God this constant Varitek ass kissing from everyone is driving me insane. Who in their right mind expects a 25 year old to live up to the expectations of a proven 38 year old? Varitek didn't even do s*** until he was around 28. He was considered a butcher and all that ******** at basically the same stage of his career. Salty's played a few months for this team. He's played 36 games for this team. That's it. Someone isn't going to get completely familiar with a pitching staff and their opponent's in 36 games. The pitching struggled at the beginning of the season and it wasn't his fault. It was typical beginning of the season pitching issues. Command being off, velocity off, lack of movement. They are getting into their form now and are looking a lot better regardless of who is catching them. He's caught all of Lester's starts I believe and he's looked fine. Even better than he normally does in Aprils. He's caught Lackey a lot and Lackey has been decent and has even praised him. Buccholz has looked bad no matter who catches him. Dice-K is unpredictable and has had good starts with Varitek and bad starts with both. Beckett is always only gonna be comfortable with Varitek no matter who else we have. Salty has been throwing better. He'll get the hang of blocking pitches as time goes on. And as Palodios mentioned he's hitting 316 his last 6 games.
Oh, and during that 5 game winning streak Varitek caught 3 games and Salty 2 of them. If you count from the first game of the winning streak, which Varitek caught at Oakland, through today:
Varitek 3 Wins and 3 Losses
Salty 4 Wins and 1 loss.