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| TODAY: Monday, May 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player ratings: Catcher | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Welcome to the ESPN.com player ratings. Our panel of baseball authorities will rank the top 10 players at each position. The basic question is this: Which player do you want at that position for the 2000 season?
First of all, our panel:
Position comments Keith Law: One of this season's biggest questions will be how well Eli Marrero and his medical comrade-in-arms, Mike Lowell, continue to recover from recent bouts with cancer. Marrero was a pretty good hitter in the minors, but couldn't hit anything last year and seemed to be in danger of losing his job. He's a good bet to join this weak list next year. Underrated: All Eddie Taubensee does is hit, and the Reds still seem to be in a big rush to limit his playing time. Overrated: Has any player been a greater disappointment in the last 20 years than Sandy Alomar? Brandon Funston: It used to be that Dan Wilson made up for his lack of offense with one of the best defensive arsenals in the league. Not so any more, as he saw his percentage of runners caught stealing drop from a stellar 43 percent in '98 to 19.6 percent last season. To make matters worse, his power numbers have decreased each of the past three seasons. It is obvious that Wilson is wearing down. He may be just a year or two away from platoon or back-up duty. Underrated: Joe Girardi is a throwback to the days when catchers weren't required to hit 30 home runs and knock in 100 runs. What he gives you is a completely air-tight mental approach to the game. He is one of the better catchers at handling a pitching staff and has a solid and accurate arm, made only better by a quick release. He's a leader, and who wouldn't welcome that in any day or age? Overrated: Todd Hundley. Let's face it, a hard-hat mentality and a stint with the New York Mets can go a long way. Wally Backman and Lenny Dykstra know what I'm talking about. Hundley is still living off the reputation he created for himself after two stellar seasons in a Mets' uniform. A little attitude was all it took for fans to overlook a lifetime .319 on-base percentage and a strikeout every four at-bats. Graham Hays: Mariner faithful will long rue the day their team dealt prospects Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe to Boston for the forgettable services of Heathcliff Slocumb. Lowe may find fame and fortune as Boston's new closer, but it's batterymate Varitek that will emerge in 2000 as one of baseball's elite catchers. After a standout career at Georgia Tech, Varitek endured a prolonged learning curve at the plate as a professional. The fact that he even had a chance to compete for the starting job in Boston last season was a compliment to his improved defense and game-calling ability. Not quite as gifted with the glove as Philadelphia's Mike Lieberthal, Varitek?s career could nevertheless follow a similar path from reliable backstop to multi-skilled All-Star. Underrated: Javy Lopez. Eddie Perez's continued employment casts aspersions on Lopez's defensive abilities, but he?s considerably more than just an offensive weapon. Overrated: Dan Wilson. Still handles himself well behind the plate, but can no longer throw with any accuracy or hit with any acumen. David Schoenfield: Let's hope Jason Kendall comes back at full strength because he was the best catcher in baseball last season until his gruesome ankle injury. Better than Pudge? Yes. Getting on base is the most important skill a hitter can have and Kendall was a whopping 72 points better than Rodriguez. Underrated: Good teams often have good-hitting catchers with suspect defensive skills (remember Brian Harper?). The Reds will be smart if they continue living with Eddie Taubensee's poor arm. Overrated: Joe Girardi will be a manager someday but he's still a lousy hitter. Rany Jazayerli: Eddie Taubensee may be the worst regular defensive catcher of the 1990s. Last year, he threw out just 17 of 114 basestealers (13 percent), by far the worst of any catcher in baseball. He ranked third-worst in 1998 when he threw out just 23 percent; one of the catchers worse than him, Chris Hoiles, retired. In 1997, he was at 20 percent ... you get the picture. But despite that, his playing time keeps going up, and last year he caught 124 games for the 96-win Cincinnati Reds. The message is clear: in the modern era, offense is what matters, not the ability to control the running game. Underrated: Jorge Posada. It's hard to believe a Yankee could be underrated, but Posado draws walks, he hits for power, he switch-hits, and he's still fairly young. But Joe Girardi has received all the attention as the Yankees' veteran presence behind the plate. With Girardi gone, look for Posada to swat 20 homers and finally get some well-deserved attention. Overrated: Get this: Sandy Alomar has NEVER qualified for the batting title. Not once has he stayed healthy long enough to rack up the required plate appearances. In fact, since 1990 Alomar has managed to suit up for 90 games just three times in nine seasons. He's a hacker at the plate, his defensive skills are slipping (he threw out just 4 of 31 baserunners last year) and he's slower than your dad's Apple IIe. The numbers We've avoided most of the traditional numbers in favor of "sabermetric stats": Pts: Total points from our panel (10 for first, etc.) G: Games played OBP: On-base percentage SLG: Slugging percentage OPS: On-base + slugging RC: Runs created. Using all of a player's offensive statistics, tells how many "runs" a player was responsible for. Added together, individual runs created match closely with a team's overall run total. OW%: Offensive winning percentage. The percentage of games a team would "win" with nine of that player in the lineup, given average defense and pitching. |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||