The surpising thing is, he's only 6th on the team in Strike outs.

 

Says a lot about the other players, doesn't it?

The surpising thing is, he's only 6th on the team in Strike outs.

 

Says a lot about the other players, doesn't it?

 

Avoiding strikeouts is definitely not one of the Marlins strong suits. I expect that to improve next year somewhat once the Reggie Abercrombie Experiment is permanently put to bed. I don't have the stats in front of me, but he has some kind of ridiculous strikeout rate like one out of every two at bats.

 

As far as who will be our catcher next year, of course it will be Olivo.

Olivo has done well, if we can teach him to not always swing at the first pitch, he will doe great. He is still young and always runs hard and with Tuck around, his defence will improve.

I was definitely not a big fan of Olivo at the start of the season, but he has become somewhat of an acquired taste. I still feel that he doesn't call a great game, but he's gotten into a rhythm with the majority of the staff. Treanor handles a pitcher better, and unlike Olivo he has enough sense to know which way a breaking ball thrown by a lefthander is going to move. Unfortunately Treanor's bat is a huge liability, not that Olivo's is outstanding. I often consider Olivo's at bat over if he doesn't crush the first pitch.

 

After all of that, I don't think there's anything out there that will bump Olivo out of the spot that is his to lose for next season.

 

This is what I've found as the potentially available catchers this offseason (free agents) along with their VORP (value over replacement player, as computed by Baseball Prospectus):

 

Javy Lopez...-5.6

Doug Mirabelli...-7.5

Chris Widger...-5.9

Mike Redmond...6.4

Jorge Posada...30.6 (club option)

Gregg Zaun...13.7

Henry Blanco...3.8

Damian Miller...1.6 (mutual option)

Mike Lieberthal...4.5

For camparison Miguel Olivo...4.8

 

So Jorge Posada is better, but won't get passed up on that option. Gregg Zaun is pretty good, but he'll be 36 next year and is projected to hit .259 w/ 6 homers...screw that. Mike Redmond will also be 36 with even worse projections. Do you guys want Mike Redmond or will Olivo do?

The surpising thing is, he's only 6th on the team in Strike outs.

 

Says a lot about the other players, doesn't it?

 

Avoiding strikeouts is definitely not one of the Marlins strong suits. I expect that to improve next year somewhat once the Reggie Abercrombie Experiment is permanently put to bed. I don't have the stats in front of me, but he has some kind of ridiculous strikeout rate like one out of every two at bats.

Actually, it's one strikeout in just over three at-bats.

 

As for the K's, I really hope they go down next year, and with another year in the bigs for some of these kids, I'm sure they will. Hanley, Uggla, Willy and Jacobs all have high K numbers this year, and I expect they'll go down somewhat next year.