SB Nation - Mike Rabelo

Bowling with the Marlins

craig — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:39:39 -0000

If your dream has always been keggling with the Marlins catchers, you have a chance to make it come true.

Catchers John Baker and Mike Rabelo will serve as honorary Player Chairs this Saturday at the Spring Training Basebowl Tournament at Jupiter Lanes at 5 p.m. The event will feature bowlers, including Marlins players and other celebrities, raising funds for local charities through the Florida Marlins Community Foundation.

Tickets are $50 per person or $200 per team of four bowlers. Lane sponsorships are also available for $300. Registration for the event is available at www.marlins.com/community, by calling 305-623-6497 or emailing FMCF@marlins.com.

If you do participate, please let us know how it went.

BP Marlins health report

craig — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:12:26 -0000

Will Carroll is once again giving his preseason team health reports and yesterday was the Marlins. As always it doesn't look all that favorable.

All of the starters are either red or yellow (green is what you want be) but this isn't uncommon since they are all young with many coming off injuries and some having increased their innings beyond the recommended amount.

Will Carroll's team health report is premium content and while he is not a perfect predictor of possible injuries, he more accurate than almost anyone else.

To read the whole thing you will need to subscribe to the site, but I will give you an example. It is one that caught my eye since I had heard about this phenomenon in the past but had forgotten it.

C John Baker: One front-office type who I spoke with told me of a theory he'd heard from scouts: that catchers who struggle defensively can try so hard to overcome their inadequacies that they can overtax their arms, their backs, and their legs. Players like this might not last long enough to factor in to what we know, but it's an interesting theory. Baker is one of those guys, though the system is doing this based solely on playing time and position.

I was told this very thing by an Astros bench coach about a gazillion years ago.

In other words, whether Baker stays healthy may not just be based on the normal wear and tear of the position but also on the fact of him trying to become better defensively.

Last season Rabelo and Treanor spent some time injured and neither one worried about improving their defense. One, Treanor didn't need to, he was already good behind the plate. Two, Rabelo just seemed lost. No need to worry about the defense when nothing was working.

The backup catcher slot could play an important role in the upcoming season.

Flotsam and Jetsam

craig — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:39:29 -0000

I hadn't planned on doing this but I'm seriously running out time with a day game today. I guess everyone, not just the players, have to knock the rust off and get back into form.

Anyway, we have a Flotsam and Jetsam, so here it is:

WBC rosters set

Cool story about Scott Proctor

Danny and Bucky Dent's camp

BA's Top 100 prospects. And there are Marlins all over the list.

Something about Mike Rabelo.

Hanley Ramirez in the WBC

"So little to do but so much time. Scratch that, reverse it."

Name that movie.

And that is it for today's Flotsam and Jetsam.

The Brewer Advent Calendar #14: Mike Rivera

KLSnow — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:00:14 -0000

Behind door #14 we find...Mike Rivera!

via www.milwaukeebrewersticket.net

EDIT: That's actually Damian Miller. My mistake. Pretend it's Mike Rivera.

At least we know we didn't pull him away from anything important.

On Jason Kendall's page, we briefly discussed how much Kendall plays. But there must be two sides to every coin, so it's only fair to point out how little Mike Rivera played. What's even more interesting is how well he hit in limited opportunities. Rivera hit .306/.377/.435 in 2008 despite ten different stretches where he went ten days or more without an AB. Only eight catchers in all of baseball posted an OPS higher than Rivera's .812. Here are the worst ten OPS seasons from 2008 by catchers who played more often than Rivera:

Player	Team	AB	OPS
Luke Carlin	San Diego	94	.472
J.R. Towles	Houston	146	.503
Rob Bowen	Oakland	91	.505
Guillermo Quiroz	Baltimore	134	.528
Josh Bard	San Diego	178	.549
Mike Rabelo	Florida	109	.550
Humberto Quintero	Houston	168	.568
Michael Barrett	San Diego	94	.572
Jose Molina	New York (AL)	268	.576
Ronny Paulino	Pittsburgh	118	.582

Bring Back Mike Rabelo?

Ian Casselberry — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:00:06 -0000

One of the reasons the Detroit Tigers were so weak at catcher last season is that Mike Rabelo, who proved himself a dependable, though low-hitting (.256/.300/.357 in 2007), back-up to Pudge Rodriguez, was among the six players that went to the Florida Marlins in the Miguel Cabrera-Dontrelle Willis trade.

But Rabelo could be available to return to the Tigers, now that the Marlins have placed him on outright waivers. If he isn't claimed within 72 hours - which seems rather likely, given that he'd have to be added to the 40-man roster - Rabelo can either report to Florida's Triple-A team in New Orleans or refuse the assignment and become a free agent.

This past season with the Marlins, Rabelo hit .202/.256/.304 in just 34 games (122 plate appearances). Defensively, he threw out 23.8% of opposing basestealers, but wasn't very good with blocking pitches.

However, Rabelo fought injuries all year after a collision with Washington's Austin Kearns in Spring Training that banged up his left knee and hip. By June, he was sent down to Triple-A. Rabelo only played nine games, however (along with another eight in Single-A), before sitting down with an injury to his right wrist that eventually put him on the 60-day DL.

So could the switch-hitting Rabelo (.230/.273/.322 against righties in his career) form a platoon with Dusty Ryan? Or should the Tigers keep looking at more proven veterans capable of being the starter?

You can get the Marlins' side of things from our SB Nation broham, FishStripes.