Quote Originally Posted by smootness View Post
You're right about Castro. Even still, Castro hasn't played 70 games this year and yet Gattis still hasn't caught even 1 inning for them. He was a catcher throughout the minors because the Braves hoped he could develop there enough to play it in the majors, not because he was a catcher. Every scouting report for him coming through the minors said that he was anywhere from a butcher behind the plate to not horrific but not good enough to stick there in the majors. He did look decent enough there in a short span in Atlanta, but 1) he's already not that close from 30, which is not a good age for a catcher, and 2) the Braves and pretty much everyone else have agreed that he isn't good enough to stick at catcher long-term in the majors.

You may disagree, and I'm even slightly skeptical of that after seeing him, but it is a pretty large consensus. So regardless of your feelings on him as a catcher, the Braves didn't feel he was a legitimate option there, so the trade makes sense from that standpoint.
1) I get the age argument, but Gattis was out of the game for several years. His knees don't have the wear and tear most catchers do by their late 20s. Just seems like a cop out excuse from suits in an office.

2) That may be the consensus, but my eyes told me a different story after watching him for the better part of two seasons. Put it like this, after watching Gattis last year and watching Bethancourt this year, if I didn't know anything about either and you told me that Bethancourt is supposed to be the defensive stud between the two, I'd laugh in your face and call you insane.

We got a lot for Gattis, it just irks me to see a guy get run down by a bunch of guys sitting in an office who either never played or haven't played in about 120 years. It just seems like Gattis got a reputation early on in the minors, fairly or not, and it never changed regardless of how he actually played. Especially when he's a guy who'd be a huge upgrade in the middle of our lineup this season. Having Markakis batting 4 with 0 HRs this close to the ASB is horrific. I know he's not a 20+ HR guy, but he's been pretty consistent about hitting 15 HRs. At this point I'll be shocked if he winds up with 10. He needs to be hitting 2 or 8 if he isn't providing any sort of power threat behind Freeman.