Michael Barrett Should Not Be a Catcher

Most fans like the trade that brought us Michael Barrett because he had more upside than Damian Miller. Maybe hitting wise he does, but when it comes to defense we took a dramatic step down. When you look for catchers you think defense 1st and any hitting they do as an added positive.

Michael Barrett was tried out at 3rd base in Montreal for a reason. He stinks as a catcher. If Michael Barret is allowed to start the majority of the games at catcher for the Cubs he will do more harm than good to our pitchers. Mainly because opposing teams will be running like crazy on him. He cant throw out runners to save his life, and opposing teams have known this since day one.

1999 - 51 GS at Catcher - 54 SB Allowed - only 16 CS - .229 CS%
2000 - 24 GS at Catcher - 14 SB Allowed - only 4 CS - .211 CS%
2001 - 121 GS at Catcher - 95 SB Allowed - only 23 CS - .195 CS%
2002 - 105 GS at Catcher - 59 SB Allowed - only 24 CS - .289 CS%
2003 - 63 GS at Catcher - 16 SB Allowed - only 10 CS - .385 CS%

Now if you compare him to Damian Miller you will notice Miller gave up quite a few of SB's also. But Miller always threw them out at around a .375% clip. Factor in his other defensive attributes and he is leaps and bounds better than Barrett. I can see why the A's wanted him as their catcher over Barrett.

The guy i wanted Pudge Rodriguez has a lifetime .491 CS%. But the last 2 years he has only thrown out runners at a .350 or so clip. Obvious effects of his back surgery. The amazing part is that from 1994-2003 he averaged only 37 SB's per year. And cut down on average over 37 runners per year.

I dont want to mention catchers ERA because thats more dependant on the pitchers throwing to you. Pudge caught some of the worst pitching in baseball for years and his catchers ERA is 4.72. But as soon as he went to a team with a half way decent pitching staff it dropped to 3.83.

In Barretts defense he has improved his SB against % from pathetic to bad. He still has a long way to go. But if i was an opposing team with speed i would be licking my chops to cause havoc on the basepaths to try and rattle our starters, because our starters know our catcher has no shot to shut down base stealers. I guess thats why Vince Coleman is in camp.