By Robert Masusock image

AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS: .233/.301./.374/.675
HR:9    RBI: 28

At 6 foot 2 inches tall and 260 pounds, Cameron Rupp simply looks like a guy built to be a major league catcher. This year he finally got his shot as Chooch’s decline continued and he found a way onto the field for 81 games and 299 plate appearances, both career highs by far.

Rupp didn’t hit his first home run of the season until June 23 versus the Yankees. A slow start and just about what I, and mostly anyone else, expected from the catcher who hadn’t done much noteworthy in his career up to that point in the season. Then all of a sudden the calendar flipped into August, the dog days of summer, and the heart of what one Mr. Manuel called “hittin’ season”, and Rupp went on a tear. He hit 7 home runs and was able to increase his average from .226 to .250 by the end of the month. Ending the season, Rupp appeared to return to his normal play and his average fell back down to .233 and he only managed 1 home run through September (and into October). It was just one month, but if Rupp can manage to perform half as well as he did in August with the bat on a consistent basis he can be a more than serviceable backup/solid starter due to his ability behind the plate.

Rupp managed to throw out 20 of 53 base runners trying to steal a base on him. That gave him a caught stealing percentage of 37.74 percent, good for 10th in the entire majors. Good old Chooch by comparison, only threw out 19 percent of runners attempting to take an extra base. That’s only 11 of 58 base stealers whom were actually thrown out by Ruiz, a remarkable drop from what we’ve become accustomed to seeing from him.

With Carlos Ruiz about to be 37 years old and having seemingly no future with this team there’s no reason for Cameron Rupp to not start. He has the size to be durable and take a beating behind the plate, and the arm to make base runners think twice. It also cannot be understated how fantastic of a job he did managing the game for these rookie pitchers, especially for being a rookie himself. If anyone in this new Phillies regime knows what’s best they’ll let Rupp get majority, not half, of the starts next season and see if he can continue his stellar play behind the plate and give him the chance to see what he can do at the plate. At the very least it appears he is capable of being a stop gap while we give players like Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp time to learn the position without being rushed.