Comments on: MMO Flashback: Changing the Dynamic, One Catcher at a Time

By: LA Met Fan

LA Met Fan — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:47:22 +0000

Great post! Would love to have a baseball signed by all three. I already have a Gary Carter signed ball and would love to get Grote and Piazza on it too.

By: jon berger

jon berger — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:17:32 +0000

Paul Lo Duca was a pretty good catcher with The Dodgers and The mets. His team made the playoffs too. Also if you go around the major leagues youll find that many of the best teams have outstanding catchers. Buster Posey of the Giants, Matt Wieters of the Orioles and Yadier Molina of the Cardinals to name a few.
Our Mets will never be competitive until two things happen.First the Wilpons get on a rocket ship and leave earth for good and second we get a guy behind the plate who knows what he is doing.
As I was ready to hit send it also dawned on me how many managers were catchers Joe Girardi and Mike Scoscia come to mind. LetsGoMets 2020

By: L.J. Phipps

L.J. Phipps — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:22:57 +0000

Stearns would have had better stats had he’d been on better teams, and Hundley was crushing the ball, but Piazza came and it just messed his game up, then the infamous leftfield experiment. I like all 5, especially when we had the likes of Alex Trevino, Junior Ortiz, & Mackey Sasser.

By: Metstheory22

Metstheory22 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:48:16 +0000

I agree Grote does not get the credit he deserves as he is from the older generation. BEST Catcher we ever had defensively and called his own game.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:01:50 +0000

Which then begs the question of who is the bigger help?

The Catcher or being in the rotation with a Seaver or Halladay?

Too many pitchers these days have the stuff but not the head to use it.
A good experienced Catcher who has worked with good pitcher can be a help but it was the Pitchers he worked with that made him a good caller not because he was drafted and developed to be a good caller.

I don’t think you can develop a good game caller in the Minors. You can develop a good defensive catcher and put him with good pitchers to get there though.

Good game calling is a product of experience not talent or skill.

By: stick

stick — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:42:47 +0000

well, the defensive aspect is independant of the pitcher, so that will help the entire staff.

But outside of that, I agree that it is much less important with a guy like Seaver or Halladay, but could have a big impact with a space cadet like Pelfrey.

By: Barry Duchan

Barry Duchan — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:42:21 +0000

The Mets wasted a lot of high draft picks on catchers who never made it – led by Steve Chilcott of course, John Gibbons, Randy Kohn, Rich Bengston, Alan Zinter, Butch Benton. But you left out the one catcher the Mets took with a high pick who did make an impact – Todd Hundley. Also, John Stearns who was acquired in the Tug McGraw trade was pretty good, too. While not a part of championship teams, those guys werre legitimate #1 catchers and I’d certainly welcome someone like that.

By: Original Mets Fan

Original Mets Fan — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:32:08 +0000

Jerry Grote was one of all time favorites. He would have hauled in so many gold gloves if not for his counterpart in Cincy. A true gentleman and a remarkable teacher. He was the perfect guide for our young and promising hurlers and they all benefited from his wisdom.

By: srt

srt — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:05:10 +0000

Great post, Coop.

I remember watching Grote from ’68 – ’73 thinking ‘if only he could hit’.

Then I look at Thole’s numbers this year….makes Grote look not all that bad.

By: Gina

Gina — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:48:50 +0000

This was a cool post. It’s amazing that we had to trade for all three of them, but I’m so glad that we did. Maybe that’s the key to our success, trading for our starting catchers? Sorry Thole.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:06:28 +0000

The three catchers you mentioned pretty much run the gamut…
One was mostly known as a defensive guy, Carter had some defense with bat, and Piazza was a no defense all bat kind of catcher!

As for the notion that a good catcher makes the pitcher I have a hard time buying that merely for the fact that you have to be a good pitcher to be able to do whatever the catcher calls otherwise it won’t really matter.

I think the converse maybe true. It’s the good pitchers that make the good signal caller. Catching a guy like Seaver who knows what he wants to do to batter even before he takes the mound will teach the catcher how to call pitches against that player when someone else is pitching.

And that may be where the Catcher calling a game might come into play to help some other younger player in the backend of the rotation who doesn’t have a plan of attack on his own.

But I have seen no evidence that a good signal caller can make a good pitcher or a bad pitcher better or even a good pitcher a great one.

He has to have it to begin with because it doesn’t matter what pitch you call if he can’t execute what you called properly.