Last call for Lieberthal?
October 5 2006
Mike Lieberthal had
surgery yesterday to repair a torn abdominal muscle. Lieby suffered the
injury last Saturday, September 30, against the Marlins and may be sidelined
for six to ten weeks. The free-agent Lieberthal is unlikely to be back with
the Phillies in 2007 after an '06 campaign in which he made over $7 million
while getting just 209 at-bats.
The likely loss of Lieberthal, who holds the Phillies record for games
caught with 1,139, puts the Phillies in something of a bind. Over the last
11 seasons the list of catchers other than Lieberthal who have gotten more
than 200 at-bats for the Phillies in a season is short. Johnny Estrada got
298 at-bats, and bad at-bats at that, in 2001 while Lieberthal was
recovering from an injury. Benito Santiago, who took over for Darren
Daulton for a one-year stint, led the Phillies with 30 home runs in 1996 on
their way to a 67-win year.
The Phillies have had some prospects along the way. They traded Johnny
Estrada to the Braves in December, 2002, for Kevin Millwood. Three years
before that they traded Bobby Estalella to the Giants for Chris Brock.
Estalella hit three home runs in a game for the Phillies in 1997, but
retired before the 2006 season as a .216 career hitter. We may not yet be
done with Estrada, who turned 30 in June. Estrada was an All-Star with the
Braves in 2004 but wasn't always
happy in Arizona this season as he hit
302/328/444 in 414 at-bats for the Snakes. Don't know where he'll wind up,
but it probably won't be Arizona after his recent comments. Estrada made
just $2 million this season with the Diamondbacks but is arbitration
eligible for 2007 and likely to see a significant raise.
Here's a look at what the Phillies catchers did this season:
| Player | AB | AVG | OBP | SLG | RC/27 |
| Lieberthal | 209 | 273 | 316 | 469 | 4.99 |
| Coste | 198 | 328 | 376 | 505 | 6.76 |
| Fasano | 140 | 243 | 284 | 386 | 3.30 |
| Ruiz | 69 | 261 | 316 | 435 | 4.24 |
| Player | G | Inn | RF | PB+E | SB | CS | % caught |
| Lieberthal | 60 | 484.0 | 8.57 | 8 | 29 | 18 | 38.3 |
| Coste | 54 | 434.1 | 7.05 | 8 | 25 | 6 | 19.4 |
| Fasano | 50 | 365.2 | 7.16 | 5 | 29 | 8 | 21.6 |
| Ruiz | 24 | 176.1 | 8.06 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 21.4 |
The biggest question
about the Phillies catchers for 2007 is whether or not the Phillies can get
it done with a combination of Chris Coste and Carlos Ruiz.
Coste was absolutely awesome at the plate this season, he hit and hit, even
in the clutch, and his offensive performance was as good as his numbers.
He's a great story and I think he'll be part of the Phillies catching
picture for next year. He was terrible defensively for the Phillies,
though, and struggled especially throwing runners out. Lieberthal threw out more base stealers than all of the other Phillies
catchers combined, despite playing just about a third of the innings behind
the plate. Coste hit 177/236/272 in 147 miserable at-bats at Triple-A this
season and that has to cause some concern, even in so few at-bats. He'll be
34 when the 2007 season starts.
Carlos Ruiz is better defensively, but it's important to remember that he's
not young. He'll be 28 when the 2007 season starts. The good news is that
he absolutely killed Triple-A pitching, hitting 307/389/505 with 16 home
runs in 368 at-bats, leading the Red Barons in home runs and RBI. At his
age, though, he's got a lot of work to do in a very short time if he's going
to be more than a backup catcher.
Jason Jaramillo will turn 24 next week, but he didn't exactly tear things up
in moving up to Double-A this season. He hit 248/320/388 with six home runs
and 39 RBI in 93 games, coming off a season where he did exactly tear things
up at Lakewood. In 2005 he hit 304/368/438 with the Blue Claws. You have
to believe he's a ways away from helping the Phillies.
I don't think there's a lot of people that are going to feel all warm and
fuzzy about a Coste/Ruiz tandem at catcher for the Phillies in 2007. Coste
pretty clearly has trouble fielding the position. He smoked the ball this
year, though, and if can hit like that over a season rather than 65 games he
would obviously help the Phillies. Ruiz had a monster year with the bat at
Triple-A and is good with the glove, but there's certainly no guarantee his
success will translate for the Phils.
It may be that what the Phillies do at catcher depends most on what they do
elsewhere. Their offense is good already, and there are some big spots that
are still question marks at this point in the outfield and at third base.
If the Phillies can add a bat in the outfield and/or at third base, they may
be willing to give Ruiz significant time with Coste filling in frequently.
Or they may see catcher as a place where they can improve themselves
offensively. Either way, I think Coste and Ruiz are likely to be around for
'07, Ruiz as at least a backup catcher and Coste as a backup or third
catcher and guy who can fill in around the infield.
The good news for the Phillies is that at the very worst, their catching
situation may be Coste and Ruiz. And that's a lot better than their
current options at say right field or third base. It also means they
don't need to go out and pick up a warm body to fill the position.
In playoff action yesterday the A's won 5-2 to take a 2-0 lead over the
Minnesota Twins. The key play of the game came in the top of the seventh.
With Jason Kendall at first and two outs Mark Kotsay hit a ball into center
that Torii Hunter dove for but did not catch. Kotsay wound up with an
inside the park home run that put the A's up 4-2. Esteban Loaiza held the
Twins to two runs over five innings and the Oakland pen came up with four
scoreless innings. Oakland lost second baseman Mark Ellis for at least the
series with a broken finger, likely paving the way for D'Angelo Jimenez and
his .183 average during the regular season.
The Mets kicked off their series with the Dodgers with Phillie-killer John
Maine on the hill and got a 6-5 win. Carlos Delgado and David Wright
combined to go 6-for-9 with five RBI for New York. Maine was 6-5 with a
3.60 ERA this year -- against the Phillies he went 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA.
The Yankees and the Tigers were rained out last night and will play game two
this afternoon. Cards and Padres and Mets and Dodgers also play game two
today.