Idiots Write About Sports

ESPN.com’s Phil Rogers — whom Jason thinks is just a wee bit insane — looks at the cavalcade of catchers laboring for Major League Baseball teams and pronounces San Diego’s Ramon Hernandez to bethe best at blocking the plate.

While there was no broad consensus, San Diego’s Ramon Hernandez received the slightest of edges over Anaheim’s Bengie Molina as the guy most likely to get an out in that situation. Padres backup catcher Miguel Ojeda also received a mention, with a scout citing a play he made during the recent Caribbean Series. But it’s Hernandez who gets the nod.

“That guy is fearless,” one scout said of Hernandez. “Pitchers love him because he’s going to do anything he can to help them, even if it means getting crushed by a runner. His technique is really good.”

That assessment should come as quite a surprise to… well, very nearly everybody, I would think. I mean, I had season tickets to the A’s for the last three years of Ramon’s tenure with the squad, and I saw him skitter, piroutte, and tap-dance around the plate, but never actually block it. I recall one game in the 2003 season where Jose Guillen fired an absolute laser beam that would have easily mowed down the baserunner… if Ramon hadn’t been standing five feet away from the plate.

But just on the off-chance that my memory was playing tricks on me, I typed in “Ramon Hernandez” and “block the plate” into Google. Here are some highlights from my admittedly cursory search:

From the April 10, 2004 San Diego Union Tribune:

He’s also less likely than other catchers to get knocked onto the disabled list by a baserunner. This past winter, when the A’s were putting their spin on the trade, former A’s catcher Ray Fosse told fans that newcomer Damian Miller would be more apt to block the plate than Hernandez.

From a Nov. 2003 Neil Hayes column in the Contra Costa Times:

[Hernandez] is also capable of blunders and careless lapses. He was often reluctant to block the plate, which didn’t endear him to his teammates.

Jose Guillen threw the ball from right field on a line the night he made his debut with the A’s. Hernandez didn’t realize the strength of his new teammate’s arm.

He caught the ball chest high and in plenty of time to tag the base runner but was hopelessly out of position when the tying run scored.

From an April 20, 2004 Ducksnorts account of a Giants-Padres game:

Ramon Hernandez didn’t block the plate on Jay Payton’s terrific throw that almost nailed Jeffrey Hammonds in the first.

From another Contra Costa Times article (emphasis added):

Macha said he met with catcher Ramon Hernandez to discuss Hernandez’s failure to block the plate on Guillen’s rocket throw Friday. Hernandez caught Guillen’s throw well in front of the plate, allowing New York’s David Dellucci to score the tying run. Hernandez has developed a reputation in the past couple of years for being reluctant to block home plate.

I don’t mean to pick on Ramon because I like him as a player. He has a pretty mean stick, handles a pitching staff as well as such a hard-to-quantify skill can be measured, and is a good presence in the clubhouse by all accounts. One thing he isn’t, however, is an exemplary plate-blocker. It seems like that’s a fairly widely-held viewpoint.

Except for Phil Rogers, apparently. I look forward to future columns naming Kevin Brown as the friendliest player and Milton Bradley as a model of restraint and constancy.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ha!

How did I ever make it through childhood believing what the columnists wrote in the paper? I mean besides Jim Murray.

Who you gonna believe, Marty -- your own eyes? Or Phil Rogers and his unnamed scout source?

I don't want to give the impression that I think the Hot Stove Heaters series over at ESPN is lame. It's argument-fodder basically, and there's a place for that in this world. But, geez, shouldn't the arguments be rooted in reality?

I think I'd take Ray Fosse's word for it, at least. I mean, who would know better?

Actually, Ramon is very much like a wall. Specifically, the wall that runs along the Mexican border between Baja and San Diego. He's porous, he rarely stops anybody, and on any given evening you can watch assorted Latinos run right through him.

He's still better than Wiki Gonzalez, though.

Ramon Hernandez is a one show pony. All arm. Many times I would sit with my fat grin on my face as I saw the opposing team try to steal. I knew if the pitch went well and Ramon could catch the ball the runner was like a fish in a barrel. However, if a move to the right or left, or a Hudson splitter was coming.....well you know.

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