ajc.com | Braves | Playing catch(er)
The Braves’ catchers are just awful. You probably knew that. But it really stands out in this division. The Mets and Marlins have Hall of Famers catching for them, the Phillies have an All-Star, and while Michael Barrett isn’t great, he’s one of the better young catchers around, and is bettter than Javy at this stage. (So is his backup, Brian Schneider.)
By the way, maybe we were spoiled by the Piazza-Pudge generation, but check out the list of young catchers at the end of the story. Ugh. It’s so bad that two of them, Davis and Kendall, are already has-beens. Hard to believe that Johnny Estrada would be any worse than Brandon Inge or the Flying Molina Brothers.
I can grasp that it’s hard to find good-hitting catchers; I can grasp that we were also spoiled by having one for several years in Javy. I can’t grasp why the Braves are unable to find a backup who can hit better than the guy he catches for most of the season. And I just can’t grasp paying Henry Blanco $1.3m voluntarily.