What the Braves catcher tandem has been doing lately has been a big part of their recent streak.
Both D'Arnaud and Contreras are completely raking. I think that a huge part of that is that they're both getting regular rest from playing the catcher position, which seems to me to be probably more brutal than almost anything in sports considering the 162 game schedule. I am not sure any catcher should be expected to play more than about 110 games in a season. Seeing the success early this season of the Braves being able to split time between Travis D'Arnaud and William Contreras (which might not have even happened if Piña hadn't gotten hurt) makes me think that planning to platoon catchers is probably a superior strategy to expecting a guy to play every single day there.
That brings me to potential transfer from Air Force Paul Skenes, who is a catcher and pitcher and apparently can hit the ball too, maybe making him a tick more versatile than Shohei Ohtani (due to Catcher being a premium defensive position, whereas Shohei generally DH's on his off-days). Surely he won't ever have such a complete success of a season as both a starting pitcher and as a hitter that Shohei had in 2021, but who knows. That said, it sounds like we want him to play catcher and possibly be our closer, and the platooning idea that the Braves have deployed to immense success this season would be a perfect fit for such a versatile player. I hope we land him to go along with Maui "Ahuña", actually quite a bit more than I hope we land Tommy Tanks (though I would love to land him too).
I probably missed a few of my thoughts on the above ideas, but the general gist is that catchers platooning to get regular rest seems to make a ton of sense to me and with that, Paul Skenes as a Vol would seem to me to be a perfect fit. The success of the Braves, as 2021 WS champs and on a current massive winning streak in 2022, combined w/ Paul Skenes joining the #1 most dominant/talented college baseball team (regardless of the post-season setup for college baseball being such a complete crapshoot), could produce a paradigm shift across the entire baseball landscape where platooning catchers could become far and away more the norm than having a singular guy expected to play 130-140 games in a season.
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Both D'Arnaud and Contreras are completely raking. I think that a huge part of that is that they're both getting regular rest from playing the catcher position, which seems to me to be probably more brutal than almost anything in sports considering the 162 game schedule. I am not sure any catcher should be expected to play more than about 110 games in a season. Seeing the success early this season of the Braves being able to split time between Travis D'Arnaud and William Contreras (which might not have even happened if Piña hadn't gotten hurt) makes me think that planning to platoon catchers is probably a superior strategy to expecting a guy to play every single day there.
That brings me to potential transfer from Air Force Paul Skenes, who is a catcher and pitcher and apparently can hit the ball too, maybe making him a tick more versatile than Shohei Ohtani (due to Catcher being a premium defensive position, whereas Shohei generally DH's on his off-days). Surely he won't ever have such a complete success of a season as both a starting pitcher and as a hitter that Shohei had in 2021, but who knows. That said, it sounds like we want him to play catcher and possibly be our closer, and the platooning idea that the Braves have deployed to immense success this season would be a perfect fit for such a versatile player. I hope we land him to go along with Maui "Ahuña", actually quite a bit more than I hope we land Tommy Tanks (though I would love to land him too).
I probably missed a few of my thoughts on the above ideas, but the general gist is that catchers platooning to get regular rest seems to make a ton of sense to me and with that, Paul Skenes as a Vol would seem to me to be a perfect fit. The success of the Braves, as 2021 WS champs and on a current massive winning streak in 2022, combined w/ Paul Skenes joining the #1 most dominant/talented college baseball team (regardless of the post-season setup for college baseball being such a complete crapshoot), could produce a paradigm shift across the entire baseball landscape where platooning catchers could become far and away more the norm than having a singular guy expected to play 130-140 games in a season.
Paul Skenes - Baseball - Air Force Academy Athletics
Paul Skenes (23) C/RHP - Sophomore (2022): Collegiate Baseball News Preseason First Team All-American DIBaseball.com Preseason First Team All-American Baseball
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