LEFT HANDED CATCHERS?

LEFT HANDED CATCHERS? Sharon Begley, who consistently has very interesting and understandable articles on science in the Wall Street Journal, has an article today (February 16) on multiple regression research on baseball by J.C. Bradbury. He confirms, as others have found, that there is no value in protecting a good hitter in a batting order with another good hitter batting behind him. He also shows that there is no good reason for not having a left handed throwing catcher, that even if it is harder to make a left handed throw to third base, the loss is small, mainly because steals of third don’t happen that often. He concludes that there are few left-handed throwing catchers because there are four other positions for lefties to play. I had thought that when Bill Veeck conducted his experiments with Mike Squires as a catcher and third baseman back around 1980 that there would be other left handed catchers. Consider the left handed thrower with a strong arm who is otherwise a natural infielder and who doesn’t hit well enough to play outfield or first base. Why doesn’t he try catching?