Not sure if this was reported as a standalone item anywhere, but Erik Boland of Newsday informs us that manager, Joe Girardi, has announced that Jorge Posada will catch A.J. Burnett this season. A serious amount of ink was devoted to the Burnett-Posada duo a season ago, after the two seemed to have “problems” working with one another, which led Girardi to install Jose Molina as Burnett’s everyday catcher (and which Posada did not like very much).

Result-wise, while there may be some substance to the notion that the two did not gel well as a unit – over 16 games with Posada behind the plate, Burnett held hitters to a .270/.353/.421 line and posted a rather poor K/BB of 1.72 (79/46), and with Molina, Burnett held hitters to .221/.307/.352 line over 11 games while posting a much improved 2.66 K/BB (77/29) – in reality, as stated by a number of articles, much of Burnett’s struggles last season were not actually Posada-related, rather, they were brought on by mechanical problems with the now 33-year old’s delivery. Unfortunately for Posada, he became a newspaper causality of these struggles, as it is much more interesting to discuss a pitcher and a catcher’s seemingly ineffectual relationship instead of mechanical flaws in one’s motion.

Anyway, to Burnett’s credit, he is excited to begin working with Posada this season and wants to disprove last season’s media-driven controversy regarding the two as batterymates. “I was looking forward to it from the first day of camp to be able to put that behind us and start working together,” Burnett said today when asked about throwing to Posada this season. “A lot of stuff was blown out of proportion last year and we’ve talked a handful of times already and we’re just real excited to put that behind us and move on, get better and learn from each other.” He also took fault for last year’s woes, saying that he was not right in the head, at times, and was often questioning himself, not Posada.

Photo by Reuters

Well, not really, but John Harper (Daily News) seems to think so:

Jorge Posada’s defense is an issue that’s not going away, especially as he turns 39 next year. Joe Girardi’s willingness to let Jose Molina catch A.J. Burnett in the playoffs was an indication of his feelings about the importance of defense behind the plate, and if Matsui is not re-signed, Girardi is likely to ease Posada into more of a DH role.

In that case, they need to re-sign Molina. He’s such a brilliant defensive catcher that the Yankees can carry his bat in the lineup for, say, 80 games.

Okay, so I have two issues with Harper’s text, as these issues appear to be central going into the 2010 season. The first issue is in relation to Harper’s opening sentence, in which he writes, “Jorge Posada’s defense is an issue that’s not going away, especially as he turns 39 next year.” Now, Harper cites no statistic or specific incident which demonstrates Posada’s defensive decline. This is likely because there are no sources from which he can draw upon in order to verify that Posada’s defense is, indeed, as poor as he says it is. Instead of solidifying his case with factual analysis, we are left to assume that Posada is a terrible catcher because Jose Molina got to catch A.J. Burnett in the postseason.

That’s all. There is nothing substantive of note here.

In reality, the main reason Joe Girardi paired A.J. Burnett and Molina together is simple. It’s not that Posada is awful, rather, it’s Molina is good and he and Burnett have had success together throughout the ‘09 season. This doesn’t necessarily speak to Jorge Posada’s defensive talent, instead, it says something about the rapport established between Molina and Burnett (and Burnett’s comfort level with Molina). That’s not to say that Posada and Burnett haven’t had their ups and downs this season, however, those issues can be explained by the time frame in which Posada caught Burnett. There were mechanical problems affecting Burnett during his starts with Posada for much of the season, ultimately causing some statistical blow back in the form of Burnett’s .270/.353/.421 line with Posada (luck was also a factor, as Burnett’s .309 BABIP with Posada was higher than his career average of .294). Basically, to claim Posada is an altogether awful defender based on this Burnett situation is particularly bogus.

Digging deeper into Harper’s text of horrors, we find the rotating DH theme—the second issue which I mean to address. In the passage featured above, Harper writes that “Girardi is likely to ease Posada into more of a DH role,” because of his defensive ineffectiveness (which Harper has yet to affirm with any type of quantifiable data). Under Harper’s plan, it appears as though Posada would become a DH piece while he’s not catching and, while he is catching (poorly, I might add, according to Harper), A-Rod and others could rotate into the DH slot.

