Look at Ray Ray Run

Yup, and the Dodgers had no interest in keeping a guy on a reasonable deal who is supposedly (according to cited metrics here) an elite defensive catcher who is a ++ hitter. Their starters did not like throwing to this "elite" framer. As I said, defensive metrics in general are at their infancy stages league wide. Catching is even harder to analyze defensively than other positions.

Many players have been non-tendered only to have successful MLB careers. The main target of the sox off season - JD Martinez - is one.

Framing matters but it also relies on an umpire making a mistake. I respect BP, but I'll respect the catching metrics of an organization like the Dodgers well before any public source.

Let me add, that given the umpire ratings that go on, framing is an even more volatile statistic than it was before.

In simplistic terms - its runs created by a catcher as a receiver towards his pitchers success.

No, they don't. You said he had never had a stretch similar - I merely pointed out that was incorrect. I am not the one judging McCann based on his poor two months - you are. Why would they replace mccan with a guy who can't catch? I'd bat an eye at the sox giving up a league average catcher who only costs 5 million dollars. Yes, I would.

He was 4th ranked in bWAR too. Given the volatility of defensive metrics, you're best off taking positional players WAR averages between b and f.

Yes, because being a great receiver who does his homework is so much more valuable than people understand. rCERA is really the only stat we have to judge and McCann is really good there while grandal is as bad as it gets last year.

1. I judge players based on their actual year end performance, not their worst two months. 2. In the second half of 2017, mccann had a 760 OPS - while hitting 291 with a 345 obp. He has certainly succeeded before. You cant roster McCann solely for giolito yet plenty of HOF pitchers who won world series had personal catchers for a decade. Weird that you say the Sox can't do exactly what the cubs did when they won the world series and rostered Ross for Lester. Again, the anti-McCann sentiment is comical. He's not a problem. He's a fine baseball player who had a positive impact on his staff. Would love to have had you tell Lester, or Kershaw (who has gotten worse since Ellis' departure) and on that they dont need their catcher.

If he is a 1.5 WAR player he has nearly 8 million in surplus value. He was a 3.8 bWAR player this year. If we take the averages of WAR, he was a 3.1 WAR player. McCann could be half as good as last year and have significant surplus value. If he repeats last year he has almost 15-20 million in surplus value. I don't think you understand what a starting catchers average WAR is in MLB baseball.

He was 8th in baseball in rCERA, meaning despite having a bad pitching staff, they outperformed their season end numbers when he caught in relation to Castillo. rCERA is likely the best publically available metric for evaluating a receivers impact on his team. Grandal ranked 47th of 49 qualified catchers in rCERA. He is simply a poor receiver and game caller.

Now you're back tracking. You said mccann isnt a playoff caliber catcher and we pointed to world series teams with lesser players at catcher. The white sox should spend their money in positions that they dont currently hold surplus value at - they have surplus value at catcher.

Grandal is not a better defensive catcher than McCann. I've said this before but there are some verly unflattering non-public numbers on Grandals defense. The dodgers wanted nothing to do with him in the playoffs when he was there and then they let him walk because of the defensive woes and liability on pitchers. Evaluating catchers defense is very difficult. Pitchers love throwing to McCann - all arms in detroit said that (Price and Verlander loved him) - and they seem to dislike throwing to grandal. That means a lot and is probably significantly more valuable than how many guys you catch stealing and etc.

How is the Indians pitching staff going to be the envy of baseball? Kluber will never be the same, and carrasco isnt getting younger and is coming off cancer.

I'd argue that McCann is better for the pitching staff than Grandal. This team doesnt need an elite hitting catcher - that's what Robert, Moncada, Eloy, Abreu, Timmy and Madrigal are for. McCann should be fine hitting 8th or 9th in an MLB lineup. McCann clearly took strides with his game and bat last year - his approach was different and he was not the same player as he was years prior. His BABIP was inflated but he also just made better contact in general. If he was a 1.5-2 WAR catcher hed be between 10-12 in baseball. Again, that is fine. The Nationals start Kurt Suzuki at catcher so I'm not sure what I'm looking at... mccann is every bit as good as Suzuki. The White Sox have holes to fill - I'd argue mccann doesnt rank in the top 5 of holes on this team. Hes the least of their concern imo.

The anti-McCann nonsense is brutal on this board. He's not a star but he's an average MLB catcher - that's fine. His defense is + and his bat was fine. If you removed the 3 best months of any players year and focused solely on his 2 worst months, almost every player will look worse. That's the nature of baseball. He had a 700 OPS in the 2nd half while hitting 226. Catchers in general are going to regress more than other players as the season goes on due to the immense amount of wear and tear. I dont think people understand how valuable a catcher can be to a pitcher - McCann seems to have that impact. Theres a reason career 200 hitters remain in the league for a decade as "personal catchers." Worry about the actual holes on the team - not a guy who is average at his position who has an obviously positive impact on the arms he catches. Quantifying a catchers value is really difficult.

He can't

The Sox arent in a position to be signing a platoon based RF'er. 6.1 over 3 seasons isn't good. No need for your snarky last sentence.

I'm dismissing him because hes not good. The Ray's platooned him, playing him strictly when he was most likely to succeed - and he still didnt touch 2 WAR in over 500 AB's. In 5 big league seasons he has a 6.2 WAR.

Avi lol. Sox fans have lost their minds.

Yeah, if you actually look at the value of these things it typically falls further back. The big money guys dont have the greatest value rate attached to them.

Its 100% mental for him - he cant read a field, defense or anything for that matter. He doesnt know where hes supposed to go with the ball, cant go through progressions and has no at the line audible skills. His accuracy is just a nail in the coffin.

Your last paragraph is just flat out wrong. Only like 2 or 3 teams had Mahomes as #1. The rest of the teams all had Mitch/Watson #1/2 in one order or the other. It was absurd to watch college football and see what Watson did to Alabama and not think he was so much better... but NFL teams have no idea what they're looking for when evaluating a QB and overthink things. Almost no one had mahomes ahead of trubisky.

I was on the record saying trubisky was bad last year, because he was. His stats were inflated by 2 games vs horrible defenses. Trubisky was somewhere between the 20-25th worst QB in the NFL last year; that's bad. I'm not sure what you were watching last year but he was a one read QB last year - as he is this year. The league adjusted to take away his first option on plays and now he's horrendous.

1. Their schedule only gets harder from here, not easier. 2. It's not equally Nagy's fault that his QB can't complete routine NFL throws. That's absurd. Anytime I read a trubisky post and it has a "but" in their to excuse his mistakes I move on. The trubisky apologists have dwindled but as we can see, they still exist.