Catcher FWS FWAA Suzuki 11.0 0.7 I-Rod 9.4 0.0 Mauer 9.2 0.7 J.Molina 9.1 1.8 Varitek 7.9 0.8 Navarro 7.3 2.2 Johjima 5.7 1.9
I'll assume for this post that an average fielding catcher would earn about 2.5 fielding win shares to get the composite score.
Wildly disparate results here. Suzuki has a huge lead in WS, followed by I-Rod and Mauer. The I-Rod rating is hard to believe, at his age. BP has Navarro at the top, followed by Molina. it sees Mauer and Suzuki as equal, and I-Rod as merely average.
Seems to me it has to come down to Molina and Navarro. Molina appears to have been better. I hate to give a GG to someone in a part time role, but if Molina saves more runs than Navarro, while playing half as often, shouldn't he be the guy?
Neither guy was a factor last year. Johjima beat Mauer. Johjima and Mauer don't deserve it this year, though I'd bet on Mauer getting the actual award.
How to decide? Last year Navarro was below average. Jose Molina last year was a positive defensive contributor, despite having almost NO playing time. He must be incredible. He's got the lineage. He gets my GG, followed by Navarro and Johjima.
Greg Zaun got the Iron last year. Since he can't hit, that's pretty bad. But he was average defensively this year. Not so Mike Napoli, who gets the Iron Glove. Ironic that the Angels are managed by one of the best defensive catchers of the 1980s. Scioscia ain't gonna care if Napoli keeps cranking 20 HR every 220 at bats. Get him 600 ABs and he'll lead the league in round trippers. Defense, shmeefense.
