| 06 July 2011
Some truths you just don’t want to know.
Here are two batting averages: .209 and .224. They are the batting averages of two Nationals players since May 1, and they both play the same position. One had an extremely hot April and won the hearts of Nationals’ fans, the other had an extremely poor April and was forgotten on the bench.
Do you know who they are?
.209 = Wilson Ramos and .224 = Ivan Rodriguez
Those numbers are likely surprising to most people, in fact, they were pretty surprising to me too. We all know that Ramos, a rookie, has struggled in recent months, but I think most of us still considered him a better offensive option than Ivan Rodriguez.
In April Ramos asserted himself as the starter by hitting .356/.426/.427 in 17 games, but that small sample size soon fizzled out. While he got us excited with a few big hits, he joined the Nationals in their team-wide May slump that saw them collect a fair amount of losses. This might be a good chance for us to temper our expectations of the young rookie.
In Triple-A last year he combined to hit .258/.293/.378 with eight home runs in 91 games. In the minor leagues he was a career .285/.332/.431 hitter who had not produced a walk rate above five percent since 2008 when he was in Single-A. ZIPS projection for him was to hit .260/.302/.406 this season, and those numbers are probably pretty close to accurate.
Now for the good news. Ramos has been a stellar defender this season in terms of throwing runners out at the plate, and he will learn the ropes in terms of blocking pitches and receiving throws as he comes along. Scouts have said that he projects to be a plus defensive catcher and in the sample we’ve seen so far this season, it’s hard to disagree.
His bat appears to be picking up as well. At the time of this post Ramos has six hits in his last 10 at bats, three of them for extra bases.
It seems then that Ramos’ rookie season is turning into the one we initially expected. Sans a charmed start to the season, Ramos has been an inconsistent, although at times promising hitter who still has a lot to learn. As a result, we should see Ivan Rodriguez get more time behind the plate because he is not as much of an offensive liability as we originally imagined, and because he still is arguably the best defensive catcher in the game.
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