Looking past the ending of the 19-inning Tuesday night/Wednesday morning affair, the most important thing that happened was the injury to Brian McCann. With a .306/.375/.514 line, McCann has been worth almost 4 wins already this season, and he’s the most valuable catcher in the MLB, according to FanGraphs, by over a win over the next competitor, Miguel Montero. On his own team, McCann is also easily the best player, 2 wins better than Martin Prado but just one better than Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, and Craig Kimbrel. In other words, McCann is the best player on the Braves, and he’s one of the top 10-15 players in the National League. So his injury should hurt the Braves, right?
Well, insert David Ross. Making the start the night after the McCann injury, Ross came up huge for the Braves. Going into extras for the second night in the row, Ross ended this a whole game earlier in the 10th inning by swatting a walk-off single to give the Braves a 2-1 victory. Jair Jurrjens (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K) and Paul Maholm (7 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K) went toe-to-toe in this one, and the bullpens responded with two more scoreless innings. In the 10th, Scott Linebrink held the Pirates scoreless before Chris Leroux gave up the winning run in the bottom half. For the second straight night and after 29 innings, Joel Hanrahan wasted on the bench yet again.
But let’s go back to David Ross. One of the most common refrains about him is that he’s the best back-up catcher in the game, and he could start for multiple other teams. Among all catchers, Ross ranks 24th in fWAR with 1 win exactly, but he’s done it in only 28 games. Jose Molina is the only catcher above Ross anywhere close to that total, with 33, and Buster Posey with 45 is next on the list. Most of the other catchers have played in over double and close to triple the amount of games. If your starting catcher is your best player and he goes down, David Ross is the guy you want backing him up, and over the next two weeks, it’s likely that he can produce close to what McCann would. With that, the Braves don’t need to overreact and make a crippling trade.
Can he keep it up? Well, the .367 BABiP is a lot higher than his .280 career average, but he’s done well over the past three seasons, with BABiPs over .340 (though in admittedly small samples around 60 games each). He won’t continue producing at a .286/.368/.494 clip, but by taking walks and hitting for a good amount of power, Ross will still be a valuable offensive asset while providing his usual stellar defense. What could have been a mortal wound is nothing but a scratch for this Braves team.
Tonight’s Matchups: Wandy Rodriguez and Jaime Garcia will face off in the pitching matchup of the night in St. Louis … Kevin Correia will try to fend off Derek Lowe and the Braves as the Pirates try to tie the series and get back within a game of the Central … and Daniel Hudson and Mat Latos square off in a battle of young arms.
