Anyone Else Frightened By Red Sox Catching Situation

However, Salty has an unproven track record and if he isn’t reliable behind the plate that can hurt us much more then him having struggles at the plate. Him handling our All-Star pitching staff concerns me. Although, V-mart was no gem behind the plate he was an experienced major league pitch caller.

Honestly, if they guy can hit 250., hit 10-15 bombs, and provide solid defense then i’m totally satisfied. Thats all well within the realm of expectation, and lest we forget this is a guy who was regarded as one of the top catching prospects in all of baseball just 2 or 3 years ago. Hes still just 25 and history has shown us that, sometimes, it takes a young catchers a bit longer to develop. I like his swing in Fenway, and I love the fact that we have two switch hitting options at catcher in such a lefty heavy lineup. I think Salty may surprise a lot of people. If he does struggle we do have the pieces to acquire a veteran backstop, especially with 4 picks in the top 50 in the draft this year which would bolster any of the young prospects we would hypothetically lose.

Is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever read on paper. The thing is Beltre has always done well every couple years. Signing the man to six-year deal would be the same mistake the Maininers made. Although, he does handle Boston well, I still think the moves the Red Sox made were much wiser. I do however, believe that eventually Gonzalaz should be our DH rather then Youk because believe it or not Youk actually puts up better fielding numbers at First Base. Last year he saved 4 runs opposed to Gonzalaz who saved none.

As for Russell Martin, I would have rather the Red Sox have signed A.J Pierzyinski instead of Martin . He came at a very reasonable price for the White Sox, but he may have just been honoring the team by accepting a team friendly deal. Pierzyinski’s defense is something that is very overlooked and he could have been an excellent backstop for the Sox. Anyway, the more I read here, the more comfortable I get about letting Salty get a chance despite his own defensive woes.

Just DFAed by Texas. Was the prospect coming back in the almost-but-not-quite trade of Lowell last offseason.

The fielding metric system I use can be read in the 2011 Bill James Handbook. Adrien Gonzalez saved all of zero runs last year for the San Diego Padres, the same as Albert Pujols. As for Youk, he saved four making him a slightly above average defender. Daric Barton led the AL in saved runs and Ike Davis of the Mets led the NL.
The 20 Million DH sounds terrible as suggested by Bloggy, but at the back end of Gonzalez contract it may make sense. If he cannot hit well, and play first base at the same time, then the DH seems like an option. Gonzalez’s purpose for the Red Sox is actually 87 percent hitting the way I see it. Since baseball is only made up of 13 percent defense(also, according to Mr. James). We must persevere Gonzalez’s ability to hit in the 4 hole as long as possible.

Ryan Hanigan, Jeff Mathis, or Jose Molina are the most fitting. All are plus defenders!

To Wolf9309…I was speaking hypothetically..the key word there is if. You are right nothing so far has indicated he will have any problem doing both but he is also 28 years old. At 28, Jim Thome handled first base and offensive obligations well. However, as he got older it became harder for him to maintain his great offensive statistics and play first base. DH helped preserve his career. That is the kind of thing I am suggesting.

TheLoneDavid…Catching has alot more impact then just “defense”.Catching’s impact is on the pitching staff,(which pitching is more important to the game then defense) that is what I’m more troubled by. Catcher has the responsibility to handle a pitching staff, but also make sure they have the ability to throw out runners and keep their pitcher from becoming overly paranoid about the runner. When a pitcher becomes overly paranoid they don’t make their pitch and the ball ends up over the fence. Sometimes making a bad pitch can be a credited to having a garbage catcher and there my friend is my fear. Not straight defense but the catchers effect on a pitching staff.

Okay I probably would have done the same. I’m new to the site so I appreciate the advice.

I thought you might appreciate that as a Braves fan I remember when Salty came up as a to the bigs. His defense wasn’t spectacular, but he could handle a pitcher and was actually pretty decent at throwing out runners. This is of course when he first came up a number of years ago, and well before his well-documented case of the yips.