Almost three AM.

Toronto Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia is a unique Major League Baseball player.
Most baseball fans would agree that – despite being a total rally killer (according to idiots) – a home run is the best possible outcome for which a batter can hope. Players who hit a lot of home runs are typically really great baseball players. See Bonds, Barry. J.P Arencibia hits a lot of home runs, but is actually a really bad baseball player. In fact, he hits so many home runs that it takes an astronomically terrible effort in all other areas of his game to produce as little value as Arencibia does. He’s so good at hitting home runs and so bad at everything else that it’s almost an accomplishment.
No position player hits as many home runs while returning so little value offensively and defensively. In fact, if we break down the contributions of the numbers that comprise his wins above replacement total, we learn that the only reason he even has a positive WAR over his career is because of the handicap he receives as a catcher. His greatest attribute it seems is the Blue Jays’ insistence on playing him every day.
Again, this is despite his home run prowess. I’m not looking at these numbers outside of his dinger total. This includes it.
Since 2011, 29 catchers have accumulated at least 650 plate appearances. Of those 29, Arencibia ranks fourth in home runs behind Mike Napoli, Carlos Santana and Matt Wieters. Both Napoli and Santana are part-time catchers (at best). He is, for all intents and purposes, one of the best home run hitting catchers in the league, but then …
… of those 29 catchers, he’s also accumulated the:
second highest strikeout rate;
second lowest on base percentage;
tenth lowest wRC+;
the worst fielding runs above average; and
the sixth lowest WAR.
Of those catchers below Arencibia in terms of wins above replacement, none have played as often over the last three seasons and none enjoy the benefit of positional adjustment and replacement baseline that he does.
This season, he’s walked three times, collected 22 singles, hit 11 doubles and gone yard 12 times. He’s also been hit by a pitch once, meaning that of his 193 plate appearances, he’s gotten on base 49 times while striking out 60 times. His strikeout rate is higher than his on base percentage. He has as many walks as ground outs into double plays. And his defense is considered decidedly below average.
And yet, the Arencibia that has collected 12 home runs this year is most assuredly the best Arencibia possible, considering that 22% of his fly balls have become home runs, a number – with fluctuations typically associated with luck – that is 6% higher than his career average and 11% above the league average. It’s going to get worse, and it’s going to be really bad.
To anyone who thinks Arencibia’s home runs make him more of a clutch player, his WPA among those 29 catchers ranks him 23rd.

From:http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2013/05/31/ten-stray-thoughts-on-a-friday-74/

I watched it right up until like 1ish, it was like the 13th. There was 4 innings after that? Wow

ok ty for tl;dr

Sabametrics would have said Joe Carter was an awful baseball player. The advanced offensive statistics like wRC focus a lot higher on OBP and strikeouts than they do on power. That article pretends as if Arencibia only hits homeruns, yet they neglect to mention another advanced statistic, ISO which Arencibia also excels in. His defense gets brought down by "pitching framing" statistics which praise catchers who moonlight as part time magicians (Making balls in strikes). I've also seen people use the pitchers ERA against him to claim his game calling is bad. This is when the Jays had awful pitching, like early this year and last year.



There is absolutely no chance, that Thole gets a try when Arencibia is not hurt. Thole is an awful catcher and people are attracted by his semi-respectable walk rate. He belongs in AAA.

This post was edited by Caedus on Jun 1 2013 10:13pm

Why bring up ISO for? We all praise his power and know he has it, I even know from watching him play, not even looking at his stats....Your ISO is gonna be high when your avg is under .250...lmfao,.the point has nothing to do with his sabermetric perspective output...it's delving into how horrid this player is, that even with his power factored in, he is still a joke.

It's baseball, you have to score more runs than the other team to win...not hit more home runs...it would be nice if JP drew a walk once a week.

ya he needs to start taking pitches, worse than lawrie in that factor id say

also why is our offense taking the night off again?

or 1 3 1 out

I can never tell if you're trolling or being srs

i chose a good top to turn the game on

wtf with the lineup tonight? where was melky hitting?

This post was edited by chips456 on Jun 1 2013 10:29pm

Watt