Giants End of Season Review: Catchers

I have been shirking my responsibilities a little bit here with things getting crazy with my real life responsibilities but don't worry things will start picking up as we turn on the hot stove going into the winter. I've got some stuff coming up in the next few days so be on the look out for that.

Up today is a look back at the Giants catchers with the rest of the team to follow in the coming week or so.

Buster Posey:

	BA	OBP	SLG	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB
2011 Projection	0.299	0.362	0.483	73	30	3	19	78	2
2011 Actual	0.284	0.368	0.389	17	5	0	4	21	3

Posey was missed this year, the loss of his production and the corresponding drop off of his replacements was probably on the magnitude of 2+ wins. The Giants still had a chance at making the playoffs this season with their excellent pitching staff but the loss of Posey's bat was just never replaced and it hurt the Giants playoff chances quite a bit.

If we take a look at his numbers he wasn't having the greatest of offensive seasons but you have to believe that at one point he would have gotten hot and finished with numbers closer to what was expected at the start of the season.

Regardless of his relatively poor offensive production he gave above average offense (OPS+ of 115, wRC+ of  114)  from a spot that normally not known for offense and that alone was probably enough to take some pressure off other players.

Eli Whiteside:

	BA	OBP	SLG	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB
2011 Projection	0.235	0.291	0.379	19	9	1	5	19	2
2011 Actual	0.197	0.264	0.310	14	8	2	4	17	2

Whiteside wasn't supposed to be the guy and as we saw he wasn't ready to take over as the guy. No one expected him to be Posey's equal on offense but they did expect him to play well defensively.

Well that didn't exactly happen and it hurt really bad. Whiteside is a nice guy to have as a backup, not ideal but good enough. By the end of the season it was pretty apparent that he was below Chris Stewart on the depth chart. With his first year of arbitration coming up I would have to think that there will be some serious consideration of not bringing him back as the primary backup next season.

One thing we did learn is that he has some serious hops.

Chris Stewart:

	BA	OBP	SLG	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB
2011 Projection	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2011 Actual	0.204	0.283	.309	20	8	0	3	10	0

Stewart impressed out of Spring Training and then showed that he had what it takes to be a serviceable MLB backup. He didn't make people forget about Posey but he was a better option than Whiteside by the end of the year, who looked exhausted from the increased workload.

He did the things that you expect from your backup catcher, he had solid defense and was bad on offense but not so much that you wished the pitcher was hitting in front of him.

With Whiteside in my opinion a candidate for non-tendering a contract I think going into next season that Stewart is probably the best option to be Posey’s backup. If there is any bumps in the road of Posey’s recovery however Brian Sabean needs to look outside the organization for a replacement because Stewart (or Whiteside is nothing more than a 1 to games a week option for this team).

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