Josmil Pinto and Throwing Out Runners

Last season started off on the right foot. Last spring training he and pitcher Jared Burton would combined to take down the Blue Jay’s Anthony Gose -- who would go on to swipe 15 on 20 attempts. The mechanics were nearly flawless as he received and transitioned in almost one motion.

When the regular season started, it was Gose in Minnesota who would test Pinto first. With Mike Pelfrey delivering a 89-mile per hour two-seamer, Gose beats Pinto’s throw to second by a small margin. The replay shows a strong throw that is nanoseconds late. Mechanically, Pinto repeats the same motion as seen below.

It would be during his next attempt at nailing a runner that things went go awry for Pinto. Two days after his near-hit with Gose, the Twins were in Kansas City fending off a Royals rally. With Nori Aoki on second and Omar Infante on first with one out, Kevin Correia delivered to the plate and both Royal runners scampered. Kansas City demonstrated the highest tendency to take third in 2014 (they went 29-for-36) and the Twins appeared to have the situation measured. With the left-handed batting Eric Hosmer at the plate, Pinto had a clear line to third and had Aoki, the lead runner, by multiple steps.

However.

Pinto unleashed a throw that was airmailed to Omaha. All Plouffe could do was feign a leaping attempt while the ball sailed well over his head, allowing Aoki to score, putting the Royals up 5-to-2 in the fourth.

http://i.imgur.com/IIy8HBd.gif

For the most part, everything is going in the right direction for Pinto on this play. His footwork is good and the arm action is strong but his release is off. The Twins would scratch and claw back to 5-4 but the one run would be the difference-maker between losing 92 games and losing just 91 games. Maybe it was lack of confidence or maybe it was just inevitable but from that point forward, Pinto’s throwing unraveled.

Runners had gone six-for-six against Pinto by May 31 though it could have easily have been 4-for-6 if either the Gose or Aoki play went slightly different. (I guess you could also says that if things had gone slightly different I may have been the one dating Katie Upton. Make believe is fun.) From May 1 to May 31, Pinto had gone six games without anyone challenging him on the bases. That would change against the Yankees.

In the bottom of the eighth and the game tied at one apiece, Twins reliever Brian Duensing allowed a one-out single to speedster Jacoby Ellsbury. The reigning 2013 AL thief would get a fairly substantial jump on the left-handed Duensing, taking advantage of an offspeed pitch:

The pitch came in low, which Pinto backhanded on his knees, and proceeded to throw the ball while kneeling.

While ugly, Pinto was able to get off a strong throw that nearly nabbed Ellsbury. It was an impressive feat considering the jump Ellsbury got, the pitch he chose to run on and the location where Pinto had to catch it. In all, some catchers might opt to eat that base. The throw, however, hit Ellsbury in the leg on his slide and skipped into center field, allowing him to trot into third base.

The following series sparked a line of bad throws as the Brewers took advantage of Pinto’s inability to stop the run game. In Milwaukee on June 3rd, Brewers’ shortstop Jean Segura took second after a swinging strikeout and a subsequent throw by Pinto that skipped well short of the base. Yet it was Twins’ pitcher Samuel Deduno who should probably shoulder some blame for the stolen base in that situation. Runners found the erratic Deduno to be the perfect patsy as they ran roughshod on him on the season (10-for-10).

When the border battle series returned to Minnesota a couple days later, the Brewers once again took advantage of Pinto’s throwing. First it was the large Mark Reynolds who would take second -- selecting a Caleb Thielbar curveball to run on -- as Pinto’s throw traveled off target. Later that inning Jean Segura took another base on a first-pitch curve that Ryan Braun even stepped away from and gave Pinto a clean throwing lane. If Pinto had a hint of a fighting chance to stop Segura, it was killed by his 123-foot offline throw.

The Brewers had demonstrated an uncanny knack for running on breaking and offspeed pitches. All four bases Milwaukee swindled from under Pinto’s watch came on non-fastballs -- certainly a disadvantage for the catcher -- but bringing his season total to 0-for-13 nonetheless.

The young backstop was entering rare territory. Just a handful of catchers had accumulated that many attempts without throwing out at least one runner in a season. Following the Milwaukee series, the Twins set out to study and analyze film while bench coach Terry Steinbach revisited his mechanics. The film study likely reflected a lot of what is seen above: Opponents were able to select favorable pitches to run on and Pinto's throws were becoming increasingly offline.

Whatever the film said and whatever Steinbach offered as advice did not help.

In his next game behind the plate against the Astros he was once again picked apart. The eventual 2014 AL stolen base winner Jose Altuve added two bags off of pitcher Deduno and Pinto. Based on his jumps and Deduno’s inability to keep his close, Pinto stood small chance of succeeding in throwing him out on either attempt. Robbie Grossman would tack one on as well.

When the Twins signed Kendrys Morales midseason, they pointed to Pinto’s lowly offensive production, his pitch framing and throwing woes as reason to send him back to Rochester. “This is the right thing to do,” manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters after they announced Pinto’s demotion. “He definitely has to work on some things (defensively). He’s been getting a little sloppy trying to set his feet for throws and not framing the ball. There’s issues here, and this is going to help him. This kid has a chance to be a starting catcher, not a backup catcher. We believe in his offense.”

When he was recalled from Rochester in September, the streak continued as runners went unhindered to the next base. On September 5, Angels’ Mike Trout took second base effortlessly on a Ricky Nolasco 80-mile per hour curve. Later that game Trout possibly aided teammate Kole Calhoun’s thievery by loitering too long over home plate:

Would a clear throwing lane have allowed Pinto to make a better throw?

As the season progressed there was no doubt that Pinto’s throws were growing steadily worse. The last attempt, trying to thwart Detroit’s Austin Romine at second, sailed heavily to the second base side of the bag.

The video review of Pinto’s throws (with the exception of three early season attempts that are lost in the internet ether) shows a trend of offline attempts. Overall, Pinto’s footwork and mechanics do not seem terrible. He threw often with a closed foot but that is a trait that was shared by the Padres’ Rene Rivera, who had the best base-kill rates among catchers in 2014. Compared to Rivera’s howitzer (or even teammate Kurt Suzuki’s arm) Pinto’s arm strength at times appeared weak. Perhaps Pinto’s offseason shoulder injury played a substantial role in his throwing.

What is expected out of Pinto for this season? Depends on who you ask.

Pinto claims his main purpose for playing in the winter leagues this offseason was to focus on the defensive skills. "That's the first reason I went to Venezuela," Pinto told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. "I wanted to catch a couple games and improve my defense. It was the first year I played a complete season. So it was good."

Manager Paul Molitor seems to favor his offensive potential and does not think Pinto’s defense was necessarily the disaster the data suggests. He believes his defensive miscues were a product of mental struggles. “I saw him vastly improve when he was with [manager] Jeff Smith in Double-A,” Molitor told reporters in camp this year. “t was like a hitter going into a slump. He was unsuccessful a couple of times, so you try to get quicker and your arm slot changes. There were a couple of times he came out for early work, which is a good thing, but he had trouble with his accuracy. So it got a little mental for him.”

In a recent Q&A with Fox Sports North, General Manager Terry Ryan echoed Molitor’s assessment of Pinto, saying that his 2014 demotion was based on his offense and not his inability to control the run game. Ryan also believed he saw improvement out of Pinto in his stint in Rochester.

The Twins have clearly invested the bulk of the catching time in Kurt Suzuki but with his offensive potential and need to give the aging Suzuki more time off the Twins need Pinto to contribute in all aspects in 2015.