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Is David Ross Really That Bad?
by CubsfaninCA
A lot of people have been complaining since we signed David Ross. Many felt we had to give up a better catcher (Welly) for very little as a result. Others say Lester shouldn’t have a “personal catcher.” But mostly everyone talks about how he’s an automatic out in the lineup. Well, folks, he’s a backup catcher. They have been a topic on Cubs message boards for as long as I can remember, debating the merits of Koyie Hill, Henry Blanco, and the infamous John Baker.
So the question is: is Ross really that bad for a backup catcher and how much does it really matter?
I pulled up the numbers thus far for the main backup catchers in the majors and compared them to Ross. I eliminated the teams that have platoon catchers—nice, but not many teams have that luxury—and anyone with more than 100 PA (because they’re playing too often to be a “backup”) and there were 26 names. I also threw out Jason Saltalamacchia and Drew Butera because they sucked so bad they were released. And I added our old buddy Wellington Castillo in for the heck of it. Here they are ranked by overall WAR:
G | PA | HR | R | RBI | AVG | OWAR | DWAR | WAR | ||
20 | 70 | 1 | 2 | 6 | .297 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 0.6 | ||
18 | 57 | 0 | 2 | 6 | .296 | -0.2 | 3.0 | 0.5 | ||
27 | 68 | 3 | 13 | 10 | .288 | 2.8 | -0.9 | 0.4 | ||
20 | 65 | 3 | 5 | 5 | .200 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.4 | ||
19 | 64 | 2 | 2 | 10 | .283 | -0.2 | 2.1 | 0.4 | ||
18 | 61 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .204 | -2.8 | 4.3 | 0.4 | ||
16 | 53 | 3 | 5 | 5 | .255 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 0.3 | ||
13 | 52 | 2 | 5 | 8 | .222 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | ||
17 | 50 | 1 | 8 | 7 | .174 | -2.2 | 2.0 | 0.2 | ||
27 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .167 | -2.9 | 2.1 | 0.1 | ||
6 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 6 | .250 | 0.3 | -0.6 | 0.0 | ||
10 | 42 | 0 | 5 | 4 | .270 | -1.5 | -0.2 | 0.0 | ||
17 | 52 | 2 | 6 | 3 | .156 | -1.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
21 | 52 | 0 | 5 | 3 | .200 | -2.5 | 1.1 | 0.0 | ||
14 | 58 | 0 | 4 | 1 | .200 | -4.2 | 1.9 | 0.0 | ||
4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -1.2 | 0.1 | -0.1 | ||
20 | 59 | 1 | 5 | 3 | .216 | -1.6 | -1.0 | -0.1 | ||
29 | 78 | 2 | 8 | 8 | .242 | -3.2 | 0.1 | -0.1 | ||
6 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .067 | -3.1 | 0.4 | -0.2 | ||
21 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .182 | -3.6 | 0.5 | -0.2 | ||
10 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .107 | -3.8 | 0.6 | -0.2 | ||
19 | 57 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .170 | -5.7 | 2.2 | -0.2 | ||
10 | 23 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .095 | -4.0 | 0.4 | -0.3 | ||
20 | 67 | 0 | 5 | 2 | .138 | -7.5 | 2.4 | -0.3 | ||
Wellington Castillo | Dbacks | 32 | 82 | 3 | 9 | 9 | .162 | -5.7 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
7 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .050 | -3.5 | -0.5 | -0.4 | ||
22 | 56 | 0 | 3 | 4 | .154 | -5.6 | 0.1 | -0.4 |
A pretty motley group, huh? There are only 3 who have any significant offensive WAR--Phegley, Perez and McKenry, and one of those plays in Coors. And if you think Ross’s .167 is bad, there are 9 catchers hitting less. Defensively, he comes in tied for 6th, and I read recently that he’s #1 in the majors in framing so far. Overall he comes in 9th which actually puts him in the top 3rd for overall WAR so far.
Oh, where’s our buddy Wellington Castillo? Near the very bottom. I’m not sure why his OWAR is so bad, other than it could be that he has more PA than anyone else with that lovely .162 average and .220 OBP—Ross is at .310—despite the 3 HR and 9 RBIs. And if you want to talk about a team with bad catching, the Rays starter (Rene Rivera) has a .156 BA over 157 PA, good for a -15.7 OWAR. That almost makes the fans clamor for Bobby Wilson with his .154 BA. Where were the Rays when we were trying to trade Castillo?
So with the season 1/3 over, the difference between the best guy on the list and Ross is 2.0 WAR. Ross just won a game for us with the pickoff to first base and he also had the walk-off hit on the 31st against the Royals, so there’s 2 games you could say he won for us already. Let’s lay off David Ross. He can’t pitch as well as John Baker, but he’s doing the job he was signed for and any “upgrade” would cost way more money than it’s worth.
We have bigger roster issues.
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