My biggest concern with the rotating DH plan is that it gives at-bats away to inferior offensive players such as Francisco Cervelli, or, in Harper’s case, Jose Molina. Essentially, a Ramiro Pena-type becomes an everyday player while A-Rod, Jeter or whoever else is marked as “old” is the team’s DH, an issue that no one seems to discuss or detail in any of the articles or opinion pieces that praise the rotating DH idea. Now, can the Yankees seriously afford to give regular at-bats to Jose Molina? Well, John Harper seems to think so, going so far as to say that Molina is such a “brilliant defensive catcher that the Yankees can carry his bat in the lineup for, say, 80 games” (and, here, 80 is a random number). Well, in 2008, Molina was the Yankees’ regular catcher for the better part of the season, hitting .216/.263/.313 over 100 games and the team ultimately failed to enter the postseason (that brilliant defense only goes so far). If you implement a rotating DH, it ultimately becomes a significant offensive liability.

Somehow, though, according to Harper, the Yankees’ offense can sustain that blow, despite losing Matsui’s bat.

How does this make sense again? In fact, how does the rotating DH idea make any sense at all? Everyone seems to love the idea, yet no one seems to be able to explain how it will work from a practical perspective. In his text, John Harpers introduces us to the nightmarish reality of the plan, albeit inadvertently. In 2010, in order to sustain their overpowering offense over of the American League, the Yankees need to have a regular DH, and that DH should not be named Jorge Posada (the regular catcher). It’s the only legitimate plan that exists at this point in time.

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

From Jon Heyman (SI):

A.J. Burnett threw another nice game with favored catcher Jose Molina behind the plate, allowing three hits and two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. So look for Molina to remain his personal catcher thoughout the postseason. Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Burnett have suggested it was Girardi’s call to employ Molina. But of course it comes with Burnett’s unspoken (at least publicly unspoken) approval.

A couple of the Yankees’ more finicky star pitchers have had issues with Posada before, most notably Randy Johnson, who was eventually caught every game by backup John Flaherty. Others see the benefits of Molina but understand that the team is better off with Posada in the lineup. According to people in the Yankees’ clubhouse, the two biggest reasons Molina may be favored by pitchers are 1) game calling (and more specifically, the speed of his game calling), and 2) framing pitches.

Word is that Molina is much quicker than Posada at calling for pitches when there’s a baserunner at second base, enabling the pitcher to stay in rhythm, and also much more likely to accept a pitcher’s wishes. Posada is seen as slightly stubborn about his opinion of what pitch should be called. Molina is also viewed as one of the best in the league framing pitches, and thus stealing strikes. One pitcher said Molina may steal up to three or four strikes an inning when he’s at his best.

Heyman isn’t necessarily providing us with any new information here, as it’s common knowledge that Molina is a better game-caller than Posada and that he can frame pitches as if they were photographs. However, I did not know that Molina was more likely to accept a pitcher’s wishes, which explains why he’s able to an induce such a rhythmic tempo when he’s behind the plate. I’ve always thought that he took the lead and made good calls, making it easier for the pitcher to simply trust him and throw whatever it was that he asked for. That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, according to Heyman.

This, then, explains why A.J. Burnett and Joba Chamberlain seem to have such a good rapport with Molina. It’s a lot easier for a stubborn power pitcher to work with a fairly submissive catcher who accepts the pitcher’s pitch selection over his own, as this allows one to steer clear of a potentially harmful egotistical struggle. This intimate relationship between a pitcher and his catcher is a tremendously complex issue. There are a lot of psychological nuances involved, it seems. Too bad there isn’t any real statistic that I know of which probes the matter further (maybe the complexity prevents that, though).

From Jim Baumbach (Newsday):

When Jeter was asked about a half hour ago if it’s going to be “weird” for him not having Posada behind the plate for a playoff game, he looked down and took several seconds to think of the right response.

