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Reply to "Scenario Opinion...."

Originally Posted by lionbaseball:
Originally Posted by PGStaff:

Not to change the topic, but...

 

You have to appreciate good catchers.  Many former catchers become coaches and managers. Maybe more than any other position.  In many cases the catcher is the most intelligent player on a team.  Look up MLB managers and you will see many former catchers.

I've wondered why catchers aren't the highest (paid) players on the team?  

The main reason is going to be that catcher's play less than most position players over the course of a season and a career due in large part to the pounding they take from playing the position. Related to that, they tend to be lesser hitters than players at many/most other positions for a couple of reasons.  One is that guys who can hit and field well enough to play a different position generally get moved off catcher to allow them to play more/longer (see Biggio, or Mauer, or even Lucroy or Posey whose bats get to stay in the lineup when they play 1B). The other reason is that catcher is so difficult to play that a lot of lesser hitters still have careers at the position thanks to the ability to contribute value defensively rather than offensively. They should be getting paid for that defensive ability, of course, but hitting talent is easier to see on the stat sheet and thus easier to support paying for, which biases the salary structure (as does the fact that a lot of times credit for plus defense shows up more on the pitcher's numbers than the fielder's).

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