Change-UpJuly 08, 2008
Who's the Best Hitting Catcher in Baseball?
By Patrick Sullivan

I just want to throw this out there because the people on my teevee love themselves some counting stats and intangibles. Last night, in discussing Evan Longoria's case for the last slot on the AL roster, Buck Showalter asserted that (paraphrasing) "even though his stats do not stack up, this is a guy the fans want to see." That's quite a statement given the individual in question. Longoria checks in with a 138 OPS+ as I write this.

Anyway, in a world where counting stats rule the day sometimes good players go unnoticed. Whether because of injury or team personnel reasons, some good players don't get the same opportunities their peers do to rack up the impressive counting stats. Consider the catcher position right now. Here are your All-Stars, featuring the Captain himself.

         AVG   OBP   SLG 
Mauer   .325  .416  .452
Navarro .317  .371  .436
Varitek .215  .297  .354 (wow)
Soto    .289  .375  .527
Martin  .305  .402  .449
McCann  .293  .362  .533

Ryan Doumit of the Pittsburgh Pirates is hitting .326/.372/.587 in 2008 and maybe my head has been buried in the sand somewhere, but I don't hear much of anything about the guy. Buried behind Ronny Paulino to start the year and then tabled with a concussion and shoulder injury for a few weeks, Doumit has only amassed 199 plate appearances. His .333 BABIP may portend some drop-off in the second half but keep in mind that he hits the daylights out of the ball. His Line Drive percentage has been north of 20% for two seasons running now.


Comments

The problem is that Soto, McCann, and Martin are three good players. By the numbers you could say that Doumit's a better choice than Martin... There's a lot of catching out there right now, and unless someone can arrange to sit Tek down and let Doumit play for the American League, is there room for him?

The fact that Varitek made the All-Star team this year goes to show that this is just a popularity contest, and not based on this seasons performance.

To be clear, I am not advocating Doumit for the ASG. He hasn't played enough. But it's funny that the only way to turn (bobble)heads is to jack up those counting statistics. A .600 SLG does very little to impress, even in 200 PA's.

Wow, you know...I hadn't paid much attention to Doumit.

Varitek made the team based on the voting by the players so blame them. The players don't do any better of a job picking All-Stars than fans do.

McCann and Doumit may both deserve to be on the NL roster ahead of Martin, but somebody has to represent the Dodgers. Martin is the reigning gold glove and silver slugger winner at catcher, and he deserved the GG: within a week of him replacing Navarro, I was pointing out to my mom how quickly Martin shifted his whole body to block balls in the dirt, something I hadn't seen from a Dodger catcher since Steve Yeager.

Maybe the right thing to do was to select both Martin and McCann and use Martin at third base. Or as a pinch runner.

Yeah, he should have been played at third base, because the NL is entirely lacking in quality players at the hot corner.

If he could move to second though, he'd really shore up the weakest part of the NL order...

russell martin is the best overall catcher in the game today. he can hit for average, power, he can run. not to mention his defense is spectacular. I have to believe this soto guy will fade. he's a fluke, just like victor martinez.

russell martin is the best overall catcher in the game today. he can hit for average, power, he can run. not to mention his defense is spectacular. I have to believe this soto guy will fade. he's a fluke, just like victor martinez.

russell martin is the best overall catcher in the game today. he can hit for average, power, he can run. not to mention his defense is spectacular. I have to believe this soto guy will fade. he's a fluke, just like victor martinez.