[Nate tha\\\' Great]

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Have you seen Mike Piazza catch? Seriously, his inept catching skills far outweigh what he can bring offensively. I think that there are a lot of ways a good defensive catcher can contribute -- by de-emphisizing a running game even more, picking off runners, blocking balls in the dirt, knowing his pitching staff and calling a good game -- I know you think that is overated but I would disagree.

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Blues,

I know this is going to come across as a sales pitch, but it's worth reading Keith Woolner's chapter on this in Baseball Between the Numbers. I was somewhat of an agnostic on the point of catcher defense before, but Keith has convinced me that it really isn't all that important. Piazza's defense might be ugly, but it's impact on the final score is fairly minimal.

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Finally, with a lineup like the Cards they do not need a ton of production from the catchers spot, but I do think Molina will be much more productive this year, as he will likely not start with 2 horrible months like he did last year.

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See, this is where I disagree. The Cards have *much* too much dead weight in that lineup. Eckstein ... Molina ... Spivey ... Taguchi ... that's the weakest combination of four hitters that you'll find in any opening day lineup, the Marlins and Royals included. I think this is the year that Jocketty finds that he's cut too many corners.