Houston Astros: Assessing Brian McCann in the Second Half
In the midst of the recent skid for the Houston Astros, their starting catcher in BMac has been on a backslide. But is it really any cause for alarm?
Brian McCann brings a sheer veteran presence to this Houston Astros ball club. Many, like myself, were very excited to hear that he was coming over from the New York Yankees.
However, the same BMac we saw in the first half of the season has yet to duplicate in the second. Since the All Star Break, McCann has not been operating on the same cylinders. This is true on both sides of the ball.
Offensively, the bat has been in a serious trance. Brian McCann is slashing a very tiny .162/.250/.324/.574 in the second half. If you isolate the month of August, that slash line is even more minuscule at .120/.214/.160/.374 across the span of seven games that he has played in for the month.
Behind the plate, he hasn’t been faring well either. His catcher ERA has increased from 3.86 in the first half to 4.40, as it stands right now. He has also only gunned down seven of the 51 runners that have tried to steal on him. That’s a 13.7 percent clip on the year, and just over half of what he has done in his career with throwing out 25 percent of base runners.
The bad news doesn’t stop there. While McCann had a solid 0.2 defensive war in the first half, it has shrunken down to negative territory at -0.4 over the second half.
So, should we be worried about McCann? Yes and no, and here is why:
Bite worse than the bark
Yesterday, Brian McCann was put on the 10-Day disabled list for soreness in his right knee. This has, very likely, had an effect on his dipping numbers as of late to some degree. Especially, given that reports say it has been nagging BMac for a couple of weeks now. He is back in Houston seeing a doctor about it, so the Astros have called up Max Stassi in his stead for the time being.
Over his illustrious 12.5 year career so far, Brian McCann has always seen his second half numbers dip. Even if it has only been slightly, BMac grows a tad wearier during the second half. The only seasons that were exceptions to this rule were 2006-2007, and in 2010.
Ironically, all three of those seasons were ones in which he was selected to the All Star Game. The midsummer classic seems to be like an energy booster for the BMac!
Despite this, his numbers have never fallen below a .200 BA or a .600 OPS. Sure, this season’s second half has been a very small sample size. Even still, this may be an eyebrow raiser, but a small one at that!
The Dog Days can be cruel and unusual, especially to catchers, who have the most grueling position on the field. However, confidence remains that McCann will turn it around very soon. Perhaps another DL trip can get him freshened up and back to April BMac, rather than August BMac.
Wake me up when September ends
Across 12 seasons of work, Brian McCann has a .245 BA in the month of September. Not stellar, but nothing to sneeze at, either. In last season alone, his slash line was a solid .266/.347/.438/.785 when the reinforcement of minor league call ups arrived in 2016.
With Juan Centeno now moving to starting catcher, and Stassi taking the backup helm while Evan Gattis recovers from his concussion, BMac will have plenty of help should his struggles continue. Given what he has already done in 12 seasons, that struggling may not last very long.
Additionally, depending on how much longer Gattis is out, Centeno may very well be up with the club heading into September, when other minor league contributors join the team. Stassi is less likely to hang around, since he was just added to the 40 man roster yesterday with Jordan Jankowski being DFA’d to make room for him.
If this ends up being the case, the Houston Astros will have three capable catchers going into the post season. That’s a pretty valuable thing to possess!
GO HOUSTON ASTROS!!!!