Washington Nationals’ pitching coach Mike Maddux saw plenty of Derek Norris when he was still with the Texas Rangers and Norris was behind the plate with the Oakland A’s.
“They were an over-achieving team,” Maddux said. “I’m a pretty big believer that your catcher is such an important piece of what’s going on, because he’s involved in every play and I watched Derek Norris lead some pitchers to successful games against a pretty good-hitting ballclub that we had. Always seemed to put down the right digits.
“Like I said, they over-achieved. He’s a dangerous offensive player, got a lot of pop in his bat, draws walks, he was just a pain in the butt, really, offensively, but I liked how he handled the pitchers.