By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
September 4, 2014
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” — Sir Winston Churchill
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” — Someone, just not Albert Einstein
I should begin this article by taking you back to the year 2009 of our Trout.
You might remember the ’09 Detroit Tigers baseball season, which ended on October 6th in a Game 163 versus the Minnesota Twins in the monstrosity formerly known as the Metrodome.
If you remember correctly (and only hypnotism, amnesia, Alzheimer’s or copious amounts of Jack Daniel’s make you forget) the Tigers basically lost that do-or-die matchup because of their AWFUL fucking catcher, Gerald Laird.
In that game, Laird went 0-for-6 with two strikeouts and a mind-boggling number of men left on base. TEN, to be exact. Yes, in a one game playoff, Gerald Laird STRANDED TEN MEN.
To put that in context, the Tigers left 12 men on base before JD Martinez’s three-run blast on Tuesday night in Cleveland and that team “effort” was excruciating to watch. Now, remember that Laird basically did that ALL BY HIMSELF in a one game face-off to determine postseason eligibility.
If Gerald Laird performed his craft in Bogota instead of Detroit, he would have been the recipient of a Colombian Necktie upon Red Bird II’s return to Metro Airport.
But what many fans forget is the reason Laird was allowed to complete the baseball equivalent of “Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines” is because the Tigers refused to utilize a rookie catcher in the final week of the season.
On August 5, 2009, Alex Avila made his Major League debut. All he did between the call-up and September 18th was put up a .369 OBP, .625 slugging percentage and OPS of .994.
Granted, it was a small sample size (56 at-bats) but Avila had proven that he wasn’t overwhelmed by big-league pitching.
Then, inexplicably, Jim Leyland decided to stop playing Avila. Between September 18th and the holocaust known as Game 163, Avila only had FIVE at-bats.
FIVE!!!!!!!
And it’s not like the Tigers had either Johnny Bench or Gary Carter in front of the kid. Laird finished the 2009 season with a .225/.306/.320 slash line!!!! It’s still a mystery why Avila was basically shut down in the last ten days of the season, rendering him useless when the team desperately could have used his bat in Game 163.
(Where was your fucking nepotism when we needed it?)
Ya know, when Laird stranded the population of Rhode Island in a must-win situation.
So why am I bringing this up almost five years later? Am I trying to torture you? No. I mention the Avila/Laird colossal fuckup because THE TIGERS ARE REPEATING THE ’09 SCENARIO IN ’14!!!!!
As you know, the Tigers have a serious issue behind the plate. Avila is a very good defensive catcher who holds his own versus right-handed pitching when Kevin Rand isn’t spoon-feeding him tapioca pudding.
But Avila is TERRIBLE versus lefties.
.222/.274/.303 bad.
Yet, those numbers look Silver-Slugger-worthy compared to what his understudy, Bryan Holaday, does against southpaws.
.157/.195/.200.
Look at that again.
.157/.195/.200.
No, seriously. Those are Holaday’s numbers against left-handed pitching this year.
It’s a motherfucking epidemic at this point- and the Tigers’ rookie manager doesn’t even get it. He continues to platoon these two because the moron obviously doesn’t understand what a negative platoon split is!!!!!
And not only is Holaday useless as a compliment to Avila, he is also a third-trimester abortion defensively. He can’t catch balls thrown to him from the outfield (see last night’s game at Progressive) and he couldn’t throw out my 88-year-old grandma with rheumatoid arthritis trying to steal second.
This situation would be incredibly dispiriting if there were not a reasonable alternative to this disaster.
But there is.
The Tigers just happen to have a young catcher whom they drafted in the second round three years ago. A backstop who is EXCELLENT defensively according to members of the Tigers organization. A young lad who supposedly has no problem “calling a game.”
A right-handed bat who CRUSHES left-handed pitching to the tune of an .879 OPS in Toledo this year.
But is James McCann going to get playing time in September with the Tigers struggling to win a division they put on layaway last offseason?
Nope. Not according to the team’s Mimbo manager:
Imagine never being in the big leagues and then all of a sudden in September, a team’s trying to make the playoffs and you’re going to stick a rookie catcher in there? I don’t think that’d be prudent. I just don’t think it’s a smart baseball move.
Really, the crux of the reason I wouldn’t hit for (Bryan) Holaday yesterday is I don’t think putting McCann in a one-run or a tied game in the middle of a pennant race would be fair to McCann or to the pitchers. He doesn’t have a feel for what these pitchers have thrown. He hasn’t worked with them. They don’t know him.
Familiarity with the major-league hitters that they’re facing and the major league game and the atmosphere. It’s a tough time to come up and be thrown in the fire. I think generally it doesn’t happen at the catching position unless you’re forced to by an injury.
What the fuck is this Ivy League imbecile talking about? Whose fault is it that McCann wasn’t called up a month ago when everyone and their mother suggested it!?!!?!??!!
You’re going to make the excuse that McCann doesn’t have enough time to get acclimated when you and your divot-chinned dummy of a boss were the ones who refused to facilitate the move in the first place?!!?!?!!?
Last time I checked, the fan base doesn’t control Toledo call-ups and 40-man roster manipulation. That would be like Spirit Airlines only allotting two hours for a flight between DTW and Ft. Lauderdale to be on time and then getting uppity when it takes the normally-allotted two hours and forty five minutes.
And it’s not like this issue just reared its ugly head in the last few weeks. This has been a problem ALL SEASON LONG and we waited patiently while McCann was properly groomed in the International League.
But now, after waiting all summer for this elixir, you hit us with this bomb? That he isn’t in your plans? That it wouldn’t be fair to throw him into the mix at this point?
Please get eaten by a Great White this offseason. I beg of you, pretty boy, take a Gillette to your wrists and then find some shark-infested waters.
Look, you don’t have the luxury of not playing the kid. He is undoubtedly better than Holaday and it is your fucking fault if the pitching staff isn’t familiar with him.
You can’t continue to play with an eight-man offense versus lefties.
You’ve erased any margin for error because, as I type these angry words, the Tigers trail the Royals by 1 1/2 games in the Central.
James McCann NEEDS to play and if surfer boy isn’t going to insert him, it’s time for Dave Dombrowski to take a page from the Houston Astros’ front-office playbook and FORCE the former Razorback into the lineup.
And if you think I am making too big an issue of the backup catcher position on a baseball team …. well …. I have a little graphic to show you.
