If Bill Gates played baseball: catcher, rated 79

Bill Gates as a baseball player: scouting report

Bill Gates is a serious contract bridge player, and bridge is a game of signals between partners, which is exactly what a catcher and a pitcher share. He would be a catcher, putting down the signs and reading the hitter in front of him. His eye is the best mark on his card, so he would know what a batter is looking for after a single swing.

He was writing software as a teenager at Lakeside School in Seattle, and in 1975 he and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, which spent the following decades putting its software on desks around the world. That kind of systems thinking makes him a catcher who manages the whole game: pitch sequences, defensive positioning and the tempo of every inning. His contact is the second best mark on his card, so he rarely strikes out and keeps the line moving, and his fielding is solid behind the plate. While he was at Harvard he worked on a math puzzle known as pancake sorting, and the result became a published paper, so sorting through a lineup to find its weakest link would come naturally.

Power is the soft spot, so he will not hit many home runs, and his arm is below average, which means speedy runners will test him. Pair him with pitchers who hold runners well and a quick footed middle infield. Second base is his next best spot and first base is close behind, so he has some flexibility on a roster. Draft him in the middle rounds as a smart, steady catcher who hits near the top of the order and quietly makes every pitcher on the staff better.

Plays like A brainy catcher who decodes every hitter's weakness

Put Bill Gates in your lineup

12 rolls, nine hitters and a rotation, 162 games. Can you win 117? Free, no account.