LIke fap said if Santos can command, then nobody would even be talking about Arencibia.

Its not a mistake to make a good swing, with good timing, even if the result isn't positive. There is success and failure. Hurrying a throw while charging the ball and 2-hopping it on the money and in time also isn't a mistake. Mistakes do happen and will happen again. When a player is set up to repeat the same mistake again and again because he isn't good enough to prevent it-- then one has a problem.

When a catcher slaps his mitt at pitches it is a mistake every time. When he misses the ball, then its more noticeable. When he uses bad footwork or when he comes up with his body as a first movement instead of going downward, success just won't occur often.

"A ball thrown that hard into the dirt did not look like an easy pitch to block to me."

It wasn't an easy pitch to block. It should have been blocked. Bouncing behind the plate and within 2 feet should always be blocked. Might Molina have missed it? Maybe-- maybe 1x out of 20 IMO. His mechanics and footwork are just too good to not have a huge success rate.

"Bouncing behind the plate and within 2 feet should always be blocked."

Nice to see someone actually remember where that pitch was.

In the other thread people claimed Santos missed the plate by 4 feet or threw a 55 footer lol.

Hahaha! Really? He was set up outer half and the ball came in maybe 2 inches inside and bounced just behind the plate. A bad pitch but very blockable.

if santos hits his spots, the game would of been over. you're passing the buck.

He heard it on a sports show recently. It's egregious to use the
word egregious more than once a day.

Just got back from the Skydome and this thread and Kirksaw's reflect exactly what I thought during the ride home.

We all love JPA's spirit and HR stroke but C is too important a position to send him out defensively in late innings with a lead and the game on the line.

Perhaps if JF had sent out Mathis for the 9th perhaps the game would still be going. The lead-off double to Pedroia was all Santos' fault but the winning and insurance runs were on JPA. When Bautista unleashed that amazing throw right on the money it should have been inning over.

If Santos has to elevate every pitch to keep it from going to the backstop he loses most of his effectiveness. Strikeouts with his high heater are great but don't expect a lot of them if hitters are sitting on the pitch. How many low balls would have been called strikes if Jose Molina had been framing? How many for Mathis?

I'm not throwing JPA under any bus but we acquired a light-hitting superb defensive specialist for a reason and the 9th inning tonight seemed like an appropriate time to use him.

You're being pretty hard on JPA's D. That was way more on Santos than JPA. JPA can't control if Santos is throwing all over the place or not. If Santos is going to be the closer he needs to come in throwing strikes.

Santos has always had a little wildness. We knew that when we acquired him. It comes with his good stuff, kinda like AJ Burnett or Morrow.

Hope you're right.

Didn't pitch well is an understatement.
JPA had a chance on one and no chance on the other.

a catcher should always catch what is thrown to him, and a foot outside the strike zone. everything else is fifty-fifty. and those pitches weren't anywhere near where JPA set up