The Johnny Bench Award is given to the nation's best catcher. Marshall's Reynaldo Pastrana is one of three finalists for the award which is very, very impressive.
The other two finalists are the catcher from Georgia Tech who was just picked second overall in the draft and just signed a guaranteed $7.5 million deal and the catcher from Eastern Kentucky who was just selected in the sixteenth round. Marshall's Pastrana, strangely, wasn't drafted.
Anybody have any info on this? He improved his average from .221 to .355 and led the team in average, home runs, RBIs, and hits. Defensively, he threw out about 46% of runners which is very high. In comparison, the other two finalists only threw out 36% and 30%. Defensively, he appears as good or better than the other two. Offensively, his numbers are very similar to both. Both he and the GA Tech catcher strike out at an extremely high ratio (once every four at bats).
Odd that Pastrana plays in a conference ranked in between the other two catchers, has very similar numbers on offense, better numbers defensively, yet isn't drafted while the other two were high picks.
The other two finalists are the catcher from Georgia Tech who was just picked second overall in the draft and just signed a guaranteed $7.5 million deal and the catcher from Eastern Kentucky who was just selected in the sixteenth round. Marshall's Pastrana, strangely, wasn't drafted.
Anybody have any info on this? He improved his average from .221 to .355 and led the team in average, home runs, RBIs, and hits. Defensively, he threw out about 46% of runners which is very high. In comparison, the other two finalists only threw out 36% and 30%. Defensively, he appears as good or better than the other two. Offensively, his numbers are very similar to both. Both he and the GA Tech catcher strike out at an extremely high ratio (once every four at bats).
Odd that Pastrana plays in a conference ranked in between the other two catchers, has very similar numbers on offense, better numbers defensively, yet isn't drafted while the other two were high picks.