The Mets put a bandage on one of there glaring weaknesses by signing veteran catcher Rod Barajas. As a fantasy baseball fanatic I know Barajas first as a just below the fantasy Mendoza line, injury replacement catcher. If you got him during the right two week stretch he could give you a .280 batting average with a few homers and half a dozen RBI but he never seemed to be able to maintain that type of production for long. A closer look at his stats (not something I recommend on a full stomach) reveals a very bad 2009 season offensively.
AVG OBP SLG OPS
2009 - .226 .258 .403 .661
While he did have 19 HR and 71 RBI that .258 OBP is obviously a very bad number. However his career numbers are a little more respectable. Lets take a look at the last 6 seasons of his career...
2008 - .249 .294 .410 .704 11 HR/23 Dubs/49 RBI
2007 - .230 .352 .393 .745 4 HR/8 Dubs/10 RBI - 48 games. Groin injury
2006 - .256 .298 .410 .708 11 HR/20 Dubs/41 RBI
2005- .254 .306 .466 .771 21 HR/24 Dubs/60 RBI
2004- .249 .276 .453 .728 15 HR/26 Dubs/58 RBI
So his 2009 averages were down across the board. The only number that was close is the slugging pct and like I said, the guy hit 19 homers. These are the only really relevant seasons of his career as before 2004 he was only a backup. A quick look beyond the box score during these 6 seasons really paints the picture of his career so far. After spending 5 seasons as the 2nd and 3rd string catcher on the D'Backs in 2004 he got an invite to the Texas Rangers spring training camp and won the backup job. When starter Gerald Laird got injured Barajas had his chance. With good defense and decent power he was able to keep the job even after Laird came off the DL. He started for Texas until the end of 2006 when he actually played 10 games at first. In 2007 he was set to sign with the Toronto BJ's but backed out at the last minute and signed with the Phillies. He split time with Carlos Ruiz and eventually suffered a groin injury that ended his season. In 2008 the Phillies declined his option and he ended up signing with the BJ's, the team he had blown off the year before. He started out as a backup to Greg Zaun but after Zaun stunk up the joint Barajas took over.
Now lets take a look at his defense. We will stick with the 6 relevant years. Over that span his caught stealing percentages are...
2004 - 34%
2005 - 34%
2006 - 33%
2007 - 37%
2008 - 34%
2009 - 34%
Im gonna go out on a limb and say he will finish with 34% in 2010. His 34% in 2009 was good for 3rd among catchers who played in at least 50 games. While scouring the web for evidence of Rod's defensive prowess I came across another blog... http://theghostofmoonlightgraham.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/baseballs-best-defensive-catchers/
In that blog Barajas is listed as the #1 defensive catcher of 2008 citing just 4 errors and 2 passed balls in 785 innings. That is terrific.
It looks like the Mets have found a more than adequate stop gap at catcher who should make Brian Schneider a distant memory and satiate the Met fan pining to see Josh Thole.
Bold Prediction... .250/.310/.460/.770 with 16 HR 22 Doubles 60 RBI and good defense
Next up I will take a look at the combo of Barajas and Blanco to get an idea of what these two are capable of working together.
