Baseball America names Elias Diaz the minors' best defensive catcher

Elias Diaz is the 2015 recipient of Baseball America's Captain's Catcher Award, given to the best defensive catcher in the minors.  BA credits Diaz with a great arm, good agility behind the plate, and -- no surprise given the organization he's in -- above-average pitch framing skills.  The article features some laudatory comments from Tyler Glasnow and none other than A.J. Burnett.  It also has some interesting comments about Diaz' hitting, including an admission by Diaz that he fell back into some old habits this year.  It's a pretty good illustration of why catchers develop more slowly as hitters.

Diaz receiving the award is especially interesting given the presence in the Pirates' system of Reese McGuire, who's still highly touted for his defense.  If McGuire's bat develops at all, the Pirates could soon have more catching talent than they know what to do with.  Anybody who remembers Catchergeddon, or Rod Barajas, should be sleeping a lot easier.