“I mean it will be kind of awkward not having Jorge in the lineup,” Jeter said. Then he brought up how there were playoff games when Girardi caught, though clearly those were a decade ago.

Very strange response from the normally diplomatic and uninteresting Derek Jeter. While I’m sure he wishes he would have worded his reply differently since it’s surprisingly controversial, he was probably just trying to appease Jorge. In the end, this story continues to be overblown. What do you expect when CC pitches well in game 1 and A-Rod goes 2-for-4 and drives in 2 runs? There is a shortage of material to write about. The Posada-Molina-Burnett love triangle continues to be the story of the day. It then sets up more stories for tomorrow, especially if the Molina-Burnett duo implodes against the Twins.

(props to RAB)

AJ Burnett was interviewed before last night’s game about (what else) the fact that Jose Molina will be catching him instead of Jorge Posada. He denied that he requested such a move and said it was completely manager Joe Girardi’s decision. Here’s the story:

A.J. Burnett has earned the Yankees’ Game 2 assignment for the American League Division Series against the Twins on Friday, and he alone — not Jorge Posada or Jose Molina — will determine its success.

“My good games, I’m right,” Burnett said. “And my bad games, it’s not the catcher. It’s me.”

He went on to say

Both Burnett and Girardi swear that the right-hander did not request to pitch to Molina, though Burnett has been unable to dodge the perception that he and Posada do not get along.

“It’s making me out to be a bad guy again,” said Burnett, who lauded Posada as a leader both on and off the field. “If you ask people who I’ve played with, I don’t show guys up.”

My first impression is that this is preplanned spin by the Yanks, knowing that questions will be asked and making sure everyone involved has their stories straight. But thinking about it a bit more, it’s completely consistent with everything Burnett has said all year and what we know about him as a person. He has never once blamed Jorge for a bad outing, never. By all accounts he has been not just a good guy in the clubhouse, but an outstanding teammate who never blames his fielders, even when they’re completely their fault. You may recall the June 20th game facing the Florida Marlins where a Johnny Damon error cost AJ the win, and he simply placed the blame on himself, saying in the post game that he shouldn’t have given up the 1st run and praising Johnny for busting his butt out there for him.

Even Jorge Posada’s account from yesterday doesn’t contradict any of these quotes, or any of Girardi’s. When asked if this was debated at all, he simply said “manager’s decision” which is exactly what Girardi and AJ are saying. He also said “It’s not like I didn’t see this coming” but that could be referring to the fact that he hasn’t caught Burnett in over a month. Nobody’s disputing the fact that these two had trouble getting on the same page, but that doesn’t mean it was personal in any way.

Full disclosure here, I support this move. AJ has the most electric stuff on the staff and as we saw last night (and have seen for many years) Jorge has trouble blocking the plate. You don’t want a pitcher to feel like he has to hold back from throwing his best pitch for fear it will wind up in foul territory. Everyone likes to point to the August 22nd blowout in Fenway and the Ortiz HR as the clearest sign that these two weren’t on the same page, but AJ Burnett has also logged a career high in Wild Pitches this season, and I don’t think his control got worse at age 32 than it was at 24. Little things can decide playoff games, and if the Yanks weren’t facing the Twins 7th starter last night, that 2nd run allowed on Jorge’s half-hearted attempt to field a wild pitch he should have blocked could have been decisive.

From Erik Boland:

ON IF TOLD WHO WILL CATCH AJ: “Molina’s probably going to catch A.J. (pause). So, that’s it.”

ON IF IT BOTHERS HIM: “I just hope we win that game, that’s all. That’s all I got to say.”

ON IF HE’LL DH THAT DAY: “I don’t know. Matsui’s our DH, so we’ll see. I don’t know.”

ON WHEN JOE TOLD HIM: “He talked to me on Sunday (long pause). It’s not like I didn’t see it coming.”

ON IF THERE WAS BACK-AND-FORTH IN CONVERSATION WITH JOE: “Manager’s decision.”

