so you're talking about things other than being worse than a replacement player, because that was totally easy to notice from the stands. what does this mean? 40 total? he threw out 33 baserunners in his major league career before last year. if he meant 40 percent, then i guess it depends on your definition of "about" - he was at 33.3%, which is far enough below 40% that i'd consider it a significant difference. if you count last year - and why shouldn't you - he's thrown out 28%, which isn't really that good. probably about average. according to baseball-reference, welington castillo has thrown out 40% of would-be base stealers in his minor league career. robinson chirinos was at 31%. he is? the pitching staff was mediocre last year. bullpen was a joke and starters were all right. as for his defense, i don't see anything special there and i suspect that hendry could not back up this argument with a shred of statistical evidence. get better management in the dugout and better players who have leadership capabilities. don't sign a black hole on offense to be a cheerleader. about 90% of the backup catchers in the league, plus at least one of the cub minor leaguers, would be better in his role. he is terrible. so while soto was in AAA in 2007 with koyie hill as the backup, koyie taught him how to hit, even though koyie does not know how to hit himself. then while he was winning the rookie of the year for the chicago cubs, koyie really helped him in his progression while catching for the iowa cubs. koyie did come up in 2009 and help geo along to a very disappointing year. i'm confident that if you asked soto who has been instrumental in his development, and he had to be honest, koyie hill would not be one of the first 5 or 10 people he named. he was? most of the young pitchers were awful last year. did he teach schlitter and stevens and maine and mateo how to throw batting practice? samardzija how to miss his spots by 2 feet? cashner was good because he has a great arm; he was terrific in the minors and then much worse with the big club. i'd like to think that too, but i'd be lying to myself, because we've all seen enough of your work to know that you aren't capable enough to make these types of decisions.