Should Diamond be sent to AAA?

[jorgenswest]

A recent post suggested the Twins flip Diamond for Hendriks if he doesn't turn it around by the end of the month.

This has been on my mind as I listened to the Gardenhire show yesterday morning and the post-game discussions: if Diamond is to get but a handful more starts before flipping him for Hendriks, can he at least have a different catcher.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Doumit doesn't catch often but he has caught 11 of 16 Diamond starts. Gardy quoted ERA as a reason. Hopefully someone in the organization will let him know that ERA isn't a very good measure in small samples or for projections. The catcher and pitcher have much more influence over strikeouts and walks than ERA.

With Doumit as catcher, Diamond's K/BB ratio is 28/16.

With Mauer it is 16/3.

In 2012, Mauer caught many more of Diamond's starts.

Mauer 54/16 (16 starts)
Doumit 23/13 (8 starts)
Butera 13/2 (3 starts)

As a team, pitchers with Mauer catching have a K/BB ratio of 2.63; 1.53 with Doumit.

Of course, Gardenhire commented in the post-game show about the difficulty all his pitchers had keeping the ball down yesterday. Perhaps it would help if they used a catcher with the ability to convert most of the balls low in the strike zone into strikes. Just once I would like to hear him say that they need to do a better job of receiving the ball low in the strike zone.

Is it time for Diamond to be sent to AAA? Maybe. He seems pretty messed up and time in AAA with Butera may help. If he stays, I hope he gets Mauer behind the plate.

View full article