Which Position is More Depressing: LF or C?
- Jun 26, 2017
- 7 min read
Part II: The Catcher Argument
In the June 5th edition of the Mariner Muse, Patrick Leary laid out his argument for why left field is traditionally the most woeful position for the Seattle Mariners as a franchise. Though he makes some compelling arguments, I am here to tell you today—with derision from some I am sure—that Catcher is the historically worst position for the Ners.
“But…but,” you say, “But what about DAN WILSON?!” Before I get to the argument and defend my position, let me layout my process of qualifying the catchers examined.
For the sake of comparisons, I am only looking at the Opening Day starting catchers who played 100+ games in the season for the M’s, which is generally considered a fair threshold to denote a ‘full-time’ catcher. Then, similar to Patrick’s formula of WAR + subjective opinion + objective public opinion = argument, I will break down the bleakest of Ners positions in the hopes of convincing you that our catchers have been more like doormats than backstops, particularly when it comes to the offensive facet of the game.
The Pre-Wilson Years
Since the Mariners franchise debuted in 1977, the Ners have had 15 different Catchers start on Opening Day. That’s a 2.66-years average shelf life for each starter—which, based on my research, is fairly close to average among most MLB teams. And, sadly, of the fifteen Catchers to start the 40 Opening Day games for the Mariners, fewer than half played in more than 100 games over the course of the season.
We are already off to a hot start.
Looking at the first twenty-seven years of the franchise—call them the Pre-Wilson Years—the following Opening Day starters carried a positive WAR for the duration of the season, but did not produce a greater than 2.0 WAR on the season:
Larry Cox (1979 Opening Day starter), Bud Bulling (1981), Jim Essian (1982), Bob Kearney (’84, ’85), Steve Yeager (’86), Dave Valle (’87, ’88, ’90, ’91, ’92).
A WAR between 0-2.0 is considered substitute-level, so these eleven seasons left something to be desired behind the dish. But, in those early days of Ner sub-mediocrity, there were three seasons where the starting catcher produced a >2.0 WAR. (And, if you’re doing the math at home, that means there were thirteen Opening Day Catchers who finished the season with a negative WAR between the 1977-1993. Ouch). These years were:
1989: Dave Valle posted a 2.2 WAR (albeit in 94 games), slashing an uninspired .237/.311/.354 and generating the bulk of his WAR on the defensive side of the metric. The Mariners finished that season at 73-89, with Harold Reynolds, Alvin Davis, and a rookie named Ken Griffey Jr. accounting for more WAR than all the other batters in the Ners’ lineup that season, including Valle. (11.2 WAR compared to 9.7 WAR for the rest of the roster).
1978: Bob Stinson posted a 3.2 WAR, hitting .258/.346/.404 with a clean 45 walks to 42 strikeouts. His 1978 season checks in as the 4th highest catching WAR season in Mariners history, and the 2nd highest WAR total on that ‘78 team, which went a simply horrid 56-104, finishing seventh in the American League West.
1993: Just a few years after his satisfactory WAR season in 1989, Dave Valle posted 3.4 WAR campaign over 135 games played. That checks in at – gasp – tied for 2nd best WAR in Ners catcher history. He swatted .258/.354/.395 that year, leading the league in hit by pitches (17), and striking out only eight more times than he walked (56 Ks to 48 BBs). That 1993 team finished a respectable 82-80 that season, as Griffey paced the team in WAR at 8.7. Valle’s 3.4 was, sadly, second best on the team.
Now that we’ve run through the sub-standard years of the pre-Wilson era, we have checked off the T-2nd and 4th best catching seasons by WAR in Mariner history. Does Dan Wilson hold the other three spots on the top 5 and shut me up?
Close on the former, not quite on the latter.
The Post-Wilson Years
If you thought this was going to be a chronological endeavor, I apologize in advance. Those who are reading and are chomping at the bit to denounce me with their Dan Wilson truther nonsense, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.
From 2005 (Wilson’s retirement) through present day, the Mariners have started six different backstops on Opening Day, with less-than-middling success. The longest tenured among them was Kenji Johjima, the Japanese transplant who played all 462 games of his career between 2006 and 2009 in a Mariner uniform, starting on Opening Day in each of those four seasons. With 5.3 WAR over the course of those four seasons, Johjima sits in the thick of substitute-level contributions from Ners catchers. His defense was meh, but he did manage a ‘starter’ level contribution in 2007 when he posted a 1.6 WAR in 135 games played.
Johjima’s best season, and the Ners’ 5th best catching season by WAR in team history, came in his first MLB season in 2006. This year, Kenji posted a 2.6 WAR while carrying a negative dWAR (-0.2) metric, which in itself is impressive. He batted .291/.332/.451 with 18 HR and 76 RBI, finishing 4th in the Rookie of the Year voting.
Other than Jojima’s semi-competent 2006-2007 campaigns, Mariners Opening Day catchers have accounted for only three (three!!) positive WAR seasons since. (This is excluding the yet-completed 2017 season and miraculous month of Junino). Chris Iannetta and Miguel Olivo chipped in barely-above-replacement-level campaigns in 2016 and 2010/2011, respectively.
As many fans think back to Johjima with relative fondness, his tenure with the Mariners seems to be the only glimmer of competence behind the dish in the Post-Wilson Years. But that “competence,” mind you, is coming at a very substitute-level clip.
