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The Funny Thing About John Buck

By Clark Fosler | January 24th, 2008

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Most followers of the Kansas City Royals do not view the catching position as one of strength on their team. After all, John Buck does not instill fear in opposing pitchers and the four different players he has been paired with in the past season never have either. Still, I’m willing to bet that many of you did not realize the following:

- Of the 30 catchers in baseball who got 300 or more plate appearances last season, Buck was tied for 5th in home runs.
- He was 8th in slugging percentage (.429)
- 11th in OPS (.737)
- Despite hitting a career low .222, Buck had career high numbers in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage

Those numbers may speak more to the lack of hitting catchers in the Majors right now more than anything else, but they are worth noting. Certainly, John Buck had his share of problems in 2007, not the least of which was a manager who insisted on giving Jason LaRue and his zesty .148 batting average nearly equal playing time.

That fact aside, John struggled mightily with runners in scoring position: posting a meager .583 OPS in those situations. However, in the two season prior, Buck’s OPS with runners in scoring position was actually better than his overall OPS, so (as many statistical baseball minds will tell you) the failures of 2007 may simply be more coincidence than a trend.

Buck also struggled to throw out runners, nailing just 21.4% (the league average is 25.5%). Again, though, Buck had thrown out over 30% of potential base stealers in each of the three prior seasons. That John’s error total was up over the past seasons indicates maybe a player trying too hard in this area. At any rate, Buck has basically been a solid defender behind the plate and we might just have to chalk up his throwing problems in 2007 as ‘just one of those seasons’.

While the Royals have never seem to be overly pleased with Buck’s game calling skills, it is worth noting that John’s catcher’s earned run average was actually a third of a run better than that of LaRue in 2007 and only slightly higher than that of Paul Bako in 2006. To be honest, an outsider has little real ability to judge a catcher’s ability to handle pitchers and call a game. I would say Buck is at least average in this area.

The funny (or not so funny) thing about John Buck is how incredibly streaky he is as a hitter. Sure, every hitter goes through peaks and valleys, but John Buck takes it to an extreme. In April of 2007, Buck put up a fantastic 1.106 OPS. In August of the same season, Buck managed an OPS of just .476. That is a six hundred point swing for two pretty large sample sizes in the same season. Go play around with some other player’s monthly stats and find me a bigger gap.

Considering that an OPS between .700 and .800 is basically the ‘average’ range, John Buck has been average in a month exactly ONCE in three seasons. In 12 of the 18 months, he was below .700, and six of those months were below .600: i.e. basically awful. Buck has also posted above average numbers in the other five months of this three year survey, three of those being above .875: i.e. basically really good.

Bottom line: John Buck is a streak hitter who is either really hot or really cold, seldom in between and twice as likely to be cold than hot.

Despite the low batting average and bad situational hitting, I believe Buck progressed at the plate in 2007. While a .308 on-base percentage is not very good, it did represent a career high and came at the same time that Buck increased his power by a third over previous years.

In the end, despite Buddy Bell’s curious maneuverings (which included advising Buck to stop using the leg kick that had seemed to spur his early season hitting success), Buck ended up playing in 112 games, the exact number he had in 2006 and just five less than in 2005. He was red hot in April playing every other day and godawful cold in August and September doing the same, so who knows if John responds better to frequent rest or frequent play. With the signing of Miguel Olivo, I imagine Buck is certainly looking at no more playing time than in the past and possibly less depending on which one of them gets hot and for how long.

John Buck is not Jorge Posada, but he stacks up better than one might think with the majority of the catchers in the league.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 8:19 am and is filed under John Buck. 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.

