Building a Latin American Pitcher Voltron with Ramón Hernández

Killing time used to be an art for children of my generation. We didn’t have a smartphone in our hands. The internet was still some kind of sorcery unavailable in our towns, and the TV offered just four channels, where soap operas ruled the air time. Time, as you can imagine, kept taunting us as he slowly passed by outside, while we stayed indoors.

Because of that, I personally craved my parents’ permission to go out. When I was fortunate enough to receive it, my friends and I played “Quemado” (something like Pelota Vasca but where we fielded the ball and threw it to the wall) or “Pelotica de Goma” (this Baseball5 thing is flat out plagiarism for us Venezuelans). And when we got tired or lost the ball to an unfriendly neighbor, we just went ahead and bantered.

In these exchanges full of imaginary exercises, my brain decided to create a habit that still haunts me to this day. I called it the “Voltron Game,” and, as in the famous Japanese cartoon of the 80s, it consists of assembling a perfect entity using the outstanding parts of other things that were perfectly fine separately.

I did this with dinosaurs, cities, and cars. I did this with super heroes and super villains. And, of course, I did it (and still do it) with baseball.

Omar Vizquel once helped me assemble the perfect Venezuelan shortstop. Henry Blanco once helped me assemble the perfect Venezuelan pitcher. And now, because springs training for MLB and in Mexico are awfully long, I wanted to play again with Ramón Hernández, current Diablos Rojos del Mexico bench coach, as my new partner.

The idea was simple: to ask the catcher (who has caught the most major league games among Venezuelan-born players and the seventh-most among players not born in the US) who among the Latin American pitchers playing while he was active he thought had the best fastball, slider, curveball, changeup, and baseball IQ, and then compare them with my list.

Here are the results.

Best Fastball

Ramón: Before we start, I have to say I’m a little biased to Venezuelan pitchers. However, I caught Aroldis Chapman for a while, and that fastball is just insane. The first time I caught it, I really didn’t see it. It was like it teleported from his hand to the plate. Just unhittable.

Octavio: Oh yeah! Chapman may have a run at the “greatest fastball ever” title. He has thrown 2852 fastballs at 100 mph or more since he arrived in the majors, and no other pitcher has more than 700 hundred pitches like this. Considering that the league has averaged .186 against his fastball since 2010, you can’t go wrong with him.

Best Changeup

Ramón: I faced Pedro Martínez, and that thing was real nasty. Then again, I was fortunate enough to catch Johan Santana, and there are no words. When he touched 95 it was impossible to defend yourself as a hitter against the fastball and the changeup. And he threw both of them for strikes, so it was really unfair. I’d go with Santana’s changeup.

Octavio: It’s a shame that we can’t compare the peak Pedro’s (1999-2000) changeup against the Santana changeup. Then again, Pedro in 2002 was really filthy, and his changeup accumulated 12.9 wCH (he did have three pitches above 10 runs in value, though). Peak Santana accumulated more than 20 wCH in five consecutive years. He is still third in wCH since 2002, just behind Cole Hamels and Félix Hernández, who have pitched 500-600 innings more than Santana. So, yes, Johan’s changeup is also my favorite.

Best Slider

Ramón: Among Latin pitchers, I believe my favorite slider came from Carlos Zambrano. His slider-sinker combo was amazing and I think a little bit under-appreciated. He had an awesome career and I think it was in part because of that pitching combo. He could throw 97 with movement and people forget how filthy he was.

Octavio: The thing about Carlos is that he threw almost every pitch in the book. And yes, his slider was very good, but he only accumulated more than 10 wSL once in his career (10.1 in 2006). Here I’m going to go to Mexico and pick Sergio Romo. His slider has a 80.7 wCH career value, almost the same as Chris Sale’s despite the fact he has pitched a lot less. Of course, using it 60% of the time helps a lot, but in my book that only accentuates the nastiness of this pitch.

Best Curveball

Ramón: My Venezuelan bias may be kicking in again, but my favorite one is Felix Hernandez’s curveball. It just moves so much, and when I caught him, it was his third-best pitch. Felix had so many weapons, and as a catcher it is so tough to handle him. I worked with him in the WBC in 2009 and he was just perfect. We won because of him, but it wasn’t easy to be back there catching all his stuff.

Octavio: Hell yeah. Felix’s curveball has been awesome and I truly believe he deserves this nod. In fact, it was the only pitch in his arsenal that was clearly above average on value last year (7.2 wCB). With 65.2 wCB lifetime, he sits seventh among all pitchers and first among Latin-born pitchers. A special mention has to go to Wandy Rodríguez’s curveball, which accumulated 22.0 wCB in 2009 alone and was just a beautiful pitch.

Best Athlete:

Ramón: Kelvim Escobar was a monster. He ran for an hour before each game, ran for an hour after the games, and hit the gym like no one else. He made great efforts to be in shape and he was freak of nature. He should’ve had a longer career but his arm just caved.

Octavio: I just have to go with Ramón on this one. As much as I like Bartolo, I know he is not the poster boy here.

Best Pitcher IQ:

Ramón: I think it’s between Johan and Freddy García. Johan would always find a way to beat you in the simplest of games: fastball or changeup? He just knew what you were expecting. And Freddy was just so cerebral and calm. He slowed the game and dominated it even in the greatest stages. Maybe Freddy didn’t have Johan’s stuff, but he managed to shine and pitch until his 40s despite that.

Octavio: I don’t know how to measure this so, again, I’ll go along with Ramón here.

I’d like to point out that one of the greatest mysteries in the calculation of the catcher’s value is the capacity these guys have to call the game, to interact with the pitcher, and make them better. So maybe, just maybe, our Latin “Voltron” doesn’t need to do it all on the mound. Maybe, just maybe, all it would need is a guy like Ramón behind the plate calling the shots.