I think next year Bobby Cox needs to have a fever…and the perscription is more David Ross.

Definitely, I believe that Ross should get more playing time next season. I wouldn’t expect his numbers to remain the same with more at-bats, but he is a more than capable hitter and an excellent catcher.

I completely agree. Ross should not only get the day game after a night game assignments next year but also should start now and then vs tough LHP who McCann hits poorly against. I could sort of understand not pinch hitting Ross in the first 5 months of the season, but there’s no reason he shouldn’t have been the primary pinch hitter in September.

If the Braves actually get this mysterious right-handed big bat everyone is talking about, it’d be nice to have Ross in the line-up an extra 4-5 days a month.

I don’t see why Ross wasn’t used as a PH more often either. I understand the fear of using your backup catcher and him not being available if McCann got hurt or something, but that’s exactly the type of situation you have an “emergency catcher” for. Ross needs to see some more ABs next year, especially against the lefties that give McCann problems.

Actually he is a very good backup in the fact that he offers enough when he plays to not hurt the team in the field or at the plate and even does enough to be a passable fill in should McCann get hurt.

He has enough to offer offensively to be a decent pitch hitter and will even take his fair share of walks to go with decent power. However, Bobby is one of those guys who won’t often use his backup catcher (though he will use McCann off the bench when Ross is starting??) unless he has a 3rd catcher.

To my knowledge Diaz was never a “catcher” but went to the AZ Instructional League withthe Royals to “learn” catching. Does that make him a catcher? No-but could he or Infante catch 2-3 innings if they had to. Yes. Would it be pretty…no…but it could be done.

However, to really enable Ross to be effective we need a 3rd catcher of some sort on the roster to make Bobby happy. However, you don’t want to waste a roster spot with Sammons who won’t hit and can’t play anywhere else outside of C. It would be great to have some who can hit a little…could catch a game or two if need be…and could play the one of he OF/IF corners if you had to…the problem is who could do all of that?

You know who? Branyan Pena! I really hated that the Braves gave up on him as he seemed like an ideal bench kind of player. Is he going ot be a fulltime MLB catcher? No. Is he going to be a fulltime MLB 3B? No. Is he going to be a fulltime MLB LF? No. However, the guy can hit a little and hardly ever strikes out (which to me are key attributes of a pinch hitter). And while he will never be a gold glover at any position he could catch a few games here and there if he had to…and could man a corner spot for a couple innings in an emergency and do fine.
Having him on the roster would allow bobby the flexibility to hit Ross..or hit Pena and have the flexibility to have that emergency reserve. Unfortunately though the Braves traded Pena for a bag of baseballs and a “thank you.”

However, if you think about guys who fit the description in the same way….Javier Valentin, Adam Meuluse,Vinnie Rottino they all fit the same profile..they have hit a little at some point and could be valuable. Valentin in particular has a track record of being a good offensive player and a good PH…just a questionable catcher. However, for the “3rd” catcher that is fine.

Some might argue that you can’t carry someone that would be that definsively limited. Well…we did it with Norton this year. Besides Valentin could catch a few innnings, has played some 1B, and some 3B.

I’m no expert on OPS and lots of new found baseball stats, but is this guy good enough to be an everyday player? Like maybe good enough that he or McCann could solve our first base issue?