12 Responses to “The Funny Thing About John Buck”

Zack Daddy says:

January 24th, 2008 at 9:04 am

With all due respect, I’m pulling for Olivo to be our starting catcher. Buck’s streakiness makes him one of the most unreliable hitters in the game. He’s like a box of chocolates, ya know. And, if he can’t throw out base runners better that 20% of the time, who needs him? I say trade him if he gets off to a good first half. Should be able to get something semi-solid in return for a cheaply signed, DURABLE league-average catcher. I vote John off the island.
Scott says:

January 24th, 2008 at 9:29 am

I think Olivo can push Buck a bit harder than last year. Last year the only sure thing was Buck would always catch Meche. That’s not going to be the case this year. Meche and Olivo know each other well. When Olivo was traded to Mariners, he caught almost every game for Meche.
Chaim Mattis Keller says:

January 24th, 2008 at 9:51 am

But why would we even consider changing Meche’s status quo from last year? If he pitched well with Buck’s calling, let him do so again.
AusSteveW says:

January 24th, 2008 at 10:06 am

Since replacing the very non-spectacular Jason LaRue with Olivo, I have ZERO concerns regarding the catching position. I think it is as strong as virtually any other team in the entire League.

I think John Buck will return to a somewhat less-exagerated leg-kick that he employed successfully for a time last year, and have his best season ever. At least that is my hope and there ain’t nothing wrong with HOPE. 8^)

I would have a simple plan… keep working with BOTH catchers on improving their weaknesses. In the meantime, allow our new Manger who does understand playing to our guys strengths to use them appropriately. I would NEVER have a platoon or designated catcher situation. What I would do is allow Buck to get the majority of the starts unless he fails miserably. The times I would play Olivo is when we play a team that loves to run. THAT is his strength isn’t it? That is my perception. Go with that and see how it all shakes out.

Go Royals!!! C-ya, AusStevew
glenn says:

January 24th, 2008 at 11:23 am

I guess my biggest problem with Buck is his RISP avg is horrible. I don’t know how he ranks with other catchers in the league Clark.
Brandt says:

January 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

This is off the topic but is anyone else amazed about how the Yankees can spend their money? They already hit a record for payroll with over 218 million and also about to sign Cano to a 4 year deal. I don’t know how people can like the Yankees.They buy anything they want. There never is any question of whether they will be good or not because how could they be bad with that insane payroll. This is what makes me happy to be a Royals fan. Yes they may have sucked for the past years but it makes it so much better when they get good. I HATE the Yankees. Not because they win but because they BUY wins. Screw the Yankees and the whole East coast as far as I’m concerned. Lets go Royals and the Midwest!
Brandt says:

January 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

Its like playing a video game and taking off the payroll restrictions so you can sign anyone you want. Yeah its fun winning for a bit but then not so much because you realize all you did was buy from other teams.
Zack Daddy says:

January 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Uhhhhh…I think I could learn to adapt as a Royals fan if the organization had an unlimited payroll. If we took the Yanks and Royals and swapped rosters, putting the Bombers in baby blue, I would be very happy.

“Now batting third for the Royals, Alex Rodriguez. Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter are on-base. Hideki Matsui is in the hole. Mariano Rivera awaits in the bullpen for a chance to put this game away.”

I would like to keep Alex Gordon and Zack Greinke, however.
Craig Brown says:

January 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

What amazes me about the Yankees is how they can spend so much cash, yet have such a sorry starting rotation.
Jonathan says:

January 25th, 2008 at 6:18 am

Craig - EXACTLY. The highest payroll in baseball bought them lots of bats…but no arms. If Hughes and Kennedy are anything less than great, that rotation is going to be in rough shape for a long, long time given how everybody is hording arms nowadays. Their bullpen is pretty sorry, too. Chamberlain is a MONSTER, but Rivera’s starting to show signs of being mortal. And besides those two they have, um, Farnsworth. And Bruney. ‘Nuff said.

Speaking of Yankees, is it wrong of me to pull for the Yanks and Mets to win the Santana sweepstakes? I want Johan out of our division! (Hey, 3 more wins/year for us….)
Dos Carlos says:

January 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Clark:
Your use of the word ‘zesty’ in relation to LaRue’s .148 BA made me snort out loud in spite of myself.

Well played, Fosler. Well played.
Dos Carlos says:

January 25th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Clark:
Your use of the word ‘zesty’ in reference to LaRue’s .148 BA made me snort out loud in spite of myself.

Well played, Fosler. Well played.

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Clark Fosler

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