Newbie here. I am putting together a new team in a standard league, and am trying to decide between 2 starting catchers. I'm looking for good defensive skills with enough offensive firepower to help anchor the bottom of the line-up. I am looking at Dan Wilson 2006 or Geovany Soto 2008. They both have A/B defensive skills, but Wilson has an A+ arm. I think Soto's is C-. On the other hand, Soto has an RC27 number of 6.6 vs. 5.0 for Wilson. Which is more important - the arm or the bat? Their salaries are about the same.

Arm by a mile.  You can get the bat out of your other positions, but SIM teams run like rabbits.

Thanks, thunder.

Butch Wynegar......

go for a good arm, with decent offense - I like Del Crandall.

Fielding and range aren't that important for a catcher.  A bad catcher will only make a few more errors than a good catcher.  Their fielding value is 100% loaded into their arm.  Their are a lot of teams in OL that use speed in big ballparks as a strategy.  They play in the Astrodome / Petco to cancel out opposing power hitters, use deadball era pitchers to further kill opposing power and fill their lineups with speedsters like Dilone, Castillo, Henderson, Coleman, McGee, Jefferies, etc.  Good arm is very valuable at catcher.  I'm on a 2010 Posey kick right now, using AAA to make up for lack of PA's

I should add that I'm not a fan of that cookie strategy.  I may use a Jefferies once in awhile, and I admit to being a little addicted to Dilone, but when I see a whole lineup of all of those easy picks, with '08 Joss etc - it makes me gag a bit.  Personally I like using seldom used players that I used to watch and seeing how they will perform.  I still use Leon Durham, Gary Maddox, etc for that reason.  Makes it interesting for me.  Even if I don't win as much as I could...

You should also know that there are perhaps more bargains at catcher than at any other position.
'75 Cater
'92 Daly
'15-'16 Schang
'77 Alexander

Will provide outsized performance relative to their defense.

Thanks, everyone. All good info.

Oh, I should say that I misspoke on Dan Wilson's season. I am actually looking at his 1996 season.

I would have to respectfully disagree with you Cbaltz about a catcher's fielding range not being that important.  Try a D- fielding catcher and watch all the balls that fly past him for passballs.

My favorite is 2B Heine Peitz at catcher.  Will hit over .300 with good OBP over 500 PAs and will throwout his share of runners with an A+ arm.  All for less than $4.0 mil.

I'm using Heine for the first time in one of my leagues.  Hope he matches his performance history.