I love it when an announcer says something like this about a pitcher: 'When you're around the plate all the time, you're more likely to get the benefit of the doubt on borderline calls...'
That's great stuff!
There are guys that are horrible that are only playing because they're being paid so much (Howard).
There are other guys that are horrible that get jettisoned because the team is willing to eat the bad dough (Craig).
I'm more like the guy in the Monty Python sketch who's just looking for a good argument. (I wish they had better smileys here. The selection of emoticons they have on the music forum I just joined a while ago is beautiful LOL)
As sk7326 has already pointed out, the umps rely heavy on the catchers and their mitt placements to determine balls and strikes for them. That's why pitch-framing is now a measurable skill!
Vazquez has an MLB OPS of .595. That's bad, but the average MLB catcher only has an OPS of .683. He doesn't have to improve that much to get to average.