Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis has taken on a mentorship role with rookie Austin Barnes. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff photographer)
SAN DIEGO — Austin Barnes is catching today, A.J. Ellis is catching tomorrow, and that’s a sentence I should probably copy and paste for future use this week.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he likes the every-other-day rotation between his two catchers. Barnes is 26 and just made his first Opening Day Roster. Ellis is 34 and has experience in parts of nine major league seasons.
“I love the way that (Ellis) can mentor Austin,” Roberts said. “Those two guys, it’s a nice combination.”
In Ellis, Roberts said, “I see a mentor, I see a big brother a great teammate. A.J. is in it for the right reasons. He’s a mid- to low-round pick who’s had to establish himself to carve out a nice career. He’s here for the right reasons. He’s here to win baseball games. Whatever it takes.”
Maybe the best thing Roberts did in his pregame media scrum Tuesday was introduce a word into the baseball lexicon: Ploach.
Continue reading “On the meaning of ‘ploach,’ and what A.J. Ellis and Robin Ventura have in common.” »