Where Will Rod Barajas Land?
by Tom Dakers on Jan 13, 2010 8:32 PM EST
in Toronto Blue Jays Analysis
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PrintThe Jays have a free agent left out there that hasn't been signed yet and not I don't mean Kevin Millar (who I do wish would sign with someone else just to shut up the tiny voice in the back of my head that says 'he is going to come back you know). Rob Barajas is a type B free agent but he still hasn't signed anywhere.
His problem has been that there were a lot of catchers out there, many of roughly the same value as Rod and many that teams could sign without giving up a draft pick. Rod had a good season, hitting 19 homers, but the .258 on base percentage is just so low. Add in that he turned 34 last year and he's not been a hot name in the rumor mills. But then several other catchers have signed two year deals at this point. A lot of them
So I was wondering if any one had any idea where he might end up and if he will sign soon enough that the Jays will get a draft choice out of it.? Let us know where you think he will sign and how much he will get.
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Mets
The Molina situation will breakdown completely before Spring Training, and they’ll end up inking Barajas to a 1 year deal between $2-3 million
Rod would give us NINE in the first 110 picks
We’ve got the 11th, 33rd, 38th, 58th, 69th, 76th, 90th and 110th. IF Barajas signs we also get the 48th.
I’ve looked it up but I can’t find an answer – what happens IF Rod signs a “Minor League” deal with some club? Do we still get the pick? OR – is the pick only if he signs a “Major League” deal?
I’d assume we get the pick – but I’m not sure. As to which team he ends up with – who knows.
Rod Barrage-em
I hope he signs with another team so he can barrage some more.
HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM, I PRESS DOWN MAH GUNS!
“His problem has been that there were a lot of catchers out there, many of roughly the same value as Rod and many that teams could sign without giving up a draft pick.”
Ummm….no one has to give up a pick to sign Barajas.
He’s worth a supplemental round pick which doesn’t come from the signing team.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with the Giants if he’s willing to admit that he’s going to be pushed aside by Posey at some point.
The Astros could use a reliable guy…
Cleveland has a similar situation to SF but they seem less inclined to spend money
Maybe Seattle as well though Barajas isn’t their type of guy (albeit, there aren’t really any OBP guys left in the catcher crop)
right
the Jays get a pick, but the team who signs him doesn’t have to give anything up (other than their hopes of not having an out-machine in their lineup)
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
I would like to see what rod hit w/ 2 outs?
What his avg/obp was with runners in scoring position?
I believe these numbers could shed light on him.
Also his stats for hitting with 2 outs and runners in scoring position ?
If anyone can beat me to post these numbers im going to look for them .
I
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Jan 14, 2010 7:49 AM EST via mobile reply actions
not sure what light tihs sheds, but
BA/OBP, 2 out: .228 / .281
2 out, RISP: .267 / .313 / .517
barajas was an out-machine last season, but — to be fair — he wasn’t helped out much by a .229 BABIP vs. .275 career
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
he is slow and didn't hit line drives (or ground balls for that matter)
he might have been a little unlucky, true, but not drastically. fwiw, Fangraphs has it at .234, by the way.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
The two out runner in scoring position is almost better than average, an shows a consistant approach- not to mention solid production 19hr 70 RBI
t
19 & 70 is nice from a catcher
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Jan 14, 2010 8:30 AM EST via mobile reply actions
2 out, risp stat means nothing
when the sample size is just 64 plate appearances. Over his career, Barajas has had 366 plate appearances with 2 out, runners in scoring position and OPSes .664, a bit worse than his overall career OPS of .691.
true, 19 homeruns is nice from a catcher, but it’s not very nice when it comes at the cost of a .258 OBP over 460 plate appearances. I mentioned earlier that Rod was not exactly the benefactor of good luck (.229 babip), but I’d imagine that any bounce-back he’d get would be mitigated somewhat by aging. I like the 19 dingers, but I’d prefer Chris Snyder’s .233 / .333 / .398 to Rod’s .238 / .284 / .408 career line.
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
plus he is homerun streaky, which is also not so helpful (not to berate Barajas too badly, but):
2009 HRs
April (2) – both in a single game
May (1)
June (4) – including 3 within 5 games
July (2)
August (7) – including 5 within 6 games
September (3)
October (0)
10 of his 19 home runs were in two months
8 of his 19 home runs fell with two hot streaks representing 11 games
21 straight games without a tater in May-Jun (vs. 1 per 8.5 games season average)
hate to be a whiner, but it is hard to win without consistency
Thank you for the knowledge.
I will look further into my posts lol,
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Jan 14, 2010 12:49 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Babip? What is the stat ?
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Jan 14, 2010 1:21 PM EST via mobile reply actions
In baseball statistics, Batting average on balls in play (abbreviated BABIP) is a statistic measuring the percentage of plate appearances ending with a batted ball in play (excluding home runs) for which the batter is credited with a hit 1. BABIP is commonly used as a red flag in sabermetric analysis, as a consistently high or low BABIP is hard to maintain – much more so for pitchers than hitters. Therefore, BABIP can be used to spot fluky seasons by pitchers, as those whose BABIPs are extremely high can often be expected to improve in the following season, and those pitchers whose BABIPs are extremely low can often be expected to regress in the following season. The equation for BABIP is:
BABIP = {H-HR}/{AB-K-HR+SF}
where H is hits, HR is home runs, AB is at bats, K is strikeouts, and SF is sacrifice flies.
A typical BABIP is .290
just to dovetail on that a bit
pitchers have almost no control over BABIP, but hitters do. Hitting a lot of line drives, having a lot of your fly balls go for home runs (thereby taking them out of the BABIP calculation), and being fleet of foot (particularly when combined with a high ground ball rate – you’d be amazed how a few infield singles per month change your batting average over the course of a season) are all things that hitters have at least some control of and that help BABIP.
You’d expect Barajas to have a low BABIP because he doesn’t hit line drives, is very slow, and hits a fair number of non-HR fly balls. While a .230 BABIP would indicate that the average player was substantially unlucky, in the case of Barajas 2009, it might only mean he was slightly unlucky.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
In vernons high ceiling seasons 02,03,06
was his babip the same as 04,07,09?
Or close?
And I really appriciate the banter !
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Jan 14, 2010 4:46 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Wells' two best seasons, 2003 and 2006
are the only two in which he ever posted a BABIP above .300. It’s pretty common for a player’s best years to coincide with his best BABIP years, of course.
OPS and BABIP by year
2002: .762, .288
2003: .909, .322
2004: .809, .286
2005: .783, .275
2006: .899, .313
2007: .706, .265
2008: .840, .299
2009: .711, .282
But in 2003 and 2006, his BABIP, while slightly higher than you might expect, really wasn’t too out of line with his line-drive rates or other numbers. The real takeaway is that it really looks like injury affected his play in 2007 and 2009 – far fewer of his fly balls were going for home runs than at any other point in his career, suggesting a power-sapping injury, and he posted the two lowest line-drive rates of his career. Hopefully, this season he is healthy.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
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