The Roy Campanella Award – A Proposal

Recently, I read an article by Player X written for the World Wide Leader in Sports ESPN in which he stated that Catchers are the real MVPs of baseball.  Miguel Olivo, was the catcher for the Cy Young award winner one year, and is catching a leading candidate the next year after switching teams.  And there is a significant change in the ERAs, up for the current guy, down for last year’s guy.

Well, this got me to thinking (I know that there’s that burning smell again)…

Catchers like Mike Piazza will get into the Hall of Fame because of offensive output.  Quite frankly, Mike was a liability at his defensive position.  He played in one World Series in his 19 year career and lost.

Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals is only 26, is an All-Star, is recognized as the best defensive catcher in the National League and has been to two World Series, winning one.  Manager Tony LaGenius LaRussa started him in 140 games last season despite a career .265 batting average and single digit homers every year.

Why would one of the best managers of all-time run a guy out there so many times despite mediocre hitting?

My guess is that Molina makes the team better.  He makes the team better by handling pitchers and defensive situations better.  He prevents runs from scoring by the way he plays the game.

Molina probably will not make the Hall.

Unless…

Unless there is some other way to measure and reward a catcher’s greatness. Another way to recognize that the catcher, like the goalie in hockey, is somehow more important than the others who play the field, including the pitcher.

There’s a Cy Young award in each league for the best pitcher.

Why not create an award for the best catcher in baseball?

Yes, we have the gold glove, but that’s more of a popularity contest.  And it’s awarded by a baseball glove company.  And I’m not sure what the criteria are for that award.

We need something similar to the Vezina Trophy, which is an annual award given to the goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at this position as voted by the general managers of all NHL clubs.

Let’s call it the Roy Campanella award — named for the Hall of Fame catcher whose career was cut short due to a crippling automobile accident.

The criteria should be based on the following:

• Personal Defensive Skills – we already have stats galore for that
• Team Pitching – somehow great catchers always improve this stat and poor catchers don’t
• Team Defense – it may be a stretch to give credit to the catcher for this, similar to giving credit to the middle linebacker in football, but it has to figure in somehow
• Leadership – it’s like pornography – I’ll know it when I see it.

This way we can judge a catcher on what he should be doing best — being a catcher.