Phillies

Yahoo! (!!!) Writer is All But Certain That Carlos Ruiz Will See a Decline (!!!)

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 21st, 2012 · 1:44 PM EDT

---

Yahoo.com’s Jeff Passan put together a rather interesting article about 10 dubious MLB starts that may or may not continue. Using his very scientific Bud Selig face rating scale, Passan predicts which hot starts will continue and which won’t.

He gave Carlos Ruiz a score of five Selig faces, which means Passan thinks Chooch is destined to come back down to Earth.

Carlos Ruiz going to mash 21.9 percent of his out of the park. Chooch is playing out of his mind, keeping the Philadelphia Phillies' offense afloat, and there is absolutely no way it's going to continue to happen.

Career years almost never come in age-33 seasons – especially the age-33 seasons of catchers, none of whom in history have cracked a 1.000 OPS (Ruiz is at .999) and only six of whom have gone over .900.

Ruiz this year has swung at more pitches outside of the strike zone and made contact with a lower percentage, which doesn't bode well. No, he doesn't miss balls in the strike zone and rarely strikes out, but the hard contact he's making now is likelier a small-sample-size mirage than a fundamental overhaul in his offensive fortunes.

A Phillies fan on Twitter suggested Ruiz is the best catcher in baseball today. He's not even the best in his own division – that would be Brian McCann – nor the best in his league this season. That honor belongs to A.J. Ellis. 

 

Chooch couldn’t be reached for comment, but he did respond with a gesture:

Thanks, Chooch.

[Reminder: You can vote for Ruiz as an All-Star here]