FA-Catchers

[nate]

A roundup from MLBTR:

Free Agent Market: Catchers

By Tim Dierkes [September 4, 2009 at 9:58am CST]
Today let's take a look at the free agent market for catchers. As usual, plenty of backups will be eligible for free agency after the season. As far as those who have been used as starters in recent years, we have Rod Barajas, Josh Bard, Ramon Hernandez, Jason Kendall, Bengie Molina, Miguel Olivo, Ivan Rodriguez, Brian Schneider, Yorvit Torrealba, Jason Varitek, and Gregg Zaun. It's safe to assume Boston will exercise Victor Martinez's $7.7MM club option for 2010.

• Looking for OBP? Zaun is your best bet at .355 this year. After that you get to Kendall, Hernandez, and Varitek in the .330 range.
• Power? Olivo is slugging .467, though his OBP is just .276. Bengie Molina and Barajas have similar numbers.
• Durability? Bengie Molina's played 114 games this year (though he's hurting currently), Kendall 112.
• Olivo (31), Bard (32), and Torrealba (31) are the youngest free agent catchers.
• In shutting down the running game, Pudge leads with a 32.7% caught stealing rate. Barajas is next at a 29%. Bengie Molina leads in volume with 23 runners cut down. Ramon Castro and Henry Blanco have strong rates in limited playing time.
• Zero passed balls for Varitek, with Kendall and Bengie Molina allowing only three.
• Here's an interesting attempt to measure catcher defense that puts Pudge at the top of the free agent list. And in The Fielding Bible II, John Dewan's top defensive catchers who are also free agents are Jose Molina, Kendall, Barajas, Bengie Molina, and Pudge in that order.
• Possible free agent compensation: Varitek, Pudge, Barajas, Olivo, Hernandez, Kendall, and Schneider project as Type Bs (Varitek, Olivo, and Hernandez have options). Aside from V-Mart, Bengie Molina projects as the lone Type A. He earned $6MM this year.

Should the Reds go after one of these dudes or stick with what they have?

Or should Chip be in charge of bringing back Javy?

[Tom Servo]

I liked Razor Ramon and would like to bring him back but not with his 8.5 million dollar option. Maybe we can decline it (paying him the million buyout) and resign him at a cheaper price.

[Bumstead]

Greg Zaun does a fine job as a part time option. He's a better hitter than he gets credit for. Anyone know about his defense?

Bum

[GAC]

         G	 AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	 OPS SALARY

Bengie	114	425	40	110	24	1	16	67	12	59	0	0	.259	.279	.433	.712  6.5M
Barajas  105	352	36	85	16	0	16	60	16	62	1	0	.241	.272	.423	.695  2.5M
Bard     71	220	17	53	14	0	4	25	20	37	0	1	.241	.307	.359	.666  1.6M
Hernandez 77	273	23	68	12	1	5	36	32	33	1	0	.249	.330	.355	.685  8.5M
Zaun     74	225	29	60	16	0	6	23	28	41	0	2	.267	.355	.418	.773  1.5M
Olivo    96	330	37	81	14	4	17	48	10	110	3	2	.245	.276	.467	.743  2.7M
Torrealba 40	133	17	37	5	0	2	15	15	26	1	1	.278	.351	.361	.712  3.7M
Varitek   95	321	38	70	22	0	14	48	51	76	0	0	.218	.327	.417	.745  5.0M
Schneider 50	151	10	28	10	0	3	24	17	21	0	0	.185	.267	.311	.579  4.9M
Kendall   112	376	41	91	15	1	1	33	40	43	6	1	.242	.332	.295	.627  5.0M

[redsfandan]

Barajas would be my 1st choice. Decent power, decent defense, and (hopefully) affordable.

[Mario-Rijo]

Originally Posted by Bumstead

Greg Zaun does a fine job as a part time option. He's a better hitter than he gets credit for. Anyone know about his defense?

Bum

Clubhouse Cancer, from what I've heard.

[HeatherC1212]

Originally Posted by Mario-Rijo

Clubhouse Cancer, from what I've heard.

He was with the Orioles for part of this year and there were no reports of any behavior like that with him. He also did a great job mentoring Matt Weiters when he joined the big leagues so maybe he's changed or that's just a bad rumor. I never heard anything bad about him and other Orioles fans would have said something about that for sure, LOL :

[RANDY IN INDY]

With Hannigan, I would prefer someone who could hit a little, too.

[blumj]

Originally Posted by HeatherC1212

He was with the Orioles for part of this year and there were no reports of any behavior like that with him. He also did a great job mentoring Matt Weiters when he joined the big leagues so maybe he's changed or that's just a bad rumor. I never heard anything bad about him and other Orioles fans would have said something about that for sure, LOL :

I remember some vague rumors when he was with the Jays, but it seems like there was a lot of that going around up there at the time, either with their last manager or the one before him.

[*BaseClogger*]

I'm still a fan of Brian Schneider if our scouts think he has anything left...

[dfs]

Originally Posted by redsfandan

Barajas would be my 1st choice. Decent power, decent defense, and (hopefully) affordable.

I always like it when somebody expresses my opinion before I do. He's not the best at anything of the guys on the free agent list, but he's second or third best at a lot of things. I think he'll represent value.

[Bumstead]

Originally Posted by Mario-Rijo

Clubhouse Cancer, from what I've heard.

hmmm...he hasn't been a problem on my AL fantasy team the last couple of years... :

[_Sir_Charles_]

Originally Posted by Tom Servo

I liked Razor Ramon and would like to bring him back but not with his 8.5 million dollar option. Maybe we can decline it (paying him the million buyout) and resign him at a cheaper price.

I agree with Tom here. I'm not sure how the contracts work, but if we can bring him back cheaper than his old contract...he'd be a VERY solid option IMO. All of the negatives we heard about Ramon at the time of the trade...I haven't seen any sign of. His defense has been solid, his arm is better than I thought, he's been very solid at blocking balls (low passed ball numbers) and after his poor start (attributed to a LOT of poor luck) he rebounded nicely to provide some decent hitting numbers.

[Highlifeman21]

Originally Posted by RANDY IN CHAR NC

With Hannigan, I would prefer someone who could hit a little, too.

We'll need a C that can hit a little to pair with Hanigan if we're not going to address SS, CF or LF over the offseason.

Gotta add some runs to this offense somehow.

[LvJ]

Not Olivo