Maddux & the Backup Catcher

[Brian McKenna]

throughout his career greg maddux has insisted on using the backup catcher - to me he is the best - but he has to start every game behind the 8-ball - taking javy lopez's bat and others out of his lineup puts not only a strain on the other hitters but leaves an even smaller margin of error for himself

[Captain Cold Nose]

throughout his career greg maddux has insisted on using the backup catcher - to me he is the best - but he has to start every game behind the 8-ball - taking javy lopez's bat and others out of his lineup puts not only a strain on the other hitters but leaves an even smaller margin of error for himself

Did you mean to post this in the trivia forum?

[Brian McKenna]

no...my purpose was to start a discussion about the topic and perhaps lead to other pitchers who did this...don't see where i asked a question...i know it seems strange that there are other topics than babe ruth, honus wagner, joe jackson, ty cobb or an endless assortment of whose the greatest, prettiest or funniest lists

[Captain Cold Nose]

no...my purpose was to start a discussion about the topic and perhaps lead to other pitchers who did this...don't see where i asked a question...i know it seems strange that there are other topics than babe ruth, honus wagner, joe jackson, ty cobb or an endless assortment of whose the greatest, prettiest or funniest lists

Ok, I wasn't sure, as you didn't ask a question.
The catcher's name is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't for the life of me remember his name. I know Roger Brenashan was regarded as Christy Mathewson's catcher, but I don't know if that's just Brenashan riding Mathewson's coattails or he didn't work with McGinnity, etc.

[mordeci]

i know it seems strange that there are other topics than babe ruth, honus wagner, joe jackson, ty cobb or an endless assortment of whose the greatest, prettiest or funniest lists

You should've been here 3-4 months ago, 20 polls a day. Almost all with the same core players and asking variations on the same 2 or 3 questions.

I know that Maddux isn't the only and certainly isn't the first pitcher to have a "personal catcher". Googling "personal catcher" turns up the names Ramon Castro (Pedro Martinez), Raul Chavez (Roy Oswalt), Scott Bradley (Randy Johnson with the M's), Doug Mirabelli (Tim Wakefield), and J.D. Salinger.

I know that historically Tim McCarver was Steve Carlton's personal catcher (often referred to as Carlton's caddie) and "Reindeer" Bill Killefer was actually traded with Pete Alexander at least once.

I've also found references to Harry Danning as Carl Hubbell's personal catcher and a vague reference to someone grandfather being Cy Young's personal catcher (though the term maybe used more loosely in those cases).

As to why, I've always assumed it's about 90% ego, though it does make some sense from a baseball standpoint. If a team doesn't have a straight lefty/righty platoon behind the plate, they still want to give their starter at least one day off per week. If you're going to play your backup catcher once a week it would make sense to have him usually catch the same pitcher. I'm sure that in some cases certain catchers and pitchers just work better together (Wakefield/Mirabelli), but in the case of Carlton, Maddux and other big ego pitchers I believe it has more to do with having a dominiant relationship over the catcher. Just my opinion, of course.

[rockin500]

i know maddux is on record that he prefers the backup catcher for him, since he can talk to him during the games he is not pitching and discuss scouting reports n stuff like that. at least that was the case in atlanta. This year he has worked with both barrett and blanco. Blanco is the better catcher (and caught maddux in atlanta), but barrett has a better bat. Maybe he tried to teach barrett how to call a game this year? who knows.

[Brian McKenna]

maddux doesn't have an ego or anything like it that would influence his game - he may be the most intelligent and well-versed of all the pitchers - i really wasn't so much asking about personal catchers - i'm sure maddux had his favorite but he worked, for the most part, with whomever cox had on the roster

that is a good point about sitting in the dugout with your catcher and talking about the game - i hadn't thought about that - but still to take the big bat out of the lineup - it had to cost him - javy could put up some good numbers

[plask_stirlac]

Obviously the first pitch strikes, high strike percentage, very few walks, few men on base to distract, tons of quality starts worked very well. I don't know if using Javy would have had a significant negative impact as far as preventing runs, but it's interesting. Plus he got rest, which might have been needed.

[Go Bravos!!!#1]

Bobby Cox would tell people that whenever he wanted to give Lopez a day off it fell on Maddux's day of pitching. Plus since Maddux sometimes called his own games ,he needed his own catcher.

I remember a few years ago on espn some people suspected there to be some kind of Rivalry between Maddux and Lopez. Boy ,the media loves to spin stuff.

It was the '03 postseason and since Lopez hit 43 homers that year,he caught maddux in the postseason.

[Brian McKenna]

i know some saberites already have numbers comparing run production from the catcher position for the braves comparing maddux's starts against the rest of the rotation

[Go Bravos!!!#1]

I'd love to see those stats.

[geezer]

In Puerto Rico, most of the people hated Maddux because people think that he had a discrimination against him, and his refusal to let Javy pitched, and look at them now, Maddux is still winning 14-15 games, and Javy is on the unemployment line.

[Ubiquitous]

That really makes no sense.

The two catchers that caught Greg the most are Eddie Perez and Henry Blanco.

[philipthegreat]

Like I said in the knuckleball catchers forum I think it's good for a catcher to know exactly when he gets a day off.

[digglahhh]

Like I said in the knuckleball catchers forum I think it's good for a catcher to know exactly when he gets a day off.

It also makes sense, considering the offense levels of back-up catchers, that the starter's off days coincide with the team having their ace on the mound - the games in which they would theoretically need the least offense.