I'm continuing my amateur mid- season review of the Aggies with the catchers.

Catchers:

Ignacio Diaz:

It's fairly obvious he represents a defensive upgrade over Denholm (and himself) last year. He actually does a decent job of blocking wild throws, his attempts to throw out runners at second usally find an infielder instead of the center field grass. I've even seen him catch a throw to tag a runner out at the plate. Did that happen even once last year ?

Having said that, I don't consider him a stellar defender, maybe a bit above average. Some routine plays have given him trouble. For example he was largely responsible for the blown save against UCONN (the game they won), when he dropped a foul pop up to begin the 9th. They should have given an error for a missed catch, saving Stone the eventual earned run.

I've said it before, that the coach needs to give him more breathers (He's started all but 2 games). You can't go through the season with essentially 1.1 catchers. By this I mean you can't just play your best hitting catcher every game, and barely give any scraps to your reserves. However, this has happened each of the last 3 years.

Say what you will about Peters, but he always managed to find work for his reserves because he understood the physical toll catching takes on a person (Think he was a catcher in the Dodgers' organization, wasn't he ?). Even in 2008 he found a decent amount of playing time for reserve Alex Dreyfuss. This wound up being really smart since junior catcher Jake Jefferies was drafted (Tampa Bay) that year. Who knew Dreyfuss would get injured and miss all of the 2009 season ? You can't just say, "Oh, the catcher can rest on the days we don't play". They need to be cautious with Diaz' workload. He barely played last year, and in junior college they mostly don't play on consecutive days, or more than 3 games a week.

Elijah Ontiveros:

He has started two games (both Aggie wins), and has done a decent job defensively when I've seen him play in previous seasons. The knock on him was his hitting. When I saw him his bat didn't even make contact with the ball. In fact in the fall game I saw the blue team batted him TENTH. Hopefully his performance against Hawaii inspired the coach to start him at least 3 more games down the stretch, so that Diaz can avoid injury and they can finish strong.

Unfortunately both Diaz and Ontiveros are seniors, and you have to wonder what the heck the plan for the future is exactly.

Houston Roberts has logged a pair of at bats and at most 4- 5 innings behind the plate. This isn't typically what you see when a catcher is being groomed to take over the following year. This leads me to believe that he isn't. Perhaps they don't have high regard for his defense ? If not, what's the plan ? You recruit players a year ahead, but I haven't seen where the Aggies have brought in any transfers for next year. This means if Roberts isn't, the starter you're looking at would- be red shirt freshman Jackson O'Boy. No knock on him, but seasons that begin with freshman starting catchers are usually pretty rough for the Aggies (2009 + 2016 come to mind). Aside from that you still need to carry at least 3 catchers on your roster. MLB teams can get away with 2, but colleges can't call up players from the minor leagues.

Of course Logan Denholm is still on the roster, but I would guess he's probably injured. With his powerful bat they'd find a spot for him if he could play. I don't believe for a second he's redshirting to work on his defense behind the plate. If he is injured I wonder if it had anything to do with how little rest he was given last year.

There's an eerie similarity forming between the Aggie baseball career trajectories of Denholm and Olson. If I were a betting man I'd say the former starts at first base and DH in 2018 if he doesn't transfer out to a JC to get noticed by a better program. Some former Aggies have done this. An example that comes to mind is infielder Michael Aldrete (son of the Giants outfielder). He redshirted his would- be sophomore season (2010), transferred to a JC and later San Jose State, from which he was drafted- as a pitcher. Who saw that one coming ?

Overall, I am concerned about UCD's catching options for next season. They're ok for now. Typical UCD baseball- don't plan for the future.