Opposition research: Agustin Ramirez

At first glance, you might think that Marlins’ catcher Agustin Ramirez is having a strong rookie season. A .714 OPS with 21 home runs is very solid output from the catcher’s position. He has also chipped in 14 stolen bases.

So, when you see that his WAR is just 0.0, you start to question why it’s so low. Part of it is because he plays almost half of his games as the team’s designated hitter. And part of it is because he grades out as perhaps the worst defensive catcher in the league.

I take defensive grades with a grain of salt and have voiced skepticism about players who derive too much of their value from defense. (As it turns out, I was correct in not wanting Steven Kwan.) But it seems that the grades are correctly harsh in this case. He leads the league with ten errors to go along with another league leading 17 passed balls.

Is he good at controlling the running game? Not at all. He’s thrown out just 8 of 87 attempted base stealers.

At the very least, the Marlins seem to have a good young power bat in their lineup. Whether he improves his defense enough for that bat to remain at the catcher’s position remains to be seen.

Goldballs

In honor of Ramirez’s odd WAR, I went with one of the stranger characters to appear in X-Men comics. Fabio Medina developed the ability to project golden balls of an unspecified substance from his body, which he can control and use as weapons. Naturally, he was given the codename Goldballs, which he was not especially fond of. He has tried to switch his codename to Egg, but let’s face it, Goldballs is probably going to stick.

This seemed like a fun, throwaway power, until the Krakoan era of X-Men comic books, when the gold balls were a key part of the resurrection process the X-Men developed to bring back dead mutants.

While it is still possible to move up or down, by far, the most likely scenario is that the Phillies end up with the second seed in the National League. That raises the question as to how they’re planning to handle the final six games of the season, especially since they’re facing two teams that have been eliminated from postseason contention.

They will presumably continue to run out their regular lineup at least until the bye is clinched. But it’s also likely that they’ll also use these games as a chance to experiment with some things for the playoffs, particularly when it comes to their relief pitching.

I would definitely use Orion Kerkering if any high leverage situations arise, in hopes that he might regain his form. (Not that a strong outing against an also-ran proves anything, but if he falters here, you know you definitely can’t trust him for the playoffs.) I would also have Walker Buehler ready to come in as soon as one of their starters looks like he’s starting to have one of “those” innings.

As for us fans, I understand if you feel the past week has sapped away some of your excitement about the team. Yes, they won two exciting games against the Dodgers, but because of the time, many of us could only watch highlights of them in the morning. And now that the western swing is over, the Phillies will have six mostly meaningless games against also rans.

I know that this is going to cause some concern that the Phillies will lose their edge, and they won’t be able to recapture their intensity for the playoffs. But there’s nothing that can be done about that. My suggestion is to just sit back and enjoy the end of the season and save your angst for the playoffs.

I’ll conclude by wishing my Jewish brethren a happy new year! Please enjoy your apples and honey!

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