Sunday, Apr. 04, 2010
Hitters and Catchers
Ask yourself: When was the last time baseball's biggest star was a catcher? In the off-season, catcher Joe Mauer was handed the fourth-biggest contract in MLB history, as he signed a new eight-year deal with the Minnesota Twins worth $184 million. And there are other catchers who are almost equally impressive with the bat. The Baltimore Orioles' Matt Weiters was recently featured on a very nice Sports Illustrated cover, and the Oakland Athletics' Kurt Suzuki and the Red Sox's Victor Martinez are hitters par excellence. What's more, there's evidence suggesting that catchers can go on to become some of the best managers in the game — take the twin Joes (Girardi and Torre) and Mike Scioscia, for example.