Question About Varitek

[savage1]

Applying the following conditions you lay out:

1) During a 4 year period
2) Any one season only
3) AND OFFENSIVELY ONLY

"One of the Top" defined as top 10, then probably.

Better overall during that timeframe PROBABLY includes

Posada, Victor Martinez, and Brian McCann, just because even with questions defensively, their offensive number totally overshadow anyones during that entire timeframe

IRod, defense and baserunning somewhat overshadow my thoughts on the impact to his offensive numbers due to PED's

Mauer his 2006, Russell Martin 2007, R Hernandez 2006, Lieberthal 2003 or 1999, Javy Lopez 2004, McCann 2006, B Molina 2007

Michael Barett Cubs years

Pierzynski, consistancy

I have this same problem though with people when they speak of Don Mattingly though. Yeah, good for three years, lifetime statistics of Moose Skowron

I can't dispute your points and you are being fair with what you said.
That being said though, I would argue that at least some of what Varitek contributed in his career and especially in 2004 and 2007 in tangibles and intangibles was instrumental in helping the Sox go as far as he did.
To take it a step further and obviously this is conjecture only, I don't believe the Sox in terms of its own needs and how highly they regarded Varitek relative to that, would have traded him straight up for ANY of the three guys you cited when Tek was in his prime(don't get me wrong- the three guys you cited are all very good players but I really don't think they would have fit in as well with the team's thinking of what they perceived to be the role of a catcher in terms of the Sox).

[BillMill71]

I can't dispute your points and you are being fair with what you said.
That being said though, I would argue that at least some of what Varitek contributed in his career and especially in 2004 and 2007 in tangibles and intangibles was instrumental in helping the Sox go as far as he did.
To take it a step further and obviously this is conjecture only, I don't believe the Sox in terms of its own needs and how highly they regarded Varitek relative to that, would have traded him straight up for ANY of the three guys you cited when Tek was in his prime(don't get me wrong- the three guys you cited are all very good players but I really don't think they would have fit in as well with the team's thinking of what they perceived to be the role of a catcher in terms of the Sox).

He along with Jeter from the Yankees do wear the C on their uniforms, so the intangibles are seen byt those inside the organizations (the only true judge), so during that time listed for Varitek I would say you have a point.

As far as trade him straight up for some of those listed, I would say porbably not, due to his history with the club, and they got V Mart for the future.

[savage1]

He along with Jeter from the Yankees do wear the C on their uniforms, so the intangibles are seen byt those inside the organizations (the only true judge), so during that time listed for Varitek I would say you have a point.

As far as trade him straight up for some of those listed, I would say porbably not, due to his history with the club, and they got V Mart for the future.

I agree and the C on the uniform is important.
I think in addition to the C, I think the Sox think and his ability to call a game was and is important relative to their over appraisal of his importance.
Now that his defensive and offensive capabilites have slipped dramatically of late, they are beginning to think that this supercedes his ability to call games, his knowledge of the hitters and that he should be used somewhat less.
Getting back to the original question I asked though, I was asking in terms of why a very good catcher all things considered, and who obviously took his job very seriously, did his homework, etc., over his long career couldn't have mastered theart of catching a knuckleball if he worked at it with the same effort he put into other facets of what the job entailed.