Hello Soto

Geovany Soto is not the Cubs' catcher of the future. He's their catcher now (since Sept. 15).

Lou's running him out again against the Pirates. How could he do otherwise? Dusty, perhaps, would be sending Blanco to work.

I've got 116 pitches for Geo in the database. He has a pretty typical strike zone (avg sz_top=3.44 ft., sz_bot=1.47), with what looks like good zone judgment.

Pitches Seen: 116
In Strike Zone: 61 (52.6%)
Out of Zone: 55 (47.4%)

Swings: 44 (37.9%)
ISZ: 34 (55.7%)
OOZ: 10 (18.18%)

Whiffs: 6 (13.6%)
ISZ: 3 (8.8%)
OSZ: 3 (30.0%)

That's a pretty slick contact rate of 86.4%.

The sample is too small to be meaningful, but if anything, he may tend to go after pitches Up and OOZ or In and OOZ. Doesn't like the ball away at all - 14 pitches outside, 1 swing, and it was also Up and OOZ. He fouled it off.

Update: See how close to the zone most of the OOZ swings are, and the bunch of low ISZ takes.