re young catchers most of this discussion has been between mark singer and david tate with valentine weighing in on the same side as dave at various times my opinion fwiw to all mark age doesn t matter ability does i would rather have the untried rookie with great minor league numbers than the veteran who has proven himself to be average at best i don t care if he is if he plays better than what i have i want him out there sandy alomar had decent minor league numbers grossly inflated by the pcl in general and las vegas in particular he should have been projected as an average major league hitter which is good for a catcher i ll admit santiago s numbers would probably come out the same as sandy s but i don t have the league data from the mid s to check it out that being said i agree with sending lopez to richmond at least to start the season as the box below shows he has one minor league season in which he hit well he has two in which he hit very very poorly i want to see that the lopez is real olson and berryhill are not complete mediocrities for catchers especially nl catchers they are essentially average hitters with equivalent averages around if he had hit well at prior levels i would say he belongs on the braves but there is a reasonable chance that lopez last year was just as much a fluke as alomar in or santiago in one year at any level at any age doesn t satisfy my standards of evidence javier lopez bur dur grn atl maj min tot maj min tot on a similar note i don t understand why more people are not supportive of neon deion granted i thought his behavior with mccarver last year was completely bush last year was the first time he ever got ab in one place so his lines are hard to read but he has a combined ops in minor league play with his speed is more valuable than the ops alone indicates and at a still young age had a monster year with an ops he has a total major and minor eqa of above major league average and above average for cf which was about in the nl last year he has shown at least the potential of going into the s which would make him one of the best hitters in the league he has two full seasons before reaching his prime season of he should be considered as a legitimate prospect and not as a simple side show attraction deion sanders fla int eas nyy int nyy int atl ric atl maj min tot maj min tot clay d
