He played once when the Marlins scouted him the first time. Tho they were there for somebody else and were so impressed with him they put him on their list.
The positions are the most interchangeable in baseball. Both need the same arm strength. Both need very high baseball IQ. Both need a certain kind of fire of the filed.
I love how many of these throws are one-hoppers, he makes the snap decision that throwing higher without a bounce will be too slow and backs himself to make the tougher play. You can really see why the stats have him worth about 5 runs last year just from throwing out runners while no other catcher is even over 1 run.
ngl even tho the ball beat baez.. he completely avoided the tag and would've been safe if he put his hand on the bag before his leg ran into segura. that throw was perfect and that slide was beautiful.
Show this to little leaguers, they always believe it's better to parachute it to 2nd in the air then it is to throw a one or 2 hopper, same for outfielders for the matter.
Grandal is a better hitter and a better defender, mathematically speaking. Sure, his arm isn’t as good but he makes it up through superior game calling and elite framing which steals many runs over the course of the season. JT runs the bases really well, but that’s the only field of endeavor in which he is clearly better than Grandal.
Wdym by "superior game calling"? But Realmuto has better defense in every category imo, and his contact is head to head with Grandal. Grandal has power over Realmuto, but not much else. Still a great catcher.
Realmuto isn’t even close to Grandal in terms of framing, which is far and away the most important tenet of a catcher’s defensive value. Each stolen strike is a fraction of an out. Each out is a fraction of a run saved. Each run saved is a fraction of a win. Over time, the defensive value of framing greatly exceeds the 25-40 outs gained by throwing runners out. Realmuto wasn’t that bad in 2019, actually coming within half a win of Grandal in this category. But Grandal has shown remarkable consistency in this area over a much longer period of time. As for game calling, it generally has to do with CERA, which is the ERA of pitchers when a certain catcher is catching, compared to the team’s normal average ERA. Realmuto was actually better than Grandal at this in 2019 (they had the same CERA of 4.62 but the Phillies had a 4.53 ERA compared to the Brewers’ 4.40 ERA) but Grandal is historically better at this.
Not only does that essentially say that Realmuto is just younger, but it amplifies the point that he is better for being nearly identical to Grandal at a younger age, without even having reached his peak.
