Comments on: BA’s Cooper: on Thole and Davis

By: jack butler505

jack butler505 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:12:59 +0000

Thole reminds me a little bit of John Baker on the Marlins-a catcher who doesn’t have much power but will consistently be around .300. That being said, once Schneider goes, I say make give Omir Santos the starting job. And if not, we have Abruzzo, Pena, and Doyle all as catchers in addition to Thole

By: wright3b

wright3b — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:18:57 +0000

Well this year, the Mets and Dodgers are top teams that steal bases but in years to come maybe alot more teams are running teams — look at Pittsburgh the OFers run very well. I like Thole and hope he can become a nice catching prospect, but if not I hope an AL team finds him very useful in which we can trade for another need (maybe an ARM or something)

Remember guys the minors is to 1) have young players to down the line become pros in New York 2) have players to trade to help the organization

Now you want to bring up that New York makes bad trades (which they do alot) fine, but maybe Thole is more a DH type player. But at 22, the Mets have time to see if his catching ablity improves.

By: NickM

NickM — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:00:23 +0000

I dont think it should take that long.. hes killing pitchers in AA (with his bat), he should jump to AAA this year. But again, that depends on how the Mets feel about his defense and game calling.

By: theperfectgame

theperfectgame — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:03:54 +0000

Here’s my take on the Thole situation. At the end of the season, the Mets will believe one of the following 3 things: (1) Thole’s defense is MLB ready (or close enough that it can be polished at the MLB level); (2) Thole’s defense is not yet MLB ready, but he could still reach that point; or (3) Thole’s defense is not MLB ready, and it’s unlikely it ever will be (at least to the level of a Major League starting catcher).

If (1) is true, Thole should be the Mets starting catcher going into Spring Training next year. They should bring in a veteran as his backup, someone they’d be comfortable enough to have as a Plan B regular catcher.

If (2) is true, Thole should be in AAA as the starting catcher, focusing on whatever deficiencies kept the Mets from considering him for the big league job.

If (3) is true, but the Mets are comfortable enough with him as an MLB backup catcher, then I guess that’s where he should be. I just don’t see why as an organization you’d make that determination on someone so young.

To me, it makes no sense to have Thole as the major league backup if scenario (1) or (2) is true. If either is the case, Thole needs to be getting regular work, be it at AAA or in the Majors.

As far as Cooper’s leading criticism, CS% is one of the most overrated statistics out there. Frankly, it’s as much a function of the pitcher as it is the catcher (for what it’s worth, only 11 MLB catchers with at least 30 starts this year have thrown out runners at a clip better than 31.5%). Regardless, it doesn’t even matter that much. After the Mets, the Dodgers are the most likely team in the NL to attempt a steal, with 81 tries in 70 games, an average of just 1.16 attempts per game. If throwing out runners is Thole’s main problem, then I’m thrilled. I don’t care if he only throws out 15% of would be base-stealers, his offense more than makes up for it. It seems more likely, however, that his trouble areas are gamecalling and pitch framing (which Cooper also mentioned). That’s the kind of thing that requires lots of reps and close coaching, neither of which he’s likely to get as an MLB backup.

By: mark4212

mark4212 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:57:53 +0000

Well Thole is 22 and in AA. You figure he gets another 2-3 years of seasoning in the minors if need be to work on his defense and game calling in AA this year and AAA next year then you have to assume that he will be ready to go.

If he’s not a catcher he has little or no pop to be considered an every day anything.

By: NickM

NickM — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:49:46 +0000

re: Thole – i remember someone here said why bring up Thole to be a backup catcher next year… well JJ Cooper basically answered that. His defense still needs to improve this year though, if it does, I can see him being the backup catcher for the Mets next year.. and if they think he has the pontential to be a #1 starting catcher they should sign someone like Bengie Molina to a 1 year deal. Molina/Thole would be a nice catching tandem next year, but again thats assuming if Thole improves his defense a bit more.