A Look at the Red Sox Minor League Catchers 2009

(Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)

With Jason Varitek not getting any younger and George Kottaras not looking like a No. 1 starting catcher, I decided to look into the Red Sox minor league system for a possible replacement.

To save you from any boring details I only looked at the catchers who have appeared in over 40 games and are hitting .250 or better. I then looked at the scouting reports from Sox Prospects.com for those top hitting catchers to get a feel for their defensive ability.

I looked at the stats of these catchers from AAA Pawtucket, AA Portland, A Advanced Salem, A Greenville, A Short Season Lowell & R Ft. Myers through 7/29/09.

This whittled the list down to four catchers, two of whom are still in level A ball, we’ll start with them. The other two come from both Portland and Pawtucket.

Tim Federowicz

After 76 games between single A Greenville (55 games) and Salem Advanced (21 games), Federowicz had some pretty impressive numbers. He scored 43 runs on 94 hits (most than any other catcher in the Sox system), 24 of those were doubles and 11 were HRs (most than any other catcher in the Red Sox system), while knocking in 40 RBIs.

He also hit for an average of .278 with an OBP of only .316 with two SBs. Unfortunately, he also has more errors than any other catcher in the system with eight. Another mark against him is his BB/K ratio of 18/53.

Here’s the scouting report on his ability behind the plate (from Sox Prospects.com):

Behind the plate, Federowicz presently is above average defensively, and has the tools to develop into a very good major league defensive catcher. Extremely strong and accurate arm with a quick release.  Outstanding at throwing runners out.  Calls a good game and handles the pitching staff well.  Glovework can use a little bit of improvement.

Luis Exposito

Exposito has played all of his 74 games in single A Salem Advanced and most of his numbers, except for runs, hits and HRs, are improvements from Federowicz. He scored only 28 runs on 78 hits, 24 of those were doubles, one triple and six were HRs (second most in the Red Sox system), while knocking in 45 RBIs.

He also hit for an average of .279 with an OBP of .338 with three SBs. Unfortunately, he also has the second most errors with seven. Another mark against him is his BB/K ratio of 23/48.

Here’s the scouting report on his ability behind the plate (from Sox Prospects.com):

Behind the plate, Exposito has tremendous catcher's tools, including very good blocking skills, a strong arm, great instincts, and outstanding game calling ability.  However, he could use some improvement with his glovework and his throwing accuracy.  Gunned down 28.5 percent of attempted base stealers in 2008, which is below average.

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