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I will first state that I am biased in favor of catchers over every other position.
To me, a catcher is the most important in all of baseball. You put a strong defender behind the plate and you can win games no matter how bad he may hit. If you have a catcher that is superb at blocking and throwing, it helps in so many ways.
1-Pitchers can throw the nasty stuff more often. Forget it when it's a pitcher that has obscene break on their pitches. Those guys careers are based on who's behind the plate. Depending on the catcher, they can be a nasty mo-fo that dominates or a erratic pitcher that falls behind in counts, throws wild pitches, is always forced to throw the fastball down the middle due to continuously falling behind, and lasts only 4 to 5 innings due to high pitch counts.
2-Opposing teams have to adjust their strategies from attempting to steal to sacrificing. Through the course of the season, forcing teams into sacrifices as opposed to stealing has a significant effect on improving your team and keeping pitchers fresh. And those outs puts pressure on the next hitter to come through.
3-Pitchers with bad pickoff moves are less exposed.
4-Pitchers are able to attempt to make batters chase if the catcher is good at blocking.
There are many other ways that a catcher helps, but I'm not going to write an instructional manual.
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