Posada vs. Cervelli?

You can’t say anything against the way Cervelli’s played when he’s gotten the chance this year, but playing well in sporadic appearances and playing every day over a long season are 2 different things. Cervelli’s defense looks very good but the question is whether he can hit on a regular basis. As we found out last year with Molina and Moeller, you really can’t afford an automatic out in your everyday lineup in the AL. Cervelli hit fairly well in the low minors before he got hurt in 08, although with no power.

Still I don’t think Posada’s ever gotten the credit he deserves. He is still one of the 2 or 3 best hitting catchers in baseball, and when you look at the garbage most teams are forced to use at that position I don’t see how you can not appreciate him. I think the best solution when Molina comes back is to dump Berroa and carry 3 catchers. This way Posada can DH more, especially against fast teams like the Rays, and we can still pinch hit for Cervelli/Molina without losing the DH spot.

when pitchers can’t throw a damn strike, hangs all his pitches. and/or simply miss all his spots. is it really teh fault of catchers or anyone else but the pitcher’s?

For catcher’s game calling to have any use at all. the pitcher need to be able to execute his pitches. if you have a game where the guy has great stuff and good location but gets hammered. sure, you could blame the catcher. but 99% of poorly pitched games are not like that.

Give the kid more time behind the plate. Let Posada DH more. It will bother him but it’s all about the team. Right? I have read that a lot of pitchers don’t like working with Jorge. The staff hasn’t pitched as well since he’s returned.

As somebody said earlier, Cervelli has an OBP of .310 and a SLG .333.

Right now, Cervelli simply does not have a good enough bat to play everyday, and his game-calling and defensive abilities cannot compensate for it. It’s not even close. If he can’t post at least a .700 OPS (and that might even be pushing it, on the low end), you simply cannot justify putting him in the starting spot on a daily basis, that is unless you DON’T want to win games.

It’s OKAY to say the pitching staff pitches better with Cervelli behind the plate. It’s OKAY if Posada is better suited to more DH time. The Yankees are NOT Jorge’s team, Jorge is a Yankee. I know some fans think the Yankees owe Jorge for the championships he helped win. Well those Championships were almost a decade ago. I am a big Jorge fan, but I am a bigger Yankees fan. If the pitchers pitch better with someone else, well then the answer is easy. Posada gets less time behind the plate. You can look up every stat you want to counter my opinion but watching the Yankees play almost every day it becomes more and more evident. The pitchers have a harder time getting on Jorge’s page. The starters rarely get past the 5th inning. Maybe since Jorge is less apt to accommodate the younger pitchers (which relative to him is all of them), a younger catcher is more apt to trust the pitcher. Maybe like I mentioned before Jorge has some tendencies in calling games that the other teams are aware of. All I know is if you look at AJ’s past two starts you see a big difference. I wish some of the Yankees fans would be more open minded as to how to utilize Posada as opposed to relying on nostalgia.

I am really starting to like this kid. He hits for average (no power), calls a really good game (Jorge never did), and brings so much energy to the team. It just seems the games are just run better when he is behind the plate. Plus that gives a pretty good core (catcher, SS, 2B, CF, LF/RF) of homegrown yankee talent (plus Hughes and Joba). I say trade Molina and matsui to help bullpen, make posada the DH, only catching 2 or 3 games a week (splitting time). This gives Cervelli not full time duty but enough for him to gain experience. And hell if he doesn’t work out we do have the kids in the farm system.

he’s done a very nice job in limited duty, if he can give Posada some days off in July and August, and keep Jorge fresh(er), that’s great. They need to develope a catcher, better sooner than later. It’s really too small a sample of work to judge Cervelli. but it’s been mostly positive.

For Joba against the Indians, 8th inning 3rd out Joba had great control on his curve-ball and kept pounding the strike zone, Posada stood up and shook off Joba twice on that inning, Joba shook him off again and threw the same curve-ball that Cabrera lined out to Teixera for the third out. My point is Joba had his confidence on that curve-ball all day long striking out and making the indians ground out on the first and second pitch. Posada was not showing confidence in joba that time questioning his pitches even though he had it going all game. When posada was hurt his Bat was not missed the team still won games cervelli hit singles and got on base when it was needed, Cervelli should catch for AJ, CC and let Posada catch for Joba and Pettite and wang. I still have not seen Cervelli catch for Wang but i will be interested to see how he brings his confidence back up.

That Posada’s time behind the plate should start being limited and Cervelli get a shot to catch more games, considering the pitchers seem to do well under his glove?

I’ve watched Posada from the beginning and he gets shaken off more then any other catcher. I rather have Cervelli or Molina behind the plate. Posada will hit but if he catchs everyday you will see a decline in the pitching staff. matsui and a big maybe on Damon should be let go next year so Posada can dh. Damon can still hit but he can’t field his position. It’s gotten so bad he even looks bad on pop-ups. Matsui is too streaky and he can’t field either and with him you can’t count on his legs holding up.