Which NL catcher hit .268/.355/.477 last season, with 38 doubles, 28 homers and 71 walks?
Just for reference, the average NL catcher hit only .250/.313/.388, but this
is, as the title implies, a trick question. After the somewhat
surprising uproar over the M's trading Torrealba, I was looking through
batting statistics for catchers and realized that the Reds had a really
nice tandem situation going on last year. Talk about flying under the
radar...the
trick is that the answer isn't one person, it's two people...
Jason LaRue and
Javier Valentin.
They combined to put up that line which, if they were one person, would
have ranked them first in doubles and in home runs by a catcher in MLB.
They also would have ranked second in walks. Also, for all MLB catchers
with more than 200 at bats, they would have ranked 14th in batting
average, tied for 5th in OBP and 3rd in SLG. Not too shabby for a
couple of guys making $3.5 million combined. All of this while playing
in what Baseball Prospectus calls a "severe pitchers park." Man, I love
platoons!