Playing Out of Position At Catcher Topic

thunder1008
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2009
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There have been several recent threads speculating about what would happen if you played someone out of position at catcher.  The question that comes up each time is "Why would anyone ever want to do that?"  In my $100 MM pick a season theme league, bright boy here inexplicably drafted a low PA catcher and no backup and it's a "bring what you've got" league with no WW, trades or AAA.  So I'll be the human guinea pig in this thread letting you know the outcome of playing a position player out of position at catcher.

So far I've done it in 4 games --

Game 1.  C/A scrub 1B at catcher -- i passed ball, 1 stolen base against, won game
Game 2  B+/D- scrub 3B at catcher -- i passed ball, no stolen bases against,, won game
Game 3 B+/D- scrub 3B at catcher -- 4 passed balls, 3 stolen bases against, lost game
Game 4 B+/D- scrub 3B at catcher -- 1 passed ball, 1 stolen base against, won game

My scrubs have allowed 7 passed balls in 4 games, but these have only led to one run.  They have made no actual errors.  Baserunners are 5-for-5 against them in 4 games.  The team has gone 3-1.

I will update the next time I have to plug in a scrub; I'll probably rest my catcher ~20-25 games this season.  I guess the good news is that my scrubs are fielding close to 99% of all pitches cleanly... better than I expected.  Wonder if they will throw anyone out.
12/25/2011 10:37 PM
profcake
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In a progressive, I played '95 Dave Nisson at C for 63 games.  He was my only option for a backup catcher.  No AAA in the league.  He ended up with 4 errors, 66PB and was 4-54 on SB.  Not good results.  My team was good enough to overcome it, but I traded for another C this year.
12/25/2011 11:03 PM
thunder1008
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2009
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Looks like I'm tracking toward similar numbers with my scrubs.  Fortunately you see fewer cookie-laden Astrodome speed teams in progressives and theme leagues; a Raines/Henderson/Carey team would run wild on my scrubs.
12/25/2011 11:12 PM
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Trentonjoe
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I think the long term stats show something like 2 passed balls and and error each game for an unrated catcher, regardless of their defensive rating.   I don't know about throwing people out, I think they pretty much can't do it.
12/26/2011 8:49 AM
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crimsonblue
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 In the Performance history 1983 Tim Raines is said to have thrown out 60% of his runners (3 out of 5 pretty darn good ) over 18 innings.  In the performance history, does that mean that he has only EVER caught 18 innings, or is that his average EACH set of 18 innings that he has caught.  The reason I'm asking is that the amount of his innings and games started at OF seem to be less than what he should average, which makes me wonder if this is an average (the amount of C innings) or his actual TOTAL innings at that position(C). Hoping someone can answer this............either way, it's still a pretty good accomplishment for a position player. 

12/26/2011 11:55 AM
cbaltz_ca
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If the teams that are coming up against you know you are starting a scrub catcher they should set all decent base stealers to 5.  They'll run wild. 
12/28/2011 10:39 PM
Playing Out of Position At Catcher Topic
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