Defensively, Barajas is also sub-standard. In today’s game he tried to back hand a pitch and whiffed. This isn’t the first time that he’s half butted on defense. He’s thrown out 2 of 20 base stealers. That is horrible.

When statistical analysis fails, apologists fall back to intangibles, in this case like pitch calling. We know, by Barajas’s own admission, he forgot what pitch he called in a recent game. Furthermore, the pitch calling abilities of a catcher are always blown out of proportion. Watch a game, much of the time, the catcher is looking to the dugout for the next pitch call.

To write that Barajas is providing what was expected is either an admission that the acquisition was poor to start with. Or, its a dumbing down of standards that warrants its own blog post.