Gone are the days of Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk calling great games from behind the plate while getting on base and driving in game winning runs. It seems the do-it-all catcher has gone the way of the dinosaur. It is a very important position on the baseball diamond. Catcher is probably the second most important position besides pitcher. The catcher is important because they basically help run the entire defensive phase of the game for the team while the other team is up to bat. They help decide which pitches to throw and where to position fielders according to where they think the other team will hit the ball.

It seems today that catchers are more of a specialty position. Most teams have catchers that will bat later in the lineup because they are essentially defensive specialist that can’t hit that well. There are still a few teams that have catchers that can both hit and play well behind the plate. Those teams experience a very decided advantage over teams that have catchers that are one dimensional. It is because teams are getting faster because of the fact that they are hitting for less power. Teams need to forgo some of the hitting power to make sure they can have a catcher that cannot commit errors and be able to throw out base runners efficiently.

These things seem to be cyclical. It can be expected that a new batch of catchers will come out in a couple of years that can catch, hit for power, hit for average and throw out base runners that are trying to steal with ease.Want to know more? Go ahead: Ray Fosse, victim of Pete Rose, feels for Posey