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Wednesday, May. 27, 2009

McCann needs to be NL’s starting catcher

Brian McCann is arguably the best catcher in baseball. You could mention Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins in the discussion, and it would be a good debate. But there is no doubt McCann is the best overall catcher in the National League.

And with that, McCann needs to be the starting catcher on this year’s National League All-Star team July 14 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

He has been an All-Star three years in a row, but McCann has never started. We all know it’s a popularity contest anyway, and this year it sure would be nice if the most popular National League catcher was also its best.

Last year, McCann finished third in the voting behind Chicago Cubs rookie catcher Geovany Soto and Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jason Kendall. McCann was 1.3 million votes shy of winning the honor, which is a shame considering how great a season he was having at the time.

This year, McCann is in a league all by himself. Soto is struggling with a sophomore jinx, hitting just more than .200. The same goes for the veteran Kendall, who is just above the Mendoza Line. Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodgers has lost his power, and Benji Molina of the San Francisco Giants is struggling with his batting average.

McCann leads all National League starting catchers with a .326 batting average, along with five home runs and 18 RBI through Monday’s game.

Those are pretty good numbers for someone who missed 15 games this season. McCann had trouble seeing and had to be fitted with new glasses. The Braves were only 6-7 when he was on the disabled list, but they have won 10 of 16 games since his return.

With Chipper Jones aging, and never really being a leader to begin with, this is becoming McCann’s team. His teammates look up to him, on and off the field. And the lineup is as dependent on him being there as the future Hall of Fame third baseman.

While his percentage of throwing would-be base stealers out is not great, McCann is still a very good catcher. He is clearly in control of the game when he is behind the plate, and his pitchers love throwing to him.

For a player who was once in Jeff Francoeur’s shadow, at least in terms of publicity, things certainly have changed. They were drafted together seven years ago, both out of the Atlanta area. Francoeur and McCann were good friends growing up — Francoeur was the golden boy, while McCann was just the solid baseball player.

Francoeur was the one who was supposed to be going for the All-Star berth. He was the one on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was the one on the billboards all over Atlanta and in the Delta commercials. While Francoeur was getting all the publicity, McCann was simply becoming the best catcher in the game.

And now, Francoeur is struggling to stay in the major leagues, and McCann is probably going back to the All-Star Game.

But he needs to be the starter this year. Since the fans vote, it’s our job to put him there. Log on to www.mlb.com and you’ll see the ‘Vote Now’ at the top of the page. You’ll have to enter your e-mail address, but you can vote up to 25 times online through July 2nd.

Or you can just do it the old-fashioned way, and grab a bunch of ballots when you go to Turner Field and punch out the chad by McCann’s name.

Either way, vote for Brian McCann. He’ll be in St. Louis on July 14, but it certainly would be appropriate if the best catcher in the game got a chance to be the starter — for a change.

The Bill Shanks Show airs weekdays from 3-6 pm on WFSM Fox Sports 1670 and online at www.foxsports1670.com.