Friday, August 6, 2010

Looking to next year - Catching

A lot has been said about all the money coming off the books for the Tigers at the end of this year due to free agency. And $60M is quite a bit of money.

So, what does this mean for the team?  Well, there are some critical areas that need to be addressed on the team, one of which is the catcher. 
Here are some of the available catchers in 2011, who Dave Dombrowski might go after during the off-season.

Catchers available in 2011Current salaryYrs of
service
2010 AVGOPSCS%
John Buck - Blue Jays$2.0M6.280.822.271
Ramon Hernandez - Reds *$3.0M11.289.784.341
Miguel Olivio - Rockies *$2.0M7.307.886.411
Victor Martinez - Red Sox$7.7M7.283.809.197
A.J. Pierzynski - White Sox$6.25M10.240.638.303
David Ross - Braves$1.6M8.269.720.412
Yorvit Torrealba - Padres *$.75M9.310.775.349
Jason Varitek - Red Sox$3.0M13.263.871.212
Gregg Zaun - Brewers *$1.9M15.265.743.240
*have option for 2011

So looking at these available catchers, I find myself torn between two players:  John Buck and Miguel Olivio.  Both are younger, have reasonable contracts, and decent OPS.  I am leaning towards Miguel Olivio because of his higher Caught Stealing %, but that isn't a major concern of mine.  Ultimately, I see the Tigers offering a nice contract to one of these two players, which would be a huge improvement over G-Money, and would give Alex Avilia some more time to develop.

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