidi of Sportsnet</a> and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. The team and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia are nearing an agreement on a minor league deal that will pay Salty $1.25M if he makes the majors, plus an additional $250K in incentives. The deal is pending a physical.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source: Saltalamacchia signing minor-league deal with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a>, $1.25M if in majors, plus $250K in incentives. Deal pending physical.</p>
<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/824018324195594240">January 24, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Saltalamacchia, 31, has been in the league since 2007, and is most known for his power. For his career, he has averaged 20 home runs per 162 games with a triple slash line of .234/.309/.413. In 2016, playing for the Detroit Tigers, he hit 12 home runs with a .239 TAv in 92 games played, but hit much better in 2015 with Arizona (.280 TAv). Of particular value is that he is a career .244/.322/.440 hitter vs. RHP. Given Russell Martin&#8217;s proficiency against lefties, this would allow the Blue Jays to mix and match Martin&#8217;s day&#8217;s off to put out an ideal lineup.</p>
<p>Salty&#8217;s number one quality, of course, is not being Josh Thole, the lacklustre catcher the Blue Jays were forced to carry since 2013 because of R.A. Dickey and his knuckleball. With Dickey gone, the Blue Jays were able to upgrade at a position they previously were held hostage on, a net positive for the 2017 club. Saltalamacchia&#8217;s downfall offensively is his high strikeout total, which is to be expected from somebody who gives up contact ability for the choice to hit for power.</p>
<p>Defensively, Saltalamacchia has had a few good framing seasons by the numbers, but none the past few years, making it likely he is subpar at this point in his career. His arm is the same, as he has always had trouble throwing baserunners out.</p>
<p>This move likely means recently claimed catcher Juan Graterol and Blue Jays farmhand A.J. Jimenez will be sharing time in AAA Buffalo, standing by in case of injury to Saltalamacchia or starter Russell Martin. Jimenez, however, is out of options, so he would have to clear waivers before being sent down once more to Buffalo, and as he has already been outrighted once, could elect free agency. It was expected that if the Blue Jays didn&#8217;t add another catcher, those two would fight it out for the second catching job, but it now looks like they will be facing off with Saltalamacchia instead, who would be considered a favourite to land the job.</p>
<p>All that being said, according to a club source, the team might end up going with prospect Reese McGuire in the role instead, hoping he shows enough in Spring Training to bring his fantastic defensive skills on board. The club&#8217;s first choice for the role was Chris Iannetta according to the source (but he wanted a better chance to start and signed with the Diamondbacks), with a secondary group of Salty, Dioner Navarro, and Brayan Pena behind him.</p>
<p>Overall, there is always no such thing as a bad minor league deal, and if Saltalamacchia shows enough in March to win the job, then the Blue Jays will be pleased. The Blue Jays remaining holes stand in left field and in the bullpen, with the club hoping to add another left handed reliever. It remains to be seen how they will address those issues, but some clarity should come soon with pitchers and catchers reporting in just over three weeks.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: </em><em>© Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/01/24/report-blue-jays-and-c-jarrod-saltalamacchia-nearing-agreement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
