Erik Kratz: From Minor-League Afterthought To The Majors

by Charlie Wilmoth on Oct 19, 2010 9:13 PM EDT

Here's a really excellent and very frank interview with Erik Kratz about his twisted path through the minors. If you're at all curious about what it's like to be a fringe minor leaguer, this is a great article.

The 2004 season was filled with frustration. In what he felt should have been a key campaign in his development -- his third year as a pro -- Kratz's playing time was severely restricted by factors he had no control over. He was never hurt, but the Blue Jays put him on the disabled list repeatedly ...

"I was on the phantom DL every time," he said. "I [mostly] sat in extended [Spring Training]. Just because, the year before, I was up there in the top three or four on the team in almost every offensive category in short-season [ball]. It was a hard time" ...

"I feel, if you have a problem with something that's going on, go to the people that are making decisions and talk to them face to face. I went to those people, and I let them know I was frustrated. I got the runaround, the baseball runaround. 'Well, we just need to see this guy for a little bit,' or things like that."

So essentially, the Blue Jays weren't even sure Kratz was worth a minor-league roster spot - and he still ended up making the majors. Elsewhere, Kratz says he didn't tell the Jays he hurt himself by shooting himself with a nail gun in his catching hand while working a construction job.

Kratz probably doesn't have enough bat speed to do much in the majors, and he may not be back with the Pirates next season, but I'll be rooting for him either way.

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From what we saw defensively...

I’d be fine with Kratz as a backup catcher with the Pirates. Most teams don’t expect a lot of offense from their backup catcher anyway.

by Thunder on Oct 19, 2010 9:33 PM EDT reply actions

That's so crazy

I might add that my idea that maybe teams should carry an extra MiL team could have helped here.

Or maybe there should be better integration between the US MiLs and the DR and Venezuelan leagues. Or something. But this sort of misuse of talent (and even if they couldn’t foresee that he had at least marginal MLB talent, he clearly wasn’t worthless) suggests that the system is screwed up.

And I worry that the coming crush of Pirates MiL pitching will result in worthwhile players getting shorted or even guys getting lost to the Rule 5 because we haven’t seen enough of them to justify protecting them. Not to mention, given conservative practices in season-to-season inning increases, guys getting to the majors unable to throw enough innings.

by JRoth95 on Oct 19, 2010 9:57 PM EDT reply actions

If you think it's bad now...

…just wait until you take a look at the way things worked a hundred years ago. There are literally hundreds of stories of longtime MLB players who only ended up with the chance to play pro ball by pure dumb luck. Guys who signed because some low-minors team needed a spare infield backup for a few weeks, and their cousin the left fielder sent them a telegram. Guys who got scouted because the scout got lost driving pre-interstate-highway back roads, found a game in some godforsaken cornfield in the middle of nowhere, and figured, “What the hell, why not stop and check it out?” One nineteenth-century pitcher (whose name temporarily escapes me) got signed because he was sitting in the stands watching a game, and he threw a foul ball back to the mound on the fly, and the manager went crazy over his arm and waited outside the park to offer him a contract.

The line between success and a long life as a shelf-stocker can be very, very thin sometimes.

by Vlad on Oct 19, 2010 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Oh yeah.

“One day a scout came to see the star center fielder on our town team, but he went 0-for-4 and I hit a homer and a double and next year I was in St. Louis.”

1,000 stories like that.

The question nobody seems to ask, though, is: What happened to the star center fielder? Since there were also 1,000 (really independent, for awhile) minor league teams, chances are he carved out a 20-year career playing for Hollywood, or Baltimore, or Amarillo …

Presuming, of course, that he was white or passably so.

by bucdaddy on Oct 20, 2010 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions

Didn’t Honus Wagner get a tryout because they wanted to see his brother?

Put on your dancin' shoes.

by PensFan024 on Oct 20, 2010 3:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Close.

Wagner’s brother Albert was already with the team, and when they needed an extra player on the bench, Albert put in a good word for him. Link.

by Vlad on Oct 20, 2010 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m going to have to check, but the plaque by my house where he was supposedly discovered says something different IIRC.