I do not love this move, but I can only assume that AJ has told Girardi that he is more comfortable with Molina. AJ has said that the game is mostly mental for him, and having the guy he trusts back there is apparently extremely vital for him. I wonder if this means that AJ starts Game 3, as I cannot see the Yankees sitting Posada twice in a 5 game series.

What do you think about this move?

To me, the story of last night’s Yankee game wasn’t CC Sabathia going after his 20th Win, or the way the Yankee bullpen (esp Robertson and Hughes) imploded after his exit. The biggest story from last night’s game was the minute Girardi made out his lineup card. Jose Molina was inserted at DH in order to “get him some At Bats” heading into the playoffs according to Yankee manager Joe Girardi. Michael Kay has been speculating for days that Girardi is seriously considering starting Jose Molina in Game 2 of the ALDS, pairing him up with AJ Burnett.

I know that some people are going to go nuts over this if it happens. For anyone flipping out about Molina catching AJ, check out AJs splits by catcher:

Every number (R-H-BA-OBP-SLG SO/BB ratio) explodes with Jorge behind the plate. Burnett has even had almost the same number of SO (79/74) despite Molina catching 6 fewer games. By any measure, it appears the two simply work better together. Nobody affects a game more than the starting pitcher, and that’s not even debatable. A player can only affect his 5 or so ABs, a starting pitcher affects 30 or so ABs by the opposition.

If you want to argue Posada vs Molina’s bat, be my guest. Posada sports a .894 OPS and Molina’s is .553 OPS. Huge right? Its 3.5 bases every 10 ABs, or 1.75 bases per game. AJ has allowed 58 Runs in the 16 games Posada has started, or 3.63 runs per game. With Molina behind the plate, he’s allowed 24 runs in the 10 games he’s started, or 2.4 runs per game. I’ll take a full run+ less over 1.75 bases generated every day of the week. Were not talking about a long season anymore, were talking about 1 game. That’s the difference.

I was discussing this last night with Matt from BBD (BTW-great site, check it out) and he felt that these splits are all too small to take seriously, that they can be skewed by a few bad outings. In response, I was going to post the outings that Molina was behind the plate where Burnett blew up, to show that a few outings inflated his numbers somewhat as well (which can be true of anyone). But I ran into a problem. Almost every horrific outing AJ had this year was with Posada behind the plate.

4/25-5 IP 8 R vs BOS
6/9-2.2 IP 5 R vs BOS
8/1-4.2 IP 7 R vs CHW
8/22-5 IP 9 R vs BOS
9/1-5.1 IP 6 R vs BAL

There’s one 6 run outing on 9/12 with Molina, and even there AJ pitched into the 6th inning, so it wasn’t a disaster. It’s also worth noting that AJ gave up the 6 Runs early, and was able to settle down after that with Jose behind the plate. For whatever reason, the downside with Posada appears to be much greater, and maybe that’s what Girardi is worried about.

If Girardi goes in this direction, I would support the move. As David Cone pointed out last night on YES, we’re really only talking about 2-3 ABs until the late innings when you will pinch hit Posada for Molina. Can I guarantee AJ will be good? Of course not, but a manager’s job is to put the odds in his favor. He has a better chance to pitch a good game with Molina than he does with Posada, and the downside with Jorge appears greater. Plus, don’t forget that if it’s game 2, the Yanks are at home where the generally have no trouble scoring runs.

Finally, the playoffs are all about pitching match ups. The way the AL Central race is shaking out, it appears Justin Verlander will have to pitch Sunday if the Twins win tomorrow or if both teams lose. That would push Verlander to a Game 2 start facing Burnett on Saturday October 10th. I think this is what Girardi is preparing for. The Yanks don’t figure to score much off Verlander, and he wants to give AJ his best chance at matching him zero for zero. Posada’s career number’s off Verlander are Molina-like, so it’s pretty tough at argue for Jorge’s bat with that pitching matchup.

