Previewing The Catchers

What was once a solid offensive slot for Boston took a significant step back in 2006 with Jason Varitek struggling through injuries and using several backstops during the season. The loss of the bat of Josh Bard could hurt the team in the future, but George Kottaras could be a decent offensive player in a couple seasons.

Once again we enter the season with a duo of Varitek and Doug Mirabelli who needs to have a solid season this year after the level of play the two players Boston lost last season for him have produced extremely well for San Diego.

I only have projected stats for likely starters this season so that means I have no numbers on how Mirabelli might do.

For Varitek Bill James projects him to a .259/.343/.434 line with 17 HR and 69 RBI, those all would be improvements over 2006.

PECOTA proejects Varitek like this .274/.357/.453 with 14 HR and 55 RBI

My predictions for Tek and Mirabelli are.

Varitek: .274 with 21 HR and 78 RBI
Mirabelli: .243 with 9 HR and 33 RBI

That gives us 30 HR and 111 RBI from the catching position, not to shabby.

Kotteras sits in Pawtuckett ready if needed to give us better depth then last season.