It's Not His Fault

Ned Yost, playing his usual game of blame transference, pointed out how Jason Kendall's poor percentage of throwing out opposing base runners is misleading, because his pitchers weren't giving him a chance.

"His pitchers did not give him a chance. It was probably 70% of the time (that he had no chance). So, then he's a 30% thrower, which is about right.

"Forget throwing percentage as a judge of a catcher's defensive abilities," said Yost. "It is not a true judge of what he's capable of doing. That's not fair because so much depends on a pitcher's ability to give him a chance."

What Yost fails to point out is how he thinks the Brewers' pitchers are going to fare any better at giving Kendall a chance. The team was 26th in the Majors last year in caught stealing percentage. I guess we can expect more of the same.

Oh, wait a minute. I guess that was Johnny Estrada's fault.