Gary Sánchez’s Offensive Surge Can’t Mask a New Woe Behind the Plate

Article summary: The Yankees catcher is on pace to break the position’s long-standing home run record, but his drop-off in pitch framing is costing New York almost as much as his bat can make up

Giants’ Posey Catching More In Spring Than Expected

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — On Saturday, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey played in his fifth spring training game and made his fourth start behind the plate.

Told that it seems as if he’s catching more than expected coming off hip surgery, Posey agreed.

“Which is a good thing,” Posey said. “I didn’t really have expectations coming in. I would say so, too. That’s a positive.”

Going to be interesting to see if this lasts- it’s likely that how he recovers will be telling about the future trajectory of his career.

Danny Jansen poised to solve decades-old problem for Blue Jays

The phrase “catcher of the future” has plenty of sour connotations for Toronto Blue Jays fans.

Finding that player has always been difficult, and it seems like the franchise has gone through veteran after veteran at the spot after failing to draft and develop a player who could hold it down for a significant span.

Even Ernie Whitt, by far the greatest catching mainstay in team history, wasn’t originally a Blue Jays draft pick. Among the top 15 Blue Jays catchers by games played only three of them — Pat Borders, J.P. Arencibia, and Greg Myers — were drafted by the club. Those three combined for just 8.9 total WAR in their careers with Toronto. Although to be fair catcher performance is notoriously difficult to quantify with precision, that’s not a big number for three players over a total of 1,522 games.

Opportunity convinces Davey Martinez to throw aside an old baseball trope

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Remember that time a manager had to use his “emergency” catcher? No? Well, that’s because it rarely happens.

Maybe once in a lifetime. Maybe never. It long operated as the unverifiable excuse for not putting the backup catcher into a game, always enabling that pervasive detriment to change, “What if?”

What if the replacement is hurt? Then the manager is stuck with the so-called emergency catcher. That could be hairy.

Mind you, this would be less of a problem if teams didn’t waste eight roster spots on relievers….

Posey is healthy and hopeful of handling full catching load

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — One day in early November, Buster Posey felt his body respond more normally again as he rehabilitated from season-ending hip surgery. Working out his lower half with a 15-pound dumbbell in his left hand he leaned forward for a one-legged Russian Dead Lift. Posey felt the muscles in his right buttocks being used exactly the way they should.

“This might be TMI,” San Francisco’s star catcher noted of perhaps providing too much information. “I could really feel the right side of my gluteus maximus engage — hadn’t really felt that in a while. With all leg exercises I feel like things have been more symmetrical, so hopefully that’s a good sign.”

San Francisco pitchers and catchers report this week and Posey plans to be a full participant from Day 1 of spring training Wednesday, pulling on the catcher’s gear and squatting behind the plate for his part in pitchers’ bullpens early in camp. He understands there likely will be some modifications to his workload at the beginning just to be safe.

At the rate it’s going, I’m afraid this article might get seized in Customs.

Giants’ Joey Bart named top catching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline

For what has been a desolate farm system in recent years, the Giants finally have an elite prospect.

Catcher Joey Bart is perhaps the Giants best prospect since Buster Posey, and so far he’s following in Posey’s footsteps.

Bart, the Giants’ top pick in the 2018 MLB Draft at No. 2 overall, has been named the best catching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline of MLB.com. The honor comes less than two weeks after Bart was named the team’s No. 1 prospect by Baseball America.

Something of real promise, especially for those of us who’ve seen the Giants’ Triple-A team lately.

Using Called Strikes to Find Sleeper Prospects: Catchers | The Hardball Times

This is good stuff.