Catching Strategy

[Jerlins]

I grew tired of trying to secure Kendall and his max 3 gamer with a high draft pick and tried a different approach which worked wonders for me. Sure, its nice getting one of those high priced catchers but at what price? Unless extremely lucky, you lose that stud catcher for a good 20 games, maybe more and end up with that under a buck catcher in your lineup doing little for your offense during that time, more than likely, giving away an out. Playing at Safeco, not exactly a hitters park, and with 4 Petco's, an SBC, a Jacobs, and 2 other Safeco teams, I attained the following results with this catching platoon, at basically the same price of what it would cost for the Pudges, Variteks, and Posadas of the world.

Estrada: 377 42 25 6 53 35 0 4 .300 .414 .366
Pratt: 278 51 15 10 38 57 0 0 .291 .460 .415

16 HRs, 91 RBIs, 93 Runs, and a .383 OBP in a pitchers park league. All for $5.14 million, and never sacrificing a bat in your lineup due to injury. Of course, defense comes into play, but check out the Pudge/Bennett combo, and keep in mind this team lost Pudge for 18 games as well, leaving himself as a disadvantage hitting wise for those 18 games, perhaps costing a game or two, maybe more in the standings.

Pudge/Bennett $6.90 million: 14 HRs, 85 RBIs, 78 runs, .351 OBP

With waaaaay too much time on my hands, I further researched the impact of Bennett in the lineup and found the record of this team without Pudge was 6 and 10. I was too lazy to find the other two games he was out, but the team finished 5 games out of 1st. What led me to research this was the fact he was only 2 games out with 6 to play including 3 against the eventual division winner, but with Pudge out, the team won only 1 out of its last 6. Difference maker? Maybe, maybe not, but it gives one food for thought.

Of course, some, if not most players opt for the cheap catcher route, allowing their budget dollars to be spent elsewhere, which is a subject for another thread. But if you want to spend your $ on a catcher, you may want to think twice about how to spend it.

[goredsox33]

i think its a very good idea to get a backup who can HITTT and not worry about his def...

tha way when you starter goesd down, which is inevitable....you have a solid offensive backup who CANT get HURT!!!!

there is a program built into strat online that makes sure you cant lose both catchers at the same time

[Jerlins]

True enough Goredsox, but the Estrada/Pratt combo outproduced Pudge (by a lot), and thats having Pratt basically at the top of the order most of the season. It also allows you some flexibility when another player goes down, you can DH the one not catching if need be. You can't do that with most of the catching stud's backup, unless you want to spend a few dollars on the backup.

[goredsox33]

i do like using a platoon at cather....though i have kendall on a team with 15 games left and hes batting 336 with obp of 430

been great for me

[1crazycanuk]

good thinking redsox. I never thought of that. I always went for defence at catcher...I was afraid of the cheap catchers who can hit but had horrid defence.

[goredsox33]

me too until the theory was exlained to me

[tersignf]

I'm using Mauer/Hernandez right now--with Mauer at DH vs righties and RHernandez at C every day.

Since lefties are much less common, I don't fear losing RHern as much as losing the MauerMonster. In fact I play it that way so Mauer becomes indestructible more often than Hernandez, since RHern plays every day and Mauer doesn't.

Will let you know--yes it's a lot of cash, but I'm filling my RH DH role too instead of a wasted catcher slot who you hope to never use.

Mauer has not been injured through 18 games and RHernan has missed a few.

And for the few games when HAL puts a scrub in at catcher, so what?
a +5 is the max toward stealing and catcher D comes into play rarely through range and errors. But we'll see--I like your Pratt combo though...may have to try that out!

[tersignf]

I've seen some folks go with Kendall and Mauer, or 3 catchers with Mauer--and that's definitely not a good strategy if you want Mauer getting ABs.

[durantjerry]

Estrada is very good for this strategy. First of all, there are few catchers to platoon vs rhp's. He is also pretty good and affordable. Additionally, he is not terrible vs lhp's if his partner goes down. I have used Varitek and Irod alot. The only monster seasons I can recall were from Irod batting cleanup in Petco(120 RBI) and another one in Fenway where he hit about .350. I like Ausmus for the lh side of sheap platoons , as he hits lefties fairly well. I also like B Molina as a platoon w/ Ausmus in a rh or hitting park. I even had Pierczinski post decent results in Minute Maid. You won't get the monster season, but catchers rarely post one anyway. You will get solid value production for your limited investment.

[tersignf]

another advantage of the way you're doing it is Estrada et al have positive clutch so they won't kill you when you bat them low in the order. I like what you're doing as it's avoiding putting the fate of your season into the hands of an Ij-2 (except if it's Bonds who gets max of 3 games anyway). So when your #6 or 7 hitter gets injured, your replacement won't kill you as your replacement cleanup or #3 guy...leaving that duty to the 600 PA types if possible.