The Catcher Situation

How Hoover and Baker will be used is somewhat up in the air.

Catcher John Baker, who caught Olsen's first win since May 6 and drove in a run in his major league debut Wednesday, was back in the lineup Thursday.

Gonzalez didn't specify how he would use Baker and Paul Hoover, but Baker would receive more playing time that the typical backup. The left-handed hitting Baker should see plenty of playing time against right-handers with Hoover facing most if not all of the lefties.

I have no problem with the two splitting the catching duties, but I'm not sure a righty-lefty split is the way to go.  I watched Baker last night behind the plate and he needs to be more quite.  In other words, he moves too much when the pitcher is in his delivery.

Besides tipping the hitter off to where the pitch is coming, it distracts the pitcher..  His crab crawl is very good but he needs to learn to set the target and not reach across with his right hand and mess with the mitt.  The other thing that needs improvement is he needs to move more when a pitch misses its desired location.  He tends to reach for it and that's fine if you can glove it, every time, but I doubt that will remain the case.

When Baker squares up to the pitch, he does a good job of blocking it, but he needs to quit trusting his reactions and get in front of the ball more often.  His arm looks to be average and given the way the Marlins pitchers hold runners on, they don't, he will have a low caught stealing ratio.

But he does have promise.