A.J. Burnett has a 3.09 ERA over his last 5 starts. During the course of those 32 innings, he has struck out 37 batters while walking 14. It’s certainly been an impressive way to end the regular season, as Burnett seems to have figured it out at the right time. Even more impressive is that 6 of the 11 ER A.J. gave up were in one inning to Baltimore back on the 12th. If you subtract that one inning from his line, A.J. would have a 1.45 ERA over 31 innings pitched. While this dominance is definitely a good sign prior to the playoffs, one element that truly complicates matters is Jose Molina’s involvement during those 5 starts.

Steve Lombardi (WW) and Ben K. (RAB) have already demarcated the issue. Jose Molina has been there for each of A.J.’s 31 effective innings (and he was there for one very ineffective inning). With A.J. pitching well, it seems as though Joe Girardi will have a tough decision to make once the postseason arrives. Do you start A.J. Burnett with Jose Molina behind the plate or do you throw away the sample and pair up A.J. with Jorge Posada’s bigger bat? Obviously, Molina couldn’t hit a parked car if his life depended on it, however, he and A.J. have been a solid duo and disrupting that could hurt his pitching performance once Detroit rolls into town (yes, I’m calling it). Then again, can you afford to sit Jorge Posada’s bat in the postseason?

This is the problem, yet, I wonder if it’s a legitimate one. According to Jon Heyman, earlier this month, A.J. Burnett studied some videotape and corrected mechanical flaws in his delivery. Bryan Hoch also noted something similar a week ago. While I think Jose Molina makes every pitcher he works with better, could the mechanical adjustments be the real reason we’re seeing a much improved A.J. Burnett?

Remember, A.J.’s August was dreadful (6.03 ERA), meaning that he was likely pitching with a poor delivery during most of that time. Unfortunately for Jorge Posada, he was catching A.J. regularly then. Now, that he’s “fixed” and Molina has been the one catching most of his starts, people are attributing his success to the comfort and guidance he has with Molina rather than taking into account the tweaks in his delivery. We have quickly forgotten that Jorge Posada caught most of A.J.’s starts in June (2.10 ERA) and July (2.43 ERA), and A.J. was stellar during those 2 months. Perhaps we’re being overly apprehensive going into October. It makes sense for us to assume that the Molina-Burnett pairing is the best option, given their recent success (we remember that which is recent), but, if Posada was catching those starts, would Burnett have pitched poorly? I don’t think so, although I maybe giving him too much credit.

The point is, I believe Posada’s bat is far too important to the team to leave it sitting on the bench, only to make an appearance in the later innings of a ballgame (as a pinch-hitter). I think you have to trust that A.J. will have his game together to the point where he can throw to Alex Rodriguez and still pitch effectively. The mechanical adjustments have been made and he is pitching extremely well. That should not be impacted by Posada’s presence behind the dish. If you give A.J. Burnett the ball in game 2 or 3, Jorge has to catch—it’s really that simple.

From Jon Heyman (SI):

It’s become obvious that Jose Molina is CC Sabathia’s personal catcher, though no one’s admitted it yet. Sabathia, by the way, hit 98 on the gun Sunday night. He gets better as he goes, it seems. While he’s supposedly not having a great year, he leads the AL in wins with 15.

Earlier today, I was asked why it was a problem to have A.J. Burnett and Jose Molina work together from now on. My initial response was exactly what Heyman has written here—that Molina is already someone’s everyday catcher and that someone is CC Sabathia. Since the calendar flipped to August, CC and Molina have worked together more often than Jorge and CC have worked together. In 5 games this month, Molina has caught CC 4 times, while Jorge has caught CC once. Based on the sheer number of times the two—CC and Molina—have worked together, it’s easy to say that CC and Molina are battery mates for the rest of the season. CC has also won each of those starts, which helps that argument. In fact, that’s what I was going to say to the person who asked about Burnett and Molina (if Molina catches both Burnett and CC, then what’s Posada’s job, really).

However, then I took a look at the one start CC and Jorge worked together in Oakland this month. In that start, CC pitched 8 strong innings, giving up only 2 ER on 5 hits. He also struck out 7 and walked one. That’s a terrific start and, believe it or not, it came without Jose Molina behind the plate. Because of this, I actually believe that CC’s “personal catcher” is whoever is available on a given day, depending on their playing time (if Jorge needs a rest, Molina gets it, and if he doesn’t, he gets it). In fact, the CC-Molina situation may just be a coincidence.

