Deconstructing Chooch

Great article. How can any Phils fan not love that guy? That contract sounds great to my ears.

Now for the important questions:

1. What’s the origin of the “Chooch” nickname anyway?
2. When are they going to start selling Ruiz paraphernalia in the Majestic store?
3. Isn’t it time we got some new Lincoln MKX ads on the radio?

Hmm, this seems to go further than your answer, Dark: http://www.tvn-2.com/noticias/noticias_detalle.asp?id_news=23180

I’m not exactly fluent in Spanish, but here’s a stab at an very rough translation of the relevant excerpts, with a little help from Babelfish. Probably a lot of mistakes here.

PHILADELPHIA – ESPN

Panamanian catcher Carlos Ruiz has Phillies fans using bad words. That is not because Ruiz has frustrated the baseball fans in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s the other way around: the Phillies’ fans are motivated to serenade Ruiz because he has done well as the team’s catcher.

What is it that the fans shout at Ruiz when he comes up to the plate or scores a run? They sing “Chooooooch,” a variation of the word “chucha,” the nickname with which the Phillies’ players baptized Ruiz when he was a rookie. In the colloquial language of Panama, “Chucha” refers to the reproductive part of the anatomy of a woman.

. . . .

Ruiz loves to receive el love of the fans. “They are good things that I enjoyed and I love that enthusiasm here,” said Ruiz, a native of David, Chiriquí. Ruiz explained the origin of the nickname. “Everything began when Pat Gillick was here.” Gillick was the General Manager of the Phillies for three seasons (2006-08). “He called me that. And everything began from there. They are things that started here. The team started and later it was transmitted to all the fans. Everyone in the world has enjoyed it. I particularly love that they give me love and I transmit that love to them by playing hard and doing my work. To let them know that we are here to win and to try.”

We tried to communicate with Gillick to ask him about baptizing Ruiz with his nickname, but we had no luck. One source close to the Phillies, however, said that the organization feels uncomfortable about commenting about the origin of the nickname and prefers not to comment about it. Gillick retired as General Manager last year and now es an advisor to the team’s executives.

Ruiz’s nickname became public when the Phillies’ manager, Charlie Manuel, and some of the players referred to him as “Chooch” in their press conferences. WIthout knowing what it meant, the Philadelphia media began to say it literally.

The fans, however, extended the O’s in “Chooch” to convert it into “Chooooch,” to emphasize their praise. "In reality, the way they say it here doesn’t make sense in Panama. If they said it correctly, I think that yes, it would sound a little bit bad. The way they say “Chooch” es something affectionate. I mean, it’s nothing from another world in Panama. It doesn’t mean anything. I mean, for the fans here, that is my nickname and in Panama, they will have to adapt."

Ruiz’s nickname has acquired so much force in the Phillies’ ballpark that there are organized fan club with names like “Chooch’s Chicos” and the “Chooch Chooch Train.”

The Philadelphia media has paid attention to these groups of fans and one article in one of the city’s newspapers described some of them carrying Panamanian flags and signs that said “Señor Octubre” and “Grandes Cojones” to recognize the timely and intrepid hitting of the 30-year-old catcher.

“They have always supported me in the good times and the bad times. They have always trusted in me. I have tried to do my best for my team and for all the fans and I hope to continue that,” Ruiz said.

“I feel very happy and proud to be in this organization since it was here that the doors were opened for me to be a professional baseball player. Now I am here in Philadelphia to give the fans a World Series last year and to go to another World Series this year,” concluded Ruiz.

It seems that Phillies’ fans will receive many opportunities to intone “Chooch” during the World Series. Ruiz batted an unstoppable six-for-eight and knocked in three runs against the Yankees in two interleague games in the Bronx this summer.

Beyond the Boxscore did a piece a little ways back focusing on Catcher Block Percentage.

Writer Dan Turkenkopf describes it as:

For those who aren’t familiar with the stat, I look at how well a catcher stops runners from moving up on balls in the dirt. Each wild pitch or passed ball saved is worth .27 runs (based on run expectancy and the timing of the events).

As you can see, Ruiz stacks up very favorably on both lists.

“So what’s he worth? FanGraphs’ “Dollars” metric suggests that Ruiz’s 2009 performance would have earned him $10 million as a free agent."

I get what you’re saying that he has improved offensively and is very good defensively, but $10M for what he did? This must be a HEAVILY position-dependent metric. Even so, it still makes no sense to me.

4 yrs. in the minors…shouldn’t he also get a bachelor’s degree.