Best and Worst Seasons for Jay Catchers by WAR

Please Jays make some news.....

I was bored so I thought I’d look at the best and worst seasons from Jays catchers by fWAR. I did this before by bWAR and I was kind of curious to see how they would differ.

• The biggest change: By bWAR, the best season was Gregg Zaun’s 2005 season. By fWAR, that’s the 14th best season.
• By bWAR, Whitt’s 1883 season was #2, at 3.4. To me, Ernie Whitt was the best catcher in Jays’ history. He played several seasons at roughly the same level of play. He was the left-handed half of a platoon, which costs him in counting stats, but helps his % stats.
• Whitt also had the 11th spot.
• Whitt always complained about the platooning, saying he should have played everyday. He was wrong, he hit lefties at a .223/.303/.311 rate, while right-handers at a .252/.327/.425 rate. Though, maybe if he saw lefties more he would have hit them better. Whitt always has had a high opinion of himself, most of us will remember him saying that he was the ‘best manager the Blue Jays never had’. Thinking well of yourself isn’t a bad trait for an athlete.
• He was good defensively too, threw out 33% of base stealers in his career, and was good at the other parts of being a catcher.
• I still think that Russell Martin’s 2015 season was the best season in our history.
• John Buck had a 1.8 bWAR in 2010. His real value is likely somewhere in between.
• I was a big Darren Fletcher fan. He also had the 12th spot on this list.

Bottom Ten

• Many of the seasons at the bottom of the list were partial seasons, catchers who shared time.
• Luke Maile’s had a -0.6 fWAR last year, but that was in just 136 at bats, so I didn’t include him.
• Sandy Martinez was one of the ‘catchers of the future’ who didn’t turn out. He was the left-handed hitting half a catcher platoon, first with Lance Parrish and then with Charlie O’Brien.
• So was J.P. Arencibia was another catcher of the future who didn’t make it.
• The Buck Martinez season was the his last in the majors. That was the season after he was run over and you likely remember he was run over and suffered a badly broken leg.
• Borders had an up and down career. I remember him fondly, but I do think some of his qualities weren’t measurable.
• Rick Cerone was much like Borders. He was traded to the Yankees, in a 6 player trade, and we got Damaso Garcia back in the deal. His first season with the Yankees was the best one of his career. He helped them to the playoffs.
• Bob Davis and Alberto Castillo I don’t remember at all.
• The 2002 season was the only season of Huckaby’s career where he played more than 40 games. And he had his career best OPS at .577. He was the good glove/bad bat type.