Newbies behind the plate for the Yankees & Red Sox

YANKEES

This past offseason, the Yankees made a decision that Jorge Posada could no longer be the starting catcher.  This was partly due to his aging skills, along with a severe concussion he suffered last season.  Posada was reluctant at first, but once he realized the severity of last season's concussion and the potential long-term problems, he accepted his role as the designated hitter.  

The Yankees decided to gamble and picked up Russell Martin, who a few years ago was the Dodgers rookie phenom catcher.  Since 2007 though, Martin has suffered his share of injuries and has not lived up to his expectations especially offensively.  Defensively though, he's a stud.  Last year Martin only hit .248, but he threw out 30.6% of base stealers, which was the 7th best in the majors!  His defensive skills will drastically improve this team. The Yankees actually had a 88.8% stolen base success rate against Yankee catchers in 2010.  This was the highest in the majors AND 5th highest in the wild card era.  Martin was necessary for this team, even if just for the defense.

Surprisingly enough though, Martin is having a great offensive start to the 2011 season, as we saw yesterday with his two home runs against Boston!  He is hitting .321 on the season with 3 home runs & 8 RBI's.

UPDATE:  The NY Times reported today that Russell Martin actually trained this offseason by incorporting mixed martial arts (MMA).  Pretty interesting article can be found here.


RED SOX

This year the Red Sox let Victor Martinez slip away in free agency and named Jarrod Saltalamacchia as the starting catching for the Red Sox. This should be cause for concern to any Boston fan as Saltamacchia can lead to the downfall of their team.  As we have seen in the past two games against the Yankees, he struggles offensively.  Although he caught Jeter stealing yesterday, he hasn't been terribly effective behind the plate either.  In fact, he could be the reason why the pitcher's are struggling so much.

In 2010 he only had a 17%  caught stealing percentage. Over the past few seasons, he has been on the leader board for errors as well.  In 2009 he committed 7 errors and tied for 5th highest in the AL and in 2008 tied for 2nd most in AL with 9.  In 2008 he also played first base, and had the most errors of any first basemen in the AL with 9.

Defense isn't his biggest struggle though as this season Saltalamacchia has struck out in every game he has started!  He has already struck out three times in the Yankees series already, and there is still a game to play today.  Salty (as they call him in Boston) has struck out 9 times for the season and is hitting a mere .182.  He went 0-10 in the opening series in Texas last weekend.  The scouting report on him says he will swing at everything!  On the bright side for Boston, he did hit well against the Yankees on Friday, driving in an RBI to break a 6-6 tie. 

Boston's starting pitchers on paper should be the best rotation next to the Phillies but they are not getting the job done.   I can't help but wonder if putting a young kid behind the plate has anything to do with this.  Varitek was one of those catcher's that could call a game better than nearly any catcher, and Victor Martinez was a seasoned catcher as well.  Varitek is such a heady catcher that he has been the catcher in 4 no-hitters!  Now the pitchers, especially the younger ones, must rely upon themselves more.  Lester & Buchholz have struggled this season so far and Lackey hasn't done much better.   The starting rotation for Boston so far in 2011 is 1-5 with a 7.46 ERA.  Take John Lester out of the mix and the ERA jumps to 9.10.  Hopefully the Yankees will capitalize on this tonight when they face off against Josh Beckett.  Beckett allowed 29 earned runs against the Yankees last season in 26 total innings!!!

Overall, I think the Yankees were more successful in the offseason, behind the plate.  Martin was a bit of a gamble with his numbers declining, but he's a great defensive catcher putting up strong numbers this season.  On the other hand, it should be interesting to see how the Red Sox can make this adjustment to a young catcher behind the plate this season.  Definitely something to keep an eye on!