He had an .821 OPS at home, a .612 OPS on the road, again homer comment. You spew nonsense dude. In 2007, he slugged .388 at home, .427 on the road (233 avg, v 264 avg). It is absolutely stupid that you talk about crap that you don’t know about your own team’s players. Wow…

except I dont see anyone giving Arencibia a “high-end projection of perennial all-star.”

Most “perennial all-stars” walked more than 2-4% of the time in the minors – even catchers. Forget position – we’re talking about a deeply flawed hitter who has such a serious red flag issue that you have to be seriously concerned whether he has the contact skills to survive in MLB.

That said, he should be on this list soon…

Your entitled to your opinion. But if it’s “most accounts” I’d like to see some of them.

Per The Diamond Cutter:

If you are looking for the next gold glove catcher, Arencibia is not your man. However if you are looking for adequate catcher with a big bat, well then look no further. Arencibia is a little below average behind the plate but he should be ok if he stays back there. Has plus raw power that can help people forget about his defensive woes and if his bat becomes big enough a move to DH may not be a bad idea.

 
Per Scouting Book:

A big, strong right-handed hitter from Florida, Arencibia is a catcher of the offensive variety, though he does have a strong throwing arm to go along with his bat. He’s also got a great personality for leadership and should be able to handle a pitching staff if he can stay behind the plate

Per Baseball America

Arencibia’s defensive work is improving this fall. The draft report coming out of Tennessee indicated that there were questions as to whether he could remain behind the plate as a pro, but he’s put that idea behind him. He threw out 33 percent of the runners who attempted to steal off him during the regular season.
 
“(I’m) just getting better in every aspect,” Arencibia said, “working on every pitch, making every pitch a priority that I catch … people are starting to realize that I can be a good defender.”:

He may be improving, but I have yet to see where his defense was called a plus.

I’m not sure I really buy that “he can dial it up to 93-94 if he wants to”, but if I did, I might consider that useful. And I’d especially like to know if he could still do that in the 7th and 8th innings. On the other hand, if the truth is more that he can hit 93 or 94 now and then, but only on a good day, on a few pitches in early innings, that’s another thing.

I don’t know that average FB velocity really always tells you all you need to know, though. I agree velocity is very important, especially for projecting prospects. It’s just makes the secondary stuff that much better when you have a good MLB FB to pitch off.

But, once you have the talent, it’s usually not about throwing it all the time at top velocity. There are lots of reasons a guy might not regularly throw his hardest pitch. He might throw a two-seamer, which should be 2-3 mph less than the four seamer. He might throw a bit of a cutter now and then, taking velocity off to add some movement.

And some of the best pitchers change speeds on everything. They don’t just throw the FB 92 and the CU 84. They throw one FB at 89, and the next at 92. A CU at 86, followed by another at 83.

As for Gio, you’re right that he needs to get the walks down. He did have solid over all peripherals in 2007, and 2005, and was supposed to be a good control guy when drafted, so it’s not out of the question he can do that. But, if the problem is really that his stuff just isn’t good enough for him to have any confidence throwing strikes with it, then improvement gets to be a lot less likely.