I’ve been scratching my head on this one for days. Obviously, Mike Piazza had to land somewhere but I just don’t see why it’s with the Padres. Let’s examine the facts:
The Padres lost their starting catcher (Ramon Hernandez) to free agency (Baltimore Orioles; four years/$27.5M) so they obviously had to find a replacement The Padres “prepared” for Hernandez’s departure by trading their starting second baseman (Mark Loretta) to the Red Sox for Doug Mirabelli, a player who had spent the past four years as Jason Varitek’s backup. Throw in the fact that Mirabelli, at age 35, has never had more than 230 at-bats in a season (2000, as a member of the San Francisco Giants) and has averaged 57 games behind the plate over the past four years. What I’m building up to here is that the Padres traded a starter in the infield for Doug Mirabelli – a no-stick, part-time defensive catcher. Obviously the Padres realized that this move wouldn’t work out long-term and needed to grasp at the straw most available to them. Enter Mike Piazza.
Mike Piazza was, once upon a time, the best catcher in baseball. Those days are long gone. Now 37 years old, Piazza has gone from bad defensive catcher to truly horrendous. I won’t waste time talking about how he only threw out 10 out of a possible 82 baserunners last year because obviously the Padres signed Piazza for his bat. I mean, if Mirabelli is the designated backup catcher with an all-glove, no stick resume then isn’t Piazza the other half of that equation? His last two seasons in the AVG/OBP/SLG category tell us that he’s slipped badly at the plate (.266/.362/.444 in 2004; .251/.326/.452 in 2005) when compared with lifetime averages of .311/.382/.555. To make matters worse, the Padres have one of the most extreme pitchers parks in all of baseball. Do the math and you come out with what will probably be the Padres’ undoing in 2006 – a massive black hole in the lineup at the catcher position.
I can’t see how the Padres could justify the Piazza signing, even at a bargain price of $2M for the future Hall of Famer. If Piazza is to be counted on for 100 games behind the plate, when factoring in his negative defensive presence and his diminishing offensive output, I have no idea what the Padres were thinking when they decided that Piazza/Mirabelli was more valuable than Loretta/Catcher X.
One other note – the Indians and Red Sox finalized their trade, swapping Coco Crisp (and others) for Andy Marte (and others). I personally thought this was a ridiculous trade on the part of the Indians but the trade will ultimately be judged on what, if anything, Andy Marte turns into whenever his major league career begins (2006? 2007?). The thing that really confused me was all of the ancillary maneuvering. Why did the Indians trade away, in effect, Arthur Rhodes and David Riske for Jason Michaels and Guillermo Mota? If the Indians felt that their bullpen needed tweaking, how will Mota fill in for the shortfall caused by subtracting Rhodes, Riske and Bob Howry (who signed with the Cubs as a free agent)? I like Jason Michaels – I caught a batting practice homer off his bat at Citizen’s Bank Park on May 1st, 2004 – but he’s no Coco Crisp. Anyway, I guess the Indians just decided that last year’s run was as much fun as their fans were entitled to have for the next few seasons. If there’s one thing you can count on, its parsimonious ownership in the central time zone…
The Padres lost their starting catcher (Ramon Hernandez) to free agency (Baltimore Orioles; four years/$27.5M) so they obviously had to find a replacement The Padres “prepared” for Hernandez’s departure by trading their starting second baseman (Mark Loretta) to the Red Sox for Doug Mirabelli, a player who had spent the past four years as Jason Varitek’s backup. Throw in the fact that Mirabelli, at age 35, has never had more than 230 at-bats in a season (2000, as a member of the San Francisco Giants) and has averaged 57 games behind the plate over the past four years. What I’m building up to here is that the Padres traded a starter in the infield for Doug Mirabelli – a no-stick, part-time defensive catcher. Obviously the Padres realized that this move wouldn’t work out long-term and needed to grasp at the straw most available to them. Enter Mike Piazza.
Mike Piazza was, once upon a time, the best catcher in baseball. Those days are long gone. Now 37 years old, Piazza has gone from bad defensive catcher to truly horrendous. I won’t waste time talking about how he only threw out 10 out of a possible 82 baserunners last year because obviously the Padres signed Piazza for his bat. I mean, if Mirabelli is the designated backup catcher with an all-glove, no stick resume then isn’t Piazza the other half of that equation? His last two seasons in the AVG/OBP/SLG category tell us that he’s slipped badly at the plate (.266/.362/.444 in 2004; .251/.326/.452 in 2005) when compared with lifetime averages of .311/.382/.555. To make matters worse, the Padres have one of the most extreme pitchers parks in all of baseball. Do the math and you come out with what will probably be the Padres’ undoing in 2006 – a massive black hole in the lineup at the catcher position.
I can’t see how the Padres could justify the Piazza signing, even at a bargain price of $2M for the future Hall of Famer. If Piazza is to be counted on for 100 games behind the plate, when factoring in his negative defensive presence and his diminishing offensive output, I have no idea what the Padres were thinking when they decided that Piazza/Mirabelli was more valuable than Loretta/Catcher X.
One other note – the Indians and Red Sox finalized their trade, swapping Coco Crisp (and others) for Andy Marte (and others). I personally thought this was a ridiculous trade on the part of the Indians but the trade will ultimately be judged on what, if anything, Andy Marte turns into whenever his major league career begins (2006? 2007?). The thing that really confused me was all of the ancillary maneuvering. Why did the Indians trade away, in effect, Arthur Rhodes and David Riske for Jason Michaels and Guillermo Mota? If the Indians felt that their bullpen needed tweaking, how will Mota fill in for the shortfall caused by subtracting Rhodes, Riske and Bob Howry (who signed with the Cubs as a free agent)? I like Jason Michaels – I caught a batting practice homer off his bat at Citizen’s Bank Park on May 1st, 2004 – but he’s no Coco Crisp. Anyway, I guess the Indians just decided that last year’s run was as much fun as their fans were entitled to have for the next few seasons. If there’s one thing you can count on, its parsimonious ownership in the central time zone…
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