Let's be objective here.......

So NY Times’ Tyler Kepner the points out that there is a striking difference in pitching statistics when Jorge Posada catches this year. With Posada behind the plate, the Yankees' pitchers have a 6.31 ERA and the combined ERA with Francisco Cervelli, Jose Molina and Kevin Cash is 3.81.

He attempts to throw some objectivity into the bias article by saying that Posada has caught four starts by Chien-Ming Wang and even after removing those start’s, the staff's ERA with Posada is still high, at 5.47.

I guess Tyler has written about this topic because it has been talked about on WFAN radio non-stop the past week. But you can’t write a piece like this and only give half the story. That’s just not responsible. If you have a forum like Tyler does you can be like "Jimmy from the Bronx" calling the radio station. There are a number of important items that Tyler fails to mention.

1) How many more runs to the Yankees score when Posada is in the line-up? The answer will undoubtedly be more.

2) The pitcher is the guy who throws the ball. “The catcher called the pitch” is the lamest excuse in the world for a ball that is put in play that does damage for the other team. If the pitcher wants to throw a different pitch, no matter who he is, at the major league level he is free to do so (unless the manager or pitching coach is calling the pitches). What do you think would have happened if Tim McCarver would have gone out to the mound and told Bob Gibson that he has to throw a different pitch then the one he wanted to throw? Please.

3) The guy has caught a few no hitters and the teams he has been on have won quite a few games, including playoff and world championship games with him behind the plate.

4) Exactly how many full time catchers do you think you can find in the league that have been around for awhile whose teams that have better winning percentages with them behind the plate than Posada does when he catches? Think about it. Since Posada has been the primary catcher, how many teams have won more games than the Yankees?

5) Exactly how many catchers would you rather have up in a big spot than Posada? Joe Mauer? Victor Martinez? And even they are debatable because they don’t have the long time resume of big spot success that Posada has.

Ok, so he doesn’t block the plate. He doesn’t throw like the Molina brothers (but he doesn’t throw like Piazza did at the end of his career either). Listen, I’m not a Yankee fan but let’s be a little objective here.

Anyone who doesn’t think the Yankees can win with Posada as catcher is either ignorant on the topic or just plain ignorant. To be fair, Tyler is not the only one printing this nonsense, I saw the Post ran a piece and I’m sure others have or will as well. Additionally, I’m not claiming that Tyler has anything against Posada as he's written positively about him in the past.

Burnett is a veteran pitcher. He should be able to throw to any professional wearing the tools of ignorance. To insinuate that Burnett and the Yankees are better off without Posada catching is just silly.

The above post was submitted by one of our readers, Billy Park of Staten Island, NY.

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