The rest, IMO, is hype based on the reality that catching is very, very, very hard ... so perception (wrongly) equates difficulty with importance. This is why SS is almost universally viewed as more "important" defensively than 2B, despite the reality that the two positions will get almost equal chances over a season.
Right there. It's really hard to find someone who can play catcher well enough OFFENSIVELY to stick. But I'd be running Napoli out there all the time as a plus weapon and telling my staff to just keep people off the bases and there won't be a problem with his D or his arm.
Most good hitters don't play catcher. It shortens your career, takes you longer to get in a groove offensively, and is a whole lot harder than just standing at 1B and taking HR hacks at the plate. After seeing what has happened to Posey and Mauer this year, more good-hitting high school catchers may be switching positions.
So you have average hitters manning it who are then hampered by the woes of playing the position. If you ARE a good-hitting catcher the odds of you staying there for your whole career are low, and the odds of those thousands of innings crouched behind the plate taking an early bite out of your offensive stats are high.
If you can find a hitter who can catch, he's very valuable, even if he's not that GOOD at catching. Splitting V-Mart (or Napoli) between DH and C was my desire this season, and I would have no qualms about doing the same with a Montero.
Letting Montero catch Felix and Vargas, who basically call their own games, while Olivo helps out the kids? Totally fine with me. I just don't think Montero can be gotten. We definitely need another catcher, though - Olivo won't last and when his power falters he's done as a useful anything.
Better have the catcher of the future in place when that happens. Fingers crossed on Adam Moore, I guess.
~G