Martin Maldonado

[Glen]

Batting average by month:

April - .262

May - .263

June - .235

July - .194

August - .100

 

I see a disturbing trend here.  Looks like we can add "C" to our offseason needs, once again.  Love his defense but he's racing back to his career .220 average.

[vladdy#27]

He has already caught 200 more innings than he has in any other major league season with a little under 2 months left to go. He has caught in 96 of the Angels 113 games. It's not very surprising if he is a little bit fatigued.

His defense is also that valuable it doesn't matter if he hit's .220. 

[Jason]

13 minutes ago, Glen said:

Batting average by month:

April - .262

May - .263

June - .235

July - .194

August - .100

 

I see a disturbing trend here.  Looks like we can add "C" to our offseason needs, once again.  Love his defense but he's racing back to his career .220 average.

I really like him behind the plate but he's Espinosa like with the bat. 

[Cdaniel]

I agree with vladdy, Maldonado is tired.

[totdprods]

I'm fine with whatever Maldonado contributes offensively. He's well worth it with his defense. 

I do agree that he's getting fatigued though. This is the toughest stretch of the year, and not only has he set career highs with games played and innings caught, he's been out there almost every single game. I imagine we're not far from seeing Graterol and Perez swap places now that there will be some more playing time opening up.

[JustATroutFan]

Angels traded for him because of his great defense, not for his bat. Whatever he gave them offensively would be a bonus. He's been great on defense for the Angels, albeit, that was not good pitch selection on the pitch that hit Jones last night, which then led to the grand slam from the POS Machado.

[stormngt]

1 hour ago, Glen said:

Batting average by month:

April - .262

May - .263

June - .235

July - .194

August - .100

 

I see a disturbing trend here.  Looks like we can add "C" to our offseason needs, once again.  Love his defense but he's racing back to his career .220 average.

It might be because he is over worked and out of gas.

[Stradling]

It's probably time to bring up Perez and platoon the rest of the season.  

[bloodbrother]

Maldonado wasn't brought in for his bat and his lack of hitting wouldn't be an issue if the guys the Angels were leaning on actually started hitting(Pujols, Calhoun, Cron, etc). His defense has been top notch which has helped him produce nearly 2 WAR. I'll take that from the catcher spot

 

[stormngt]

Just now, hangin n wangin said:

So what's the explanation for every other year where he hit .220?

I am explaining why his production is dropping late in the year.  It's a logical explanation of the change in the data.  

I haven't followed him the previous years.  However it doesnt make sense that he is dropping down to his average.  Science of averages doesn't work that way.  There isn't some unknown force saying he is destined to be a 220 hitter so he has to go into a slump because he is batting 280.  Averages only indicates what you have done in the past.  It has no explanation on the future. 

[Stradling]

They should probably take away three of his homers since he had never hit more than 8 before.  

[ettin]

1 hour ago, vladdy#27 said:

He has already caught 200 more innings than he has in any other major league season with a little under 2 months left to go. He has caught in 96 of the Angels 113 games. It's not very surprising if he is a little bit fatigued.

His defense is also that valuable it doesn't matter if he hit's .220. 

 

1 hour ago, totdprods said:

I'm fine with whatever Maldonado contributes offensively. He's well worth it with his defense. 

I do agree that he's getting fatigued though. This is the toughest stretch of the year, and not only has he set career highs with games played and innings caught, he's been out there almost every single game. I imagine we're not far from seeing Graterol and Perez swap places now that there will be some more playing time opening up.

This discussion is why I am advocating that the Angels acquire a left-handed hitting, offense-first catcher with average defense. Clearly the Angels will use him again heavily in 2018 (and possibly extend him too) so any backup catcher will not get a terrible amount of playing time. By having a lefty to compliment and spell Maldonado you can also use that bat off the bench which is why the backup needs to be offense-first to make them usable by Scioscia as a late-innings pinch hitter.

Basically an Alex Avila type backup. Someone like a Chance Sisco for instance.

[OregonLAA]

How much of the success of the pitching staff can be attributed to Maldy being our catcher? I bet a lot. Love the dude. He can bat .220 if he plays defense like that and calls good games. Seems like a gamer. Hope we extend him. 

 

Having said that I do wish Scioscia would lighten his load just a tad. Funny how our old catchers wouldn't catch Day games after night games and Machete catches pretty much every game no matter what

[stormngt]

2 hours ago, hangin n wangin said:

His production is dropping late in the year because he sucks at hitting, like he always has.

Your subjective opinion.

[Angel Oracle]

Perez has had plenty of action at SLC.   It's time to flip flop he and Graterol, and then platoon Maldonado and Perez the rest of the season.   Maldonado will have still caught about 120 games in 2017, and thus should be ready for at least 120 games in 2018.

[ten ocho recon scout]

His bat would be fine if we could stash him batting 8th with real hitters batting 4-7.

 

[Ray McKigney]

Trade for Napoli.

[Slegnaac]

If the rest of the line up was pulling it's weight (Trout excluded) then we wouldn't be worried about Maldonado's offensive  capabilities.

[mulwin444]

The guy is wizard with the staff and throwing out runners.  I'm fine with him starting 120 games...it just sucks the rest of the offense is terrible