If you play fantasy baseball you know catching is either something you try to jump on early in a draft or pretty much ignore altogether and hope to grab some lightening in a Mike Napoli or Carlos Ruiz. However, when you  take even the  Ruizs and the Molinas  of this world  out of the equation…ie. non-Americans, and throw in defense, you’ve got an entirely different field.

I’d mentioned in my first Korean Approach post that the 2009  WBC team needs to be strong up the middle —  obviously the catcher is the backbone of that idea. Luckily, the best all around catcher in baseball happens to be from St. Paul, Minnesota.

I don’t think Joe Mauer’s invitation to be the starter on the real WBC team is in question, but who knows if he’ll  accept it or not. He’s a key piece.

As people are often quick to point out,  Mauer has averaged just 112 games over five seasons as a starter. In 2008 he played 146 games, and that’s a big reason you’ll find him 4th amongst all AL players in  Justin Inaz’s  Total Value  system with a stellar 6.5 fielding rating (he has a full article on his methodology for his catchers  here) and a 44 RAR (offense). Last year Mauer’s TV fielding rating was 10.6. He’s above average to excellent defensively.

A .413 OBP puts Mauer in elite company– by himself —  amongst American catchers. He also hits lefties better than anyone at his position (.361/.415/.525), which is  a nice  bonus. His power numbers don’t match those of Brian McCann, but this is where we have to view the WBC team in a different light than we would, say,  an All-star team. On a team where power bats like Josh Hamilton and Matt Holliday  could be fighting for  playing time, anything that puts my catcher’s offense above  adequate is gravy. Fortunately, Mauer is much better than that and  he’d look none too shabby  hitting in the two hole behind Grady Sizemore. Or heck, maybe leading off himself.

Arguing defense catcher to catcher isn’t easy, and there are a number of variables that can tweak a backstop’s numbers. Mauer was seventh in CS% (caught stealing) at 26.1%, but that doesn’t account for the role pitchers play in that number — how good said pitchers are at holding runners,  if they throw a lot of splits in the dirt etc. Seventh in CS%  probably just fine, and at any rate,  Mauer only allowed 0.52 SBs per game (catching stats via Hardball Times). Mauer made three throwing errors all season and  no  fielding errors.

As opposed to my piece on centerfielders I’m going to go ahead and pick a backup to Mauer, mostly because I think the discussion gets much more interesting from here. Going on offense alone McCann is the obvious choice, but his ability to throw runners out is average to below average  amongst starters in the league. Going back to CS% McCann threw out 18.4% of opposing runners during 2008. That number has been pretty consistent throughout his career: 19.5% in 2007, 22.5% in 2006, and 18.5% in 2005.

Sorry, but that just won’t cut it when playing the likes of Korea, managed by Kim Kyeong-moon, who if you’ve ever watched the Doosan Bears, loves to run. During the 2008 Olympics Kim used what was essentially two leadoff hitters at the top of the lineup in Lee Jeong-wook and Lee Yeong-kyu and he does the same with Doosan. Regardless if you think speed is an essential ingredient to a lineup, I can assure you most international managers do.

What I would do is start Mauer every game, but give him plenty of rest. Pinch hit for him late in games and pull  him out of blowouts early. Like I said, there’s going to be a surplus of power on the bench, so I’d like to have one and possibly even two guys that can come in as late inning defensive replacements.

I think not bringing McCann will ruffle some feathers, and I would go so far as to say that if Mauer declines an invitation, McCann is the choice to start. With McCann starting I would definitely bring two defensive replacements and rotate them in earlier in games. But given Mauer’s ability to hit left-handed pitching, plus the  fact that he’s a much better fielder than him  renders  McCann’s bat an unnecessary luxury.  Believe me, the other teams in the WBC want (and expect) the US team to overload on power.

And this is where it gets tough. The way I see it there are just a  handful of  American candidates here. I think you could consider Hawaiian Kurt Suzuki, who is very good defensively and  may actually develop a Mauer-like bat over the next year or two. He rates as one of the top defensive catchers in 2008  by Justin’s numbers (8.3), and made just four errors during 2008. Speaking of errors, Chris Snyder  made  exactly zero in  2008 and has made a grand total of five during his entire career spanning five years. He also gets a 6.7 from Total Value in 2008. Even 2006  WBC team  members Jason Varitek and Brian Schneider  aren’t bad with the glove. But  lets not  forget — that team was a disgrace, meaning players attempting to return from that team should be a clear choice. Varitek and Schneider are not clear choices here.

It’s a bit of a risk, because his career numbers don’t really bear this out, but in  taking a defensive-minded approach to catching, the 2008 version of  Jason Kendall gets the nod. Kendall sits with a paltry 0.4 from Total Value on offense, but scores a whopping 13.8 on defense. Only Jose Molina at 9.5 even comes close during 2008.  Kendall led the league in CS% at 39.6%, which included throwing out 41 of 96 runners. Those numbers must have  something to do with the Milwaukee pitchers, but even so Kendall had an outstanding year defensively. I’m going to assume he’s getting better with age or has worked something out mechanically.

I like the idea of Kendall coming in during the 9th inning of the championship game and gunning down Jose Reyes of the Dominican Republic. Or thwarting a late inning attempt at a small ball rally by Japan.  It’s impossible for us to know what goes on behind closed doors, but Kendall also strikes me a a firery  team leader type as well. Can’t hurt. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope he never has to pick up a bat.

If I take a third catcher it’ll likely be McCann or Suzuki, although I’m very tempted to bring Matt Wieters, who will either start at catcher for Baltimore next season or will be called up soon thereafter. Wieters was recently named Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America and is a future all-world star a la Evan Longoria. I like the idea of giving a young player a shot to prove something in the WBC before he gets to the big leagues. Given that this is a third catcher we’re biting our nails about here,  it might just be worth a roll of the dice. The reports I read on Wieters defense prior to 2008 indicated he was merely adequate, but I’ve since read he surpassed expectations in that department during the season.

Mauer image by THATguy.