MVN - Most Valuable Network

M’s Sign Johjima to 3-Year Extension?

What an amazing vote of confidence the Mariners have placed in their farm system, and specifically, in Jeff Clement, today, in signing an extension to a struggling catcher who frequently has problems communicating with his pitchers. Don’t get me wrong–I like Kenji.

But on the other hand, I do not like great hitting catchers who have caught large numbers of games and suddenly start struggling. A few of them come to mind: Tony Pena, Gary Carter, Terry Kennedy… Before you look them up, let me summarize this one for you–they were not hitting .290 with 20 homers three years later. Not even close. Sure, it is too early to close the book on Kenji, and he could easily snap out of this, but I would never have offered him $8 mil a year while he’s in this deep a tailspin.

Jeff Clement is our top prospect. Sure, he has had some struggles, but nothing I have heard is catastrophic–maybe they have spun it well? I don’t know, but I have the impression he has done better than Ryan Christensen. What is the plan now? Make Clement a right fielder? I hope not. A DH? Certainly not a first baseman? The guy’s a good hitter, but not that good.

The deal is done, and now, what I would recommend is that we continue making Clement a catcher. We haven’t been able to find a DH worth a snot in several years, not since Edgar retired. Well, maybe we have one, or two, now. Find out who is comfortable throwing to Johjima and who isn’t. Those who like to work with Johjima get to have him catch, while Clement DH’s. Those who can’t communicate well with him throw to Clement while Johjima DH’s. Keep Burke or some other third catcher around for third catcher/Clement’s defensive replacement so we don’t lose the DH if we need to pull one of them (or take the chance, knowing that if we do, it is late in the game and we start cycling through pitchers and pinch hitters anyway)…

The end result is that both catchers work about 75-85 games, their careers run a lot longer, they don’t wear out as the season goes along, and we get better performances out of both of them. And the pitchers who have had problems throwing to Kenji don’t have to worry about it, while Clement’s defensive shortcomings won’t hurt us every day and maybe he can improve on them.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.