Back in April I called for Kenji Johjima’s benching based on opposing hitters’ batting averages against Seattle pitchers when he was behind the plate compared to when other catchers were behind the plate.  Here’s an excerpt from the old post:

Opponents hit .272 against Felix Hernandez when caught by Johjima, but only .243 when backup Jaime Burke is behind the plate or .209 when Yorvit Torrealba was catching him.  Need more proof?

Jarrod Washburn: .278 with Johjima, .240 with Burke.
Miguel Batista: .283 with Johjima, .240 with Burke.
Brandon Morrow: .270 with Johjima, .161 with Burke.

Even the dreaded Horacio Ramirez was looking good when Johjima wasn’t the catcher. Opponents hit a whopping .350 off of him with Johjima behind the plate, but only .233 when Burke was catching.

While Johjima has had his workload dramatically cut this season, I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see if the trend is continuing this season.  This time I’ll add the number of plate appearances in parenthesis so that you can come to your own conclusions based on the sample size.

Felix Hernandez: .253 with Johjima (459), .220 with Clement (88), .184 with Burke (53)
Erik Bedard: .283 with Johjima (67), .179 with Clement (32), .225 with Burke (248)
Carlos Silva: .323 with Johjima (317), .310 with Clement (242), .381 with Burke (43) 
Jarrod Washburn: .277 with Johjima (439), .267 with Clement (51), .389 with Burke (77)
Miguel Batista: .319 with Johjima (371), .280 with Clement (89), .111 with Burke (13)

J.J. Putz: .288 with Johjima (76), .286 with Clement (15), .279 with Burke (57)
Brandon Morrow: .151 with Johjima (82), .087 with Clement (27), .167 with Burke (33)
R.A. Dickey: .288 with Johjima (195), .300 with Clement (133), .256 with Burke (90)

While Burke isn’t consistently bringing out the staff’s best like he did last year (3.75 CERA* in 2007, 4.44 this year), Johjima hasn’t improved enough to close the gap, if at all.  Putting Burke or Clement behind the plate still seems like the better bet, though Clement has other defensive issues.

* CERA is Catcher’s ERA, a stat that isn’t considered an accurate way to guage a catcher’s effect on a game because of various variables, but may be safe to use as secondary evidence.

Another aspect of Johjima’s game that has been criticized has been his poor pitch framing.  There isn’t a great way to prove this other than watching him, but perhaps the percentage of hitters walked could be telling.

Felix Hernandez: 9.8% with Johjima, 6.8% with Clement, 7.5% with Burke
Erik Bedard: 22.6% with Johjima, 10.7% with Clement, 9.9% with Burke
Carlos Silva: 5.1% with Johjima, 3.9% with Clement, 2.3% with Burke
Jarrod Washburn: 8.6% with Johjima, 11.1% with Clement, 2.7% with Burke
Miguel Batista: 16.6% with Johjima, 14.6% with Clement, 23% with Burke

Whether these percentages can be attributed to pitch framing or general game calling, Johjima easily invokes more walks than either of the other catchers overall.

Johjima has long lost his status as a regular so mission accomplished on that front, but the info is still interesting nonetheless.

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson