2011 Red Sox Community Projections: The Deceptively Mediocre Jarrod Saltalamacchia

by Ben Buchanan on Nov 29, 2011 2:30 PM EST in Community Projections

Looking back on 2011, you might be tempted to call Jarrod Saltalamacchia one of the pleasant surprises of the year. After a miserable start, the Sox' starting catcher really seemed to hit his groove in the middle months of Summer, and for a while had us all thinking we'd found a solid, if imperfect answer behind the plate.

And, certainly, it was a surprising year for Salty. Not many expected the guy to come out and belt 16 homers or put up a .450 slugging percentage, as you'll see below.

The problem is that not many expected a .288 OBP either.

As good as the first four months of the season were for Salty, the last two were an absolute disaster, with Salty becoming an automatic out in September. And now, really looking back on the season as a whole, it's hard to feel terribly comfortable running with Salty outside of a platoon situation.

But, hey, at least the projections were decent.

Username	PA	RBI	HR	AVG	OBP	SLG
Conor Duffy	560	48	11	.240	.320	.540
Hallelujah	450	38	10	.238	.315	.360
Maineac	525	49	11	.259	.291	.369
RSNexile	450	45	10	.245	.320	.415
Remembering9ergods	425	51	12	.261	.325	.388
Boomtown87	531	66	13	.272	.367	.398
Flasoxfan	490	48	9	.233	.305	.375
Ganset	515	40	12	.245	.305	.390
German Red Sox Fan	272	19	3	.211	.299	.393
Theartolater	425	45	6	.255	.320	.380
Marisa Ingemi	425	38	9	.261	.326	.380
Steve Boyle	370	58	13	.255	.330	.438
Dsharp	411	52	10	.248	.329	.375
Pl1166	430	64	14	.274	.350	.450
Rogue Nine	400	45	12	.276	.335	.440
Sean O	400	50	12	.265	.340	.412
Mattsullivan	418	67	13	.267	.335	.409
Bloggy	410	32	6	.211	.295	.360
BoldandBrash	410	40	10	.250	.320	.430
Totheights	517	51	14	.266	.321	.432
Sologub	330	27	9	.236	.320	.386
Pedro Werneck	380	41	11	.236	.318	.395
Gizmosandy	250	32	7	.225	.289	.301
ThePanda	450	60	15	.260	.340	.400
Robertsstolesecond	389	57	12	.247	.321	.431
Outofleftfield	421	60	9	.253	.330	.411
NJ Native	600	71	18	.244	.344	.410
Westcoastredsox	478	68	15	.268	.297	.405
Nuthinboutnuthin	434	47	11	.246	.312	.410
Redsox15	330	42	11	.252	.319	.368
Birdhouse	433	43	9	.275	.333	.389
Kgtruth345	462	79	21	.261	.319	.401
Redsoxmike	320	31	5	.248	.315	.382
Tarrsk	440	49	13	.251	.329	.420
Royredd87	376	44	7	.226	.313	.380
Drabidea	385	42	14	.238	.325	.420
Justin_Bobo	465	47	12	.267	.348	.426
Lord Duggan	305	51	5	.250	.325	.395
Gnick55	480	60	11	.253	.328	.420
Kraken613	390	42	9	.243	.311	.411
Brogshan	399	46	11	.251	.321	.404
Dustin's #1 Fan	520	47	3	.249	.317	.384
mmmmm	499	48	9	.250	.328	.420
QW	376	48	14	.251	.312	.401
TheLoneDavid	545	90	23	.302	.360	.498
Jason A	480	58	15	.250	.327	.457
Andyfeeney	402	59	9	.241	.287	.383
Alfredo	458	64	16	.255	.338	.453
111SoxFan111	450	49	13	.265	.335	.425
Schulz	440	61	12	.253	.318	.401
HeyYoCraig	385	59	19	.266	.318	.369
Bdo3272	420	63	18	.258	.317	.358
Maeamian	475	58	7	.254	.308	.365
RickD	340	40	4	.240	.310	.350
AlohaSox	420	48	10	.245	.305	.360
Buccaz	388	42	6	.258	.312	.355
Ben Buchanan	455	54	10	.255	.325	.405
Jgonzales19	348	60	18	.261	.318	.386
Averages	427	51	11	.252	.321	.401

The three "finalists" are Drabidea, HeyYoCraig, and Alfredo. Frankly, to me, Drabidea's best encapsulate what Salty was this season, so I'm tempted to just give it to him. But for fairness' sake, we'll go with Drabidea getting two arbitrary points, and Craig and Alfredo getting one. Or Drabidea gets one and they get a half if you want to nitpick these completely meaningless valuations.

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Comments

I finally got a yellow!

Man I sucked at these.

by Sologub on Nov 29, 2011 2:42 PM EST reply actions

Another goose egg for me...

I’ve only got one yellow so far…

When do we start projecting 2012??? I have to redeem myself.

I thought we’d never win it all. And then we went down 0-3 to the Yankees in 2004, and I thought it was the end of the world.

Wait ’til next year!

by AlohaSox on Nov 29, 2011 8:57 PM EST up reply actions

Blasphemy!

Writer at Over The Monster. Follow me on Twitter! It'll be super awesome fun! @mattymatty2000

by Matthew Kory on Nov 29, 2011 3:55 PM EST reply actions

Ha ha...man.

Was I ever down about Salty.

Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.

@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
OTM | Silver Seven

by Bloggy on Nov 29, 2011 4:11 PM EST reply actions

You mean his last month was terrible...

… then there was that amnesiac haze where no one can recall what happened. Except I remember Robert Andino demanding to know who my daddy was. And not like my biological father daddy, either.

Tampa Bay Rays Championships: Still Zero

"Playoffs?!? Don't talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? I just hope we can win a game!"

- Jim Mora, seeing through space and time to describe the 2011 Boston Red Sox

by nuthinboutnuthin on Nov 29, 2011 6:53 PM EST reply actions

One yellow!

Woo!

Check out my blog at http://conor-soxrox.blogspot.com

by Conor Duffy on Nov 29, 2011 8:14 PM EST reply actions

At the start of 2012 the

year the buzz was that we would be happy to get a league average for C. He beat that big time until he (and the team, and Tek) wore out. Let’s see (excluding Wake): blocked pitches? Check. Throwing out runners? Check. Hitting for power? Double check! Working well with pitchers? Check. Learning from Tek? Check. Things to work on? Conditioning. K/BB ratio. Hitting for average. Mentor Lavarnway. More?

by GerryT on Nov 29, 2011 8:36 PM EST reply actions

He's decent platoon catcher, but brittle

Watched him coming up in Texas, had streaky power surges from the left side. Things soured in an odd way at the end. Some things that usually stays in the clubhouse came out when Salty was openly bitter about losing his job, even though he played himself out of a job. Plus at that time, he had all but lost his ability to throw the ball back to the pitcher, which made his playing at the major league level not possible. He seemed absolutely oblivious that the Rangers had no choice but to send him down to AAA to try and work out his throwing issue. The Rangers, who are usually tight-lipped, all but said Salty hid an injury from them and questioned his work ethic. It’s the only time I can ever think of where the Rangers ever said anything remotely like that about a player, and they once had Milton Bradley on the roster, so things must’ved gotten very bad brtween him and the team.

Baseball's hard, guys. I mean, it really is. You can love it but, believe me, it don't always love you back. It's kind of like dating a German chick, you know?

by Buttermaker on Nov 29, 2011 10:27 PM EST reply actions