Since when did Varitek ever throw a pitch?
Wow, the folks here have bought Scott Boras' crap hook, line and sinker.
Brick, you're a smart guy, I can't believe you are being this dense.
Are you trying to claim that catching is catching and that all the catcher's do is catch the pitch throw it back to the pitcher and throw out runners? Because if you are you don't know what you're talking about.
Heck, I played Div III baseball in college and caught and the job was 1000 times more difficult than pre-high school ball. I can't even imagine how complex it is at the major league level.
The ability to prep pre game and have a game plan for your pitcher at that level is unbelievably difficult. You have to know all the hitters hot spots from the nine zones. You have to know all their weaknesses and tendencies. You then have to pair those up with the pitcher's strengths and weakness and formulate a plan for each batter. You have to then coordinate that plan around each situation and have count pitching strategies.
Couple that up with the difficulty of knowing the tendencies of the umpires behind the plate and the amount of preparation is unreal. But that's only if you are thorough. If you aren't, and lots of catchers aren't then the pitcher's suffers and so does the team. Now add in being the defensive quarterback and setting the field assignments giving defensive signals, being a pitching coach and pointing out problems you might see in a pitcher's mechanics, being a psychologist in trying to keep the pitcher confident and focused and you are just beginning to understand the catcher's position.
A great catcher calling a great game, defending a great game and blocking the plate properly, will save a team anywhere between 60-120 runs scored against a year over 162 game season. Compared to a bad catcher, which way too many nowadays are, that numbers soars higher.
Varitek is without a doubt the best in the game at handling pitchers and calling a game. The next guy isn't even close in his game prep, game planning, and handling as Tek is. I now what I am talking of. My family is very good friends with the a Red Sox player's family. Heck my wife and father-in-law bowl in the same bowling league as that player. I and my brothers in law talk to him almost every Sunday during the off season and have since he was 8-9 years old. He says that without a doubt, Tek is the best there is. I'll take his word on it as he's been in pro ball for 8 years now.