Based on what we’ve seen this month, especially with Molina catching most of CC’s starts, it’s easy to say that Molina is helping CC become dominant and therefore, he is and should continue to be CC’s personal catcher. CC’s K/9 is on the rise while his BB/9 has fallen dramatically. But, as we all know, CC really loves the month of August and has historically been an unbeatable force at this point in the season. For that reason, I don’t think we can really attribute CC’s dominance to Jose Molina (and he was dominant against Oakland with Posada receiving him). At this point, I think you could put Derek Jeter behind the plate and watch CC carve up a lineup. He’s just that good right now.

In addition, earlier in the year, it was evident that CC had been dealing with mechanical issues and his command was a bit off (he said as much a few weeks ago). He was walking too many people and wasn’t striking out as many. During that time, Jorge Posada was catching most of his starts and, while CC was effective, the mechanical issues seemed to hinder him from reaching his full potential. However, he has since corrected that flaw (he did it during the Chicago game on the 2nd). Essentially, Posada wasn’t catching the best CC Sabathia, as that Sabathia has appeared in the month of August. Coincidentally, Jose Molina has been at the forefront for most of those games. If you didn’t know about the mechanical adjustment, it would be easy to evaluate the CC-Posada duo as the weaker one while holding up the CC-Molina duo as the stronger of the two when that’s not necessarily the case.

In the end, I don’t think CC Sabathia has a personal catcher. I think Molina is getting most of the starts in August because Posada has been unavailable on the days CC has pitched (plus, it makes sense to rest him those days because they probably won’t need as much offense). Also, I wouldn’t attribute CC’s newfound August dominance to Jose Molina since it’s an historically demonstrable phenomenon. If Molina catches every one of CC’s starts from hereon in, then maybe I’d think Molina was his personal catcher, but, for now, I don’t think that’s the case.

From Anthony McCarron (Daily News):

Despite his numbers, Matsui’s status with the Yankees is unclear. He is in the final season of a four-year, $52 million contract and the Yankees want to get younger and free up at-bats at designated hitter for Jorge Posada.

Matsui would not delve too deeply into his future Sunday.

“My honest answer is I don’t know,” Matsui said. “I don’t have an answer. As a player, you just try to do better than what you’ve done before. It’s not so much about how the organization or other clubs look at me. All I’m focused on is winning a championship.”

Would he prefer to stay in New York? “I try not to think about that,” he said. “I like New York, the Yankees, the Yankee fans. It’s definitely someplace I feel comfortable.”

If the Yankees lose Matsui in order to free up DH AB’s for Jorge Posada, then I suppose McCarron is assuming that Jose Molina—he’ll have to be resigned—or Francisco Cervelli will be given a substantial number of AB’s at catcher. Is that something the Yankees really want to commit to? Defensively, that’s a win-win, but offensively, I think it’s fair to question that notion. Matsui seems open to returning at a “bargain” rate and, if he’s willing to go year-to-year, then the Yankees should definitely bring him back. He’s a professional hitter that can be rotated in and out of the DH slot in order to give Posada ample rest as well as others. In this sense, Matsui’s knee problems actually help the Yankees in terms of DH flexibility (he can’t DH everyday).

I think the team knows just how important Matsui has been to the club in 2009 and, for that reason, I also think they’ll be very hesitant to simply let him walk after the season is over (a move which has been billed by many as a foregone conclusion). In fact, the only way I see that actually occurring is if Brian Cashman opts to bring Johnny Damon back as the team’s DH while adding Matt Holliday to man left. That way, they’re not losing Matsui’s offense, instead, they’re replacing it and simultaneously bettering their defensive game. That works, right?

What do you think about Matsui? Should the Yankees keep him around for 2010, or are you a fan of the rather ambiguous and inherently problematic rotating DH idea (no, I’m not biased at all)?