In preparation for the final cuts, the Valencia front office has put together a series of Spring TrainING (STING) Reports.
This edition is focusing on the catchers. Out of the 50 players on the roster during the last week of Spring Training, 5 of those players were being evaluated for the two BBA slots as backstops. Not a single one of these players at this position is over the age of 23.
Last year's incumbents were a tandem between Bernd Helwich and Bradley Russel. While Helwich had more at bats last season (358 at bats compared to Russel's) they both were productive behind the plate and did not have a lot of wear and tear since they shared the load. Helwich is a slightly better catcher defensively and hit for a .285 average with 19 homers while Russel did not lag too far behind hitting .297 with 10 round-trippers. Together they combined for a WAR of 3.9 (2.2 for Helwich/1.7 for Russel). This spring Helwich hit .296 in 27 at-bats while Russel only hit .233 in 43 at-bats. With Russel being a left-handed hitter he will see more right handed hitting in the regular season.
Former second round pick Daniel De La Rosa made the most of his six spring training at bats hitting .333 with a homer. Daniel is the weakest catcher defensively so he will be hanging out in AAA this season.
The best defensive catcher of the bunch is Tomas Gutierrez. Unfortunately, he combines that with the weakest bat of the crew according to the scouts. He showed fans that he has a cannon arm and a pea-shooter bat during spring training getting one hit in his seven at-bats.
The rising star of the group is Hudaverdi Aricanli. After hitting .337/.417 in the rookie league, he was called up to SA but had minimal success. He had improvements over the off-season according to the scouts so is was bumped up to the A level ball club. The front office decided to see what he could do in spring training and Huda responded with a .308 batting average in 39 at-bats. His defense is every bit as good as that of Gutierrez, but he still needs more development this season before he is given serious consideration with the big-league club.
There will not be any change this opening day as Helwich and Russel will be with the big league club and De La Rosa and Gutierrez will be waiting in AAA if needed while Huda hopefully develops his way through the farm system.
Below is some of the spring training key stats of these players:
