Good morning!
As noted this past Tuesday, the White Sox continue to add to their catching corps by signing Martin Maldonado. Pairing him alongside Max Stassi will purportedly enhance preparation and leadership in the clubhouse though as Jim observed, it hasn't really worked as planned, at least thus far.
Regardless, between Maldonado, Stassi, and the incumbents, that's a lot of catchers. What I thought might be interesting, then, is to examine other catchers who have started games for the franchise over the years. It's an eclectic mix as you might imagine: you've got your stalwarts, backups, emergency call-ups and even emergency fill-ins. I thought it might be too difficult to go all the way back to the beginnings of the franchise, so I set the season cut-off at 2000. Since 2000 there have been 93 player-seasons who have appeared at catcher in at least one game: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 20 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I've provided the season as well as the number of games in which a player appeared at catcher only in that season. So, the games hint doesn't necessarily show the entirety of games in which a player appeared that year.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The highest number of games a player has appeared at catcher in a season (on this list) is 130, in 2006.
- Among White Sox catchers with at least 100 games in a season, just two have logged an OPS of greater than 800: 2012 (.841 OPS) and 2019 (.819 OPS).
- The only season in which a catcher hit more than 20 home runs in a season (26) is also that 2012 season.
All data from stathead.com
