All-Star Preview: Catchers

Artie Sanders

This week, we're taking a look at the ABL's many potential All-Stars. We start with the catchers. Who do you think should make the squad? Make your voice heard in the comments.

In the Thurmon Munson League, one backstop has clearly separated himself from the pack. San Francisco's Artie Sanders is one of the most valuable players on the best team in baseball. He leads all ABL catchers in slugging (.541), OPS (.949), home runs (13), runs (48), and WAR (3.1). He also leads TML catchers in OBP (.407) and is second in RBI (39). Earthquake management obviously understands his value: they recently signed Sanders to a four-year contract extension worth $30 million.

But who should join Sanders on the TML squad? Here are the top candidates, in alphabetical order:

PLAYER                   AB   R HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Freddy Castillo, KAN    193  31  7  29 .301 .378 .472 .850
Johnny Graham, JER      233  29  9  34 .245 .326 .412 .738
Carlos Martínez, CAB    214  38 11  36 .220 .333 .439 .773
Ronnie Wells, LOS       259  41  5  28 .286 .327 .398 .725
George White, BOS       231  37  4  39 .268 .323 .390 .712

Freddy Castillo

Of these five, young Freddy Castillo has had the best year at the plate. Is this due to him hitting in a batter-friendly ballpark? I was certainly surprised to learn that his OPS is better on the road than at home. A lot better. At home, .701; on the road, 1.021.

Now Castillo and Ronnie Wells clearly have worse gloves than the others. Castillo's poor defense drags his value down, but does it drag it down enough to consider voting for Carlos Martínez, Johnny Graham, or George White?

Don't look at me for the answer.

In the Roberto Clemente League, we have ourselves a three-horse race. This isn't to disparage the fine work being done by Jason Clemons or Ted King, among others, but there's a pretty big jump up in performance from them to the trio of catchers we'll be looking at here.

PLAYER                   AB   R HR RBI   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Ashton Finley, NEW      240  33  6  32 .329 .414 .425 .839
Bodil Larsen, DAL       227  33  4  33 .357 .402 .511 .913
Tim Shields, MTL        262  39  3  36 .370 .424 .435 .859

Bodil Larsen

First off, this is some great production to be getting from catcher. Bodil Larsen has the highest OPS (he's a doubles machine) despite playing in the toughest park of the three. His road OPS is .996. Tim Shields, on the other hand, benefits a lot from his home park: his OPS at home is 1.088, on the road it's .609. Ashton Finley plays in a relatively neutral park and has rather even splits, though it's tough to hit home runs there: four of his six home runs have been on the road. All three play good defense, but Tim Shields is a cut above the other two.

Putting all that together, it seems to me that Bodil Larsen is probably the best of the three. Who's the runner up? It's a close call. When you factor in parks, Finley is probably the better hitter, but Shields is better at defense.

Let the arguments begin!