Yep, seems like a good move to me.

I don't think it's Flaherty's defensive talent that gets him the start - it's the fact that Johnson works with Flaherty better than Posada.

This was one of Varitek's big selling points for the Red Sox - that he made their pitchers better. I wish there was some way to quantify the effect of a catcher on his pitchers. There's just too many variables, I think, to try to eliminate in order to isolate this "skill".

And of course, Varitek's not too shabby with the bat, either.

Hey, have you seen Eric Gagne's umm... "constructive criticism" of Frank McCourt?
http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-gagne7oct07,0,7731261.story?coll=la-home-headlines

or try:
http://tinyurl.com/ad4mt

Someone needs to figure out a way to measure a catcher's contribution to the pitcher's performance. Throwing out basestealers is the only statistic we routinely see, but it's a relatively minor part of the catcher's skill set, at least in the number of times it's required in a given game. The catcher calls a lot more pitches, and even handles a lot more balls in the dirt, etc. I've often thought that it's difficult to believe the much-maligned Piazza is such a terrible catcher, when his pitchers always seemed to do so well. Same with Victor Martinez, the AL's answer to Piazza. The catcher's contribution to the pitcher's performance might be difficult or to quantify, but can anyone doubt it exists?

There are lots of different skills that can help or hurt a pitcher. I noticed early this year that Piazza could not move latterally well, and this was causing out pitches by Pedro to become K + WP. Some pitchers need to throw a sinker that bounces in the dirt, and if you don't have a catcher who can block those, you can't throw the pitch with a runner at third. Some supposedly influence umpires with framing. Yogi Berra was said to be very aware of minor adjustment in hitter's feet, and would call pitches accordingly.

So there's not one particular skill you can measure. Someone who is great for a sinker baller might have trouble with a pitcher with great left-right movement. What Torre and Francona appear to do is match the skill of the catcher with the strength (or weakness) of the pitcher.

I don't see how Flaherty can be so much better at catching fastballs and sliders thrown by Randy Johnson than Posada. I think this is a chemistry thing. Randy is a petulent jerk who doesn't like Posada, he gets frustrated when Posada doesn't see eye to eye with him and then blames his early season problems on Jorge.

Flaherty is essentially a scrub who won't ever probably challenge Randy. But I don't believe Posada somehow mechanically can't handly Randy to the tune of 25 runs or whatever.

//Flaherty is essentially a scrub who won't ever probably challenge Randy.//

I don't think that's the case. Flaherty was the one who suggested that Randy throw off the mound between starts. He also tells him when his mechanics are off and things of that nature. Just a theory, but maybe Jorge is the type of catcher who relies on motivating his pitchers (whether it's by berating them or through words encouragement) and John is the type to point out mechanical issues. Maybe Randy responds more to "this is what you're doing wrong" than the "hey, get your shit together and pitch" type stuff.

Well that's all conjecture (on my part as well) but I stand by the fact that this has a lot more to do with personalities than physical skill sets.

Oh, absolutely. I think it comes down to how each catcher deals with a pitcher psychologically. And personality has a lot to do with it. I just don't think that Flaherty is a pushover.