I think Mozeliak is good at doing what DeWitt asks him to do (which I think is to be average). My ire is with DeWitt moreso than Mozeliak. They can replace him but whoever takes over has to deal with the same constraints for decision making.

I view the criticism for Contreras being equivalent to complaining about a window being broken on a sinking ship. Yeah, it needs to be fixed, but that isn’t why the ship is going down.

I'd say Contreras is more akin to the iceberg.

It did a lot of damage on it own, but ultimately it was bad rivets and poor seamanship that took down the Titanic. A better captain never hits the iceberg and stronger design/construction could've absorbed the blow and continued the journey.

But the combination was just too much.

How much of Contreras' issues with pitch framing do you associate with the current record?

I can understand viewing it as causing damage, but I'm not sure the damage is that significant.

That has proven not to be true this season. Plus, there are a number of moves that Mo has made that don't agree with the quest to be average. We could have a really good rotation if he doesn't go out and rent Ozuna. Mo tried to make the team a winner but he is inept at talent evaluation and missed on several moves.

They ran back the same rotation as last season for the most part aside from Quintana. The team would be around .500 if the rotation performed at a mediocre level. As it stands now, they have 4 fewer wins than their projected Pythagorean record. Arenado/Carlson/Burleson not doing much offensively, Walker being below average defensively in a position he's played half a season of professional baseball at along with Contreras' issues and Montgomery being the ONLY starter to be above replacement level (Woodford's the only other won who has been pitching at replacement level) is why they where they are today.

I've commented in this very thread before the Cardinals blasted him that the pitch sequencing this year, especially with 2 strikes, has been awful.

I can think of 3 separate instances just off the top of my head where I openly wondered WTF we were doing with our pitch selection as a ball is being roped into a gap or over the fence.

The rumors haven't always been that he's simply a bad framer - but rather that he simply doesn't do enough to prepare his pitchers and doesn't have an understanding of how to get through an AB or put guys away. He has a fundamental failing in how he calls games.

The pitching has sucked, don't get me wrong. But even when the pitchers hit the mit and execute the pitch called, they're getting whacked. That's a game-calling failure and it's one we've seen a LOT this year.

Is there a way to tangibly track that?

I know Flaherty called out the sequence as well.

I love this rivalry

Publicly available? Probably not.

But any team that doesn't have proprietary data that does it is in the stone age.

that's what gives me such a sophie's choice here - I hate hate HATE this front office, but deep down I know they're right. I know they have this data and when I can see it simply by watching it, I know it's in bright red letters on their reports.

They absolutely know this and they know it better than we do. There was ZERO reason to blow him up publicly like this (say the knee was bothering him from the Hicks foul tip, give him a public pat on the head for battling through it and say he's going to sit indefinitely to get his knee healthy or something). But they've absolutely lost games because of it. Several, by my estimation.

The best guess I have is that he simply doesn't tailor his approach to his pitcher and definitely not the hitter. And that's not the kind of thing that needs to be tailored batter to batter, it needs to be done swing to swing. He just doesn't seem to do it well, if at all.

Oh, and this will ALWAYS drive me nuts - mother****er argues balls and strikes when he's hitting.

Dude - shut. up. If you get a close pitch against you, you absolutely do NOT bitch about it. At most you step back and give the ump a little look that says "okay - so long as my guy gets that pitch, we're good..."

But over that first month there were several times that he voiced his displeasure with the strike zone as a hitter. Dammit, as a catcher you just do NOT do that. Ever. It's selfish and it's stupid and it gets in the way of winning games.

It's just part of what you expect from a hitter who catches rather than an actual catcher.

Which is a huge problem as well. He's definitely doing his part to stink and he needs to shut his mouth about anything but himself.

In his last start he yelled at Nootbaar for not catching a ball that statcast said had an 87% hit probability.

You could hear him on the broadcast. "God Dammit, Noot - catch the damn ball!"

Flaherty's such a ****stick. If I'm Contreras and that asshole shows up trying to tell me anything, I'm shutting down. And yeah, that's petty, but Jack Flaherty hasn't earned the right to question anyone's work ethic or value as a teammate.

Looks like Edman is sitting again tonight...

I never understood why they didn’t just go after one of the FA catchers known for defense and the other stuff behind the plate if they were not going to land an all around guy like Murphy.

Murphys Bleachers is a fun bar.

Can’t trade those Faberge eggs. Can’t play them either. Just no room in the outfield or infield. And now DH spot either.

We could have survived the loss of nootbar and Donovan. I don’t know much about that pitcher except he’s supposedly our 2nd best pitching prospect. I know we need pitching really bad. Still, in my fan mind, we should have made that trade.