All the way back in spring training I questioned the wisdom of replacing Mike Zunino with Omar Narvaez. I was never concerned about his hitting, which has turned out to be better than expected and nearly as powerful (if not as jaw-dropping) as Mike Z's. It was Omar's defensive skills that troubled me.
To be fair, he seems to be an okay catcher. Admittedly my skepticism has caused me to look carefully at every passed ball and missed tag at the plate, but in fairness he looks alright... not great, but pretty standard. His progress in framing pitches has gotten better. What I can't determine is how much, if any, of the blame for bad pitch selection can be passed on to him, the pitchers or Paul Davis. The homers on grooved two-strike fastballs are someone's fault... seems like the catcher would be a good place to examine.
What I hadn't counted on was his determination and success as a clutch hitter. I love to watch this guy at the plate. He is impressively composed and focused, whatever the count or situation. He's a wily hitter who works the count snd hits the ball.. hard.
But for an inch or two he could have won last night's game against the Rangers. He hit a home run and missed another by no more than two inches. The rest of the M's bats except for EE remained silent, but Omar kept the team in there.
I'm starting to like this guy.
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