There was a very funny baseball humor book from the 70's
by sprack (2024-02-24 13:56:19)
Edited on 2024-02-24 14:06:40

In reply to: some catchers for the HOSM  posted by kdh325

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called the "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubblegum Book". You can still buy it on Amazon.

One of the funny things the author talked about was a game he and his friends played as kids called "Lousy Catcher" where one guy would come up with a name of a lousy catcher and then the next guy had to come with the name of another lousy catcher. One I remember from the book was Charley Lau, who played 9 years but had a paltry 2.0 WAR. He became a very successful hitting coach, though. Those who can't do, teach.

Another lousy catcher that would qualify was Bruce Bochy, who had close to the same career numbers Lau did, with a 2.3 WAR, also in a 9 year career. I'm not sure they'll mention any of that on his plaque in Cooperstown, though.

Yet another one: A.J. Hinch, career WAR 0.0 in 7 years.

And of course, Bob Uecker, -1.0 WAR in 6 years.

Lousy catcher can often be a springboard to fabulous success.



Bob Melvin: 2.5 WAR in 10 years as C. 3-time Manager of Year
by SavageDragon  (2024-02-27 14:59:56)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

And even Girardi, who I wouldn't have called a bad catcher, only put up 5 WAR over 15 years.
An interesting thing to me about catchers as managers
by sprack  (2024-02-28 11:45:52)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

is that there have been so many of them in baseball history. And It didn't matter if they were terrible hitters like those we've mentioned or great hitters like Yogi Berra and Joe Torre, so many have been successful. In contrast, there are really pretty few pitchers who became managers. Yes, Tommy Lasorda, Roger Craig, Bob Lemon, etc. but the numbers are pretty small for such a large group of players, and I would bet my life that in baseball history there are more catchers as managers than pitchers.

And just looking at the list of managers right now in MLB, there are only 2 pitchers (Pat Murphy and Bud Black) but there are 8 catchers by my count - besides Melvin, Bochy and Hinch, there's Brandon Hyde, Pedro Grifol, Scott Servais, Kevin Cash and Brian Snitker.

As I said, it's interesting but not the least bit surprising. They're the field generals.