i9s

Louis Santop was a great catcher, among the best of his time.

Catchers are hard: they rarely get enough usage to accumulate black ink, and their limited seasons tends to inject more variability into their career. That’s part of what makes Santop’s run from 1913 to 1924 so ridiculous. In that time, we have him hitting over .300 10 times, having an OBP over .400 6 times, and a SLG over .500 3 times. As that indicates, he hit for average, had some power and could even take the occasional walk, all while being pretty hard to strike out: he usually put the ball in play, and usually hit it hard.

1918 especially stands out as, even with limited plate appearances, he should appear on the leaderboard for hits and doubles that year.

He wasn’t fast–he was a catcher after all–but did hit a fair share of triples (remember the era), developing homerun power as all of baseball emerged into the lively ball era.

Defensively, he had a very strong arm, but was only middling in the rest of the skills of catching–but the arm was eye-catching at times, and certainly contributed to how rarely he played other positions, despite the temptation to keep his bat in the lineup (he played some decent 1B and stumbled about in the OF occasionally).

We have his career ending in 1925–he hit so poorly that season that I don’t see him continuing for 1926, as he did historically. On the other hand, he is only one year removed from a campaign with an OPS over .900, so seeing a team being willing to take a flyer on him could also be quite reasonable.

I’m happy with the shape of this projection, but could see its composition shifting some in future revisions–more doubles, fewer triples and homeruns being the most likely outcome. But, a solid start.

Name	Louis Santop (Big Bertha; Top)
ID / Status	santop001lou / Draft
Pos	C
DOB / i9s Career	01/17/1889 / 1910 - 1925
Birthplace	Fort Worth, TX (USA)
Height / Weight	6'2" / 200
B / T	L / R

 

Batting Projections

Year	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1910	227	44	14	4	0	15	24	7	2	0.194	0.244	0.291	0.535
1911	398	110	28	12	4	53	56	21	6	0.276	0.361	0.437	0.799
1912	218	48	16	5	1	16	22	6	3	0.220	0.274	0.353	0.627
1913	320	113	21	6	0	35	36	16	7	0.353	0.417	0.456	0.873
1914	430	148	29	12	2	41	50	18	7	0.344	0.401	0.481	0.883
1915	441	127	28	10	3	44	42	8	8	0.288	0.353	0.417	0.770
1916	439	161	30	13	1	48	44	19	7	0.367	0.429	0.501	0.930
1917	411	120	27	7	2	37	42	7	6	0.292	0.350	0.406	0.757
1918	458	174	30	6	1	46	40	18	7	0.380	0.437	0.478	0.915
1919	420	140	29	5	4	32	35	13	5	0.333	0.381	0.455	0.835
1920	384	118	30	10	1	41	33	5	6	0.307	0.374	0.445	0.819
1921	386	119	30	3	7	32	27	8	5	0.308	0.361	0.456	0.817
1922	458	176	34	3	12	48	31	11	7	0.384	0.443	0.550	0.993
1923	431	138	31	1	9	27	35	8	5	0.320	0.360	0.459	0.820
1924	315	117	24	2	6	20	29	7	4	0.371	0.409	0.517	0.926
1925	170	41	14	1	2	9	20	1	1	0.241	0.279	0.371	0.650

 

Pitching Projections