Mike Zunino was supposed to be the white knight galloping into Seattle with facemask in hand and the Golden Spikes on his feet: the potential next Buster Posey, but with better defensive skills.
Yet since being prematurely rushed to the majors in 2013, Zunino has bounced back and forth between the Bigs and the Minors, racking up a 2.2 WAR through 4+ MLB seasons. Not good. As he is only 26 years old, however, he still has the potential to re-write the Mariners catching story, but as of June 1, 2017, he was still very much a below-average catcher.
Zunino may be turning a corner, however, as he is tearing the cover off the ball since his most recent Triple-A Tacoma call-up. There is indeed hope that he can end the Mariners’ history of catching woes. I hope he renders my argument moot, because even depressed Ners fans deserve fleeting moments of joy.
Jus in Bello: The Wilson Years
Dan “The Man” Wilson is the quickest and sturdiest argument against the proclamation of Seattle Mariners’ catching sub-mediocrity. The classic, beloved backstop—who caught from 1994-2005 in a Ners uniform—is in the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame and now an Emmy-award winning actor, thanks to his parts in numerous local TV commercials.
Don’t get me wrong: I frickin’ love Dan Wilson. All of us at MM do. The guy was incredibly nice and still might have the greatest smile in Ners history (albeit Danny Valencia’s is great). So why am I using him to prove to you that catcher is most woeful position in Ners history?
In the pre-Wilson Era (1977-1993), Mariners starting Catchers had only three seasons of 2.0 WAR or greater. That means, for twenty-four of the first twenty-seven seasons, the Ners were trotting out substitute- and replacement-level catching production and, unsurprisingly, the team saw no success.
Then, in the post-Wilson Era (2006-present), the Ners have had one season of catching over 2.0 WAR, and that came from Johjima in 2006 when the Ners weren’t competing for anything.
And now, as we explore the so-called “Wilson Years” (1994-2005) in Seattle Mariners history, you will find that Dan Wilson was merely average (if that), and I posit that one merely average catcher in the history of the organization is not enough to save the position from its woes.
In 12 seasons with the Seattle Mariners organization, Wilson posted a 13.5 WAR in 1299 games, averaging barely over 1 WAR per season with the team. In fact, his three best seasons of 1995-1997 accounted for 9.6 of his 13.5 WAR, meaning he spread out a meager 3.9 WAR over the other 9 seasons (that’s an average of 0.43 WAR/season. Woof).
Bookending his tenure with negative WAR seasons (-0.6 WAR in 1994 and -0.3 WAR in 2005), Wilson held down the catching position while playing more than 100 games in only seven of his 12 seasons with the Ners.
His best year, and indeed the best Opening Day catcher season by WAR in Mariners baseball history, came in 1997 when he posted a 3.8 WAR, slashing .270/.326/.423 with 15 HR, 74 RBI, and 66 R over 146 contests.
Let that sink in for a minute – the GREATEST CATCHING SEASON in Mariners history accounted for 3.8 WAR. In just 9 MLB seasons, Buster Posey has averaged greater than 4.0 WAR per season, besting the 3.8 WAR mark in six different seasons. (He’s amazing).
Dan Wilson, in terms of WAR/season, is almost half as productive as Mike Scio-scia (yes, the Angels’ skip) was, who caught 13 seasons for the Dodgers, averaged 2.0 WAR per season and maxed out with a stellar 5.4 WAR in 1985.
Verdict
With Dan Wilson being far and above the best catcher the Mariners have ever started—it’s not a close margin, folks—how can one not argue it has been the most woeful position in Mariners history?
Patrick argued for left field being the worst position in the forty years of Ners, but guys like Phil Bradley trotted out to left and posted a 4.8 WAR season in 1985 and averaged 2+ WAR/season in his eight-year stint with the Mariners.
Raul Ibanez also played left field with woeful defensive metrics, and turned in some pretty miserable defensive WAR seasons (for a sobering walk down the left field memory lane, be sure to reach back to Patrick’s astute analysis), but he still contributed mightily to the team from an offensive standpoint. Patrick argues that Ibanez is likely the best Ners left fielder in the team’s history, and I definitely agree with him.
But when you stack head-to-head the best at each of these two sorry positions (see below graphic), Ibanez bests Wilson in Total WAR, Best Single WAR Season, and Average WAR/Season.
Though it is a close call in the race to futility (and can we really go wrong arguing whether catcher of LF is worse?), the Ners’ backstops eek out the victory (defeat?) on sheer will, pacing their below-mediocrity to one of the least laudable distinctions in sports: the worst historical position on a franchise that careers a lifetime .470-win percentage in its 40-year history.
Note: I could have also simply structured this whole argument around the fact that the Ners started Jesus Montero on an MLB roster AT CATCHER 100+ times, with him posting a negative WAR in every season with the Ners. But it felt cheap to drop the Montero trump card.
Take a bow Dan Wilson, Dave Valle, Kenji Johjima, Jesus Montero, and the other relatively-unknown catchers in M’s lore. If Mike Zunino can keep up his incredible June, we may be telling a different story in a couple of years. But for now, Catcher takes the label of King of the Bad Positions for the Seattle Mariners…and heavy is the head that wears the crown.
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