If John F. Kennedy played baseball: catcher, rated 83

John F. Kennedy as a baseball player: scouting report

John F. Kennedy would catch. The family touch football games on the lawn at Hyannis Port were famous for their competitiveness, and the catcher is the most involved player on any diamond: crouched for every pitch, part of every play. His arm is one of the two best marks on his card, which makes him a real deterrent to base stealers. Runners who test him in the first inning will think twice by the fifth.

His eye is the other headline rating. He swam on the Harvard swim team and later won the Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage, and that mix of discipline and study shows up at the plate as a hitter who works the count and takes his walks. His contact is strong, so he will hit for a good average from the bottom half of the order. Behind the plate the fielding is solid, with the calm presence pitchers want from the person calling the game. In the Navy he swam an injured crewman to safety, towing him by a life jacket strap, and that kind of endurance is what a catcher needs through a long August.

Power is the soft spot, so do not ask him to carry the middle of the order. What makes him valuable is flexibility: his pitching grades well enough that he could take the ball as a starter, and second base works too. Pair him with a power hitting first baseman and a ground ball pitcher who lets that arm handle the rest. He is a smart middle round catcher with a starting pitcher's arm in his back pocket.

Plays like A strong armed catcher with a patient, professional approach

Put John F. Kennedy in your lineup

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