Stassi’s comfort level increasing steadily
Max Stassi’s baptism as an entrenched major leaguer was completed Wednesday.
Stassi caught Justin Verlander’s seven-inning, two-run gem against the Angels, meaning he has caught each of the Astros’ five starting pitchers once in his first full season as the Astros’ backup catcher.
“There’s some familiarity that comes with that, and his comfort is showing up in how confident he is receiving the ball,” manager A.J. Hinch said before the game.
In five previous major league seasons, Stassi had never made more than 31 plate appearances. Now he’s got 43 across the first 26 games, hitting .270 with two home runs and seven RBIs.
“He probably feels like a big leaguer for the first time in his career because he’s entrenched in our system and he’s playing fairly regularly,” Hinch said.
Stassi’s emergence, along with Brian McCann’s offensive onslaught, leaves Hinch jockeying some lineup decisions. Hinch acknowledged Wednesday he considered letting McCann DH the game before ultimately penciling Yuli Gurriel there with Marwin Gonzalez at first.
Going forward, though, Hinch said McCann will be a consideration to DH against righthanded pitching. McCann is slashing .303/ .443/.469 and has two home runs through 16 games. Getting him more at-bats seems logical, especially given Stassi’s growing rapport with the pitching staff when McCann gets a day off behind the plate.
“(Stassi) is calling good games; he’s putting the ball in play,” Hinch said. “He’s hit a couple homers, (and) he’s contributing in the games that I’ve played him, which makes me want to play him more.”
Angels take visits to limit
Martin Maldonado joined a chorus of catchers who disparaged the new mound visit rules when they were announced, telling reporters in spring training, “I’m going to go out there, even if I have to pay a fine. I’m there for the pitchers.”
His mettle was tested Tuesday.
Major League Baseball’s most profound attempt to hasten pace of play manifested itself prominently in, of all things, a three-hour and 48 minute game.
During Tuesday’s 8-7 win over the Astros, the Angels utilized their six allotted mound visits by the seventh inning — the first time this season the Astros or their opponent exhausted their visit limit under the new rule, which allows just six mound visits without a pitching change per nine innings.
“We are way down in terms of mound visits — I think down about 50 percent — and our inning breaks are significantly shorter,” commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters in Toronto on Tuesday. “I take both of those as positives in an ongoing effort to make sure that we’re producing an entertainment product with as little dead time as possible.”
The Angels used four of their six visits in the seventh inning. Three of those came while Justin Anderson — a Houston native and St. Pius X graduate — was on the mound and Maldonado behind the plate.
Making his second major league appearance, Anderson threw a wild pitch, walked Brian McCann, allowed an RBI single to Marwin Gonzalez, and faced a basesloaded, one-out situation with his team clinging to a one-run lead.
Mound visits were made after the walk to McCann, after Gonzalez’s single, and after Anderson struck out Derek Fisher with the bases loaded for a second out.
Two pitches later, after the third mound visit, Anderson got George Springer to ground into a fielder’s choice, escaping damage.
“Even though we rifled through (the mound visits), they were all necessary,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Wednesday. “I think they did have an impact on some things. Justin Anderson was a little sideways on things and was able to finish out the inning.”
The Angels played the final two innings without a mound visit, though they were permitted to change pitchers. Any additional visits by Maldonado, Scioscia or anyone else could have been grounds for ejection at home plate umpire Eric Cooper’s discretion.
“My hope was that they all got ejected as the rule states,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said with a laugh. “They didn’t really need any more visits after that, or they didn’t use any more visits after that. We didn’t get to see the aftereffect. That was the first time we’ve seen the number get that low, which was unique.”