The Dodgers lost a pair of free agents in the last two days -- Rod Barajas and Jamey Carroll.Barajas signed a 1-year, $4 million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday. The deal also includes an option for 2013 at $3.5 million.There are a few things to go over here.Why did he sign so quick?Why did he get so much money?Implications for the DodgersWell, this is the Pirates we're talking about, so that could very well answer questions No. 1 and 2. However, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts found an interesting article from Hardball Talk by Matthew Pouliot."I imagine it has something to do with the recent work that’s gone into evaluating catcher defense. According to Max Marchi’s work on The Hardball Times presented earlier this year, Barajas is one of the game’s very best pitch framers. Among starting catchers, only Russell Martin and Brian McCann do better in that area, which was pretty much impossible to evaluate before PITCHf/x data came along."Interesting stati...
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November 12, 2011
