Colorado Rockies Countdown: Top Five Catchers

As we approach the Silver Anniversary between Major League Baseball and the state of Colorado, a look back at the greatest players in Colorado Rockies history seems appropriate.

We’ll begin our journey through Rockies history at the catcher position and work our way around the diamond. Historically, catcher is a position that hits toward the bottom of most lineups as it’s typically a fairly weak offensive position with a high turnover rate. At least that’s how the position can be summed up in Denver. Defensively speaking, however, catcher is perhaps the most vital position on the field as its takes a physical toll to play the position and influences the game on a pitch-by-pitch basis.

To compile the rankings, Fangraphs‘ list for career Wins Above Replacement (fWAR) serves as a great guideline for positional players. The fWAR statistic allows one to evaluate a player’s contribution over time and with one specific team, therefore negating anything a particular player has done outside of Colorado, regardless of how horrible or spectacular that may have been.

Also as a general rule, this list consists of players that have at least 500 plate appearances with the club. The 500 PA rule approximates to about 1.5 years of service time and gives a large sample size for comparison. Because of 500 PA rule, guys like Nick Hundley (fWAR 2.6) is left off our list … for now.

Without further ado, here is Rox Pile’s list of the top five catchers to ever sport purple pinstripes. Let us know if there is someone you feel should be on the list, or if you feel someone should be ranked higher!

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