Varitek

[BRIANUTTERMARK]

I've had him on a couple of my teams now and he seems like he always gets hurt. Is there something I'm missing on his card. I know his injury rating is a 2 like most all catchers. But I cant seem to keep him healthy.

[goredsox33]

it is weird how catchers seem to get hur more even with the 2 rating

[BRIANUTTERMARK]

Its got me confused. I dont know if I should go with another Catcher that has a 2 rating, or just deal with it. When Varitek plays, he plays well so I would hate to get rid of him.

[goredsox33]

1 thing i do know is its DUMB to have ur back up catcher be a DEf specialist.......

grab an offensive guy......since whe nhe is in there he CANT get hurt....

if ur down to 1 c on your roster he cant get hurt...
might as well grab as big as bat as u can

[teepack]

I was going to post something on this very topic. I have Varitek on my latest 2005 team, and he has been injured at least eight times this season. I bet he has missed 40 games due to injury. He had a seven-game injury in Game 136, and then in his third game back, he went down with an eight-game injury.

I am glad I got Toby Hall as my backup. Not only is he a good defensive catcher, but he also has a solid card against both righties and lefties. In fact, he's doing almost as well as Varitek for considerably less money. Check out their stats:

Varitek .262-.437-.348
Hall .263-.339 .308

Varitek has 382 at-bats and has produced 86 runs (51 RBI + 47 runs - 15 homers) for one run every 4.4 at-bats.
Hall has 171 at-bats and has produced 36 runs for one run every 4.8 at-bats.

[BRIANUTTERMARK]

thats a pretty good idea on picking up a offensive backup instead of defensive. I too have always gone defense with my backup catcher. might try offense on my new season that starts tonite.