Put on your dancin' shoes.

by PensFan024 on Oct 21, 2010 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions

it's why they play the game

to live the dream and get to taste sweet nectar that is the majors…these guys toil in the minor league system for years working odd jobs like kratz (construction in his case) just to make ends meet trying to earn their shot.

hopefully kratz has some more years in the majors for him…good luck

by pittsinthemtl on Oct 19, 2010 10:33 PM EDT reply actions

AAA players, especially veterans, make alot more money than you think

make more than most of us, thats for sure.

by white angus on Oct 19, 2010 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd like to see Kratz as the backup . . .

Assuming Doumit is traded or stationed in RF. Feel better about trotting him out there every Sunday than Jaramillo, at least.

No matter what happens to him, Kratzy holding his own against that asshole Fielder will always be one of my favorite memories of the 2010 campaign.

by Garrett122 on Oct 20, 2010 10:01 AM EDT reply actions

Hopefully Doumit is no more than Plan C in the outfield next season. He was on pace for a negative 40 defensive season there per UZR. Use Ryan as just a pinch hitter and DH in 2011, IMO.

by Adam Reynolds on Oct 20, 2010 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions

He’d probably look a lot better there with an offseason of working at the position, rather than having to try and remember it on the fly in the middle of the season.

He should get some games behind the plate, too, to see if they can get him back to his pre-2010 defensive form. If they can, that’s obviously his best position.

by Vlad on Oct 20, 2010 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

He should get a lot of looks behind the plate in spring training to see if he can catch again. The outfield for Doumit doesn’t seem like a useful spot, since we should be able to find a low-to-mid .700 OPS who can field better, even if Doumit improved a bit from the disastrous 2010 baseline.

by Adam Reynolds on Oct 21, 2010 2:00 AM EDT up reply actions

I anticipate

Close to a 50/50 split between C and RF for him. I don’t know who gets the other starts in RF, and I think the goal is still to showcase him, but I certainly think they can get their money’s worth out of him in that configuration. I don’t relish 140 starts from Snyder, and we have no one obviously superior in RF – not if Doumit wOBAs .350 and shows better D than he did in ‘10 (which I expect him to do – Vlad’s right about that).

That said, after a very nice August, Doumit had a crappy September (wOBA .300, with his ISO a season-low .106), so apparently playing the two positions isn’t a cure-all for him. His defense behind the plate figures to regress back to acceptability, and the departure of “Who cares if the run?” Kerrigan should help his baserunning numbers.

All of which is to say that I think there’s a decent chance they can move him for reasonable value, perhaps to a team with a young catcher they’re not ready to run out every day. Or maybe the Royals will split time between him and Kendall. Think they’ll give us Grienke for him?

But there’s also a decent chance we’re stuck with him all year. But he’s not blocking anybody, so who cares?

by JRoth95 on Oct 21, 2010 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions

50/50 split sounds about right...

50 games at catcher, 50 games in RF, and 62 games on the DL.

by Thunder on Oct 24, 2010 7:43 AM EDT up reply actions

Crash Kratz

Heh: He was frustrated because the Jays wouldn’t tell him what was going on, but when something important and possibly consequential to his ability to perform happened to HIM, no way was he going to tell the Jays about it.

Pot, meet kettle.

Nonetheless, if nothing ever comes of him again, he had his taste of the majors and will have those stories to tell his kids. Good for him.

Glory days, they’ll pass you by …

by bucdaddy on Oct 20, 2010 10:25 AM EDT reply actions

and as long as he sticks around in AAA

he’ll make a pretty good living; getting paid to play baseball.

by white angus on Oct 20, 2010 10:41 AM EDT up reply actions

Kratz

Hasn’t Kratz demonstrated the kind of character and dedication to the game we would like to have in the Pirates organization — even after his playing days are over?

Maybe he can teach something to the young up and comers.

Lino Donoso

by Lino Donoso on Oct 20, 2010 12:51 PM EDT reply actions