A Look Ahead At Ryan Doumit in 2012

I don’t think he is going to allow Butera to occupy a roster spot this year considering how excrable he is. At least I hope not.

If Mauer finds the Fountain Of Health next year, I’m not worried about Doumit’s defense. If he doesn’t, I’m not worried about Doumit’s defense, ‘cuz the team will stink anyway and it’ll give us all something to laugh at if he’s as bad as advertised. If Butera makes the Opening Day roster you’ll know not to buy tickets for this year.

I don’t think he’s bad at catcher. He’s better than Morales or LeCroy. He at least has a strong arm. I’d put him in Mike Redmond’s class—plenty good as a backup. He might have more WPs than Reddog, but he’ll also hit the ball a lot harder. So that balances out.

It’s almost impossible to carry three catchers and twelve pitchers, unless you rotate the DH among several position players. As much as Gardy might want that, I expect Ryan to put his foot down. All he has to do is bring up Corky Miller and Gardy will roll a gutter ball, go back to his office, and cut Drew. Or, Ryan could just trade Drew to take the possibility away from the manager.

He is a defensive liability wherever he plays, so he needs to hit. An OPS of .800 would be more than acceptable. I don’t believe any regular left on the squad OPSed .800. As far as position played, it all goes back to Mauer. If Joe is catching 130 games, subbing in Doumit for the remaining 32 shouldn’t be too detrimental. As far as using both catchers in the lineup, it is a lot better if neither of them is the DH. For example, Doumit behind the plate, Mauer at first and Morneau the DH. Either Mauer or Morneau may force this on the club if a) Mauer can’t be a regular catcher and effective hitter or b) Morneau can’t play in the field because of concussion fears.

Ryan Doumit will suffer from Bilateral Leg Weakness next season.

I have watched DAMN close to the full 162 game slate of Bucs game over each of the last couple seasons. I watched a really healthy chunk of their “efforts” in 2009 as well.

Doumer is painful to watch in the field. One fine June weekend in 2010 they stuck him at first base against the Tigers. I wish I could figure out how to find the game threads from bucsdugout for those games: people were just crawling up inside themselves to die; it was THAT awful watching him hemorrhage runs.

On the occasions they stuck him in right his play was, predictably, not strong. Not strong at all. Cuddyer runs around better out there, and coming from me that’s a not-nice thing to say. He also pulled something playing there several seasons ago. Because he does that sort of thing.

But really, you don’t want a guy likely to post 105 wRC+ manning first base and right field overmuch, right? Especially not without even average defensive skills. They got him because Butters sucks and the ballclub REALLY needed a “proven closer” back when, so here we are, right?

But his catching is pretty much an atrocity. Folks over at bucsdugout mostly agreed he looked slightly better last year (when healthy) than he had in years past, which meant he was merely really freaking bad instead of flat-out incompetent. He has a strong arm, but he has a terrible hitch in his release that makes the arm strength moot much of the time. By the time the ball leaves his hand fast dude’s are already into their slide. (Well, it seems that way, anyway.) His receiving skills, if you focus on them closely enough and care enough about the team he’s playing on (as I have for the Bucs) will lead you to long periods of deep melancholy and hopelessness. Stab. Stab. Head dip. Gee, another called ball on a Pitch F/X strike. Repeat.

He came in last in the latest sabr-y study on pitch framing that’s been all the buzz this fall. He came in last in several earlier sabr-y studies on pitch framing that didn’t get such a buzz (then or now). He sucks, and all the evidence is suggesting this is a really, really important skill.

Don’t get me wrong: he’s one of my absolute favorite baseball players on a certain level. He walks up to Danzig’s Mother, ferchrissake. (I am curious to see whether this flies in Target Field.) He looks kinda bad ass, but not like a douchey bad ass.

Actually, he looks like a prototypical “tough guy”. Lantern jaw n’at (as they say in the ‘burgh). But he isn’t. He finds ways to break. ALL. THE. TIME.

Don’t get me wrong, as a $3 million DH v. RHP this is a fine move and lets them dump Kubel without crying too much. But if they expect him to be anything but a major defensive liability as a backup catcher they’re badly mistaken. (Please do not read this as an endorsement of Drew Butera’s job as a major league baseball player.) And his bat becomes comfortably below average when he hits right handed, so he really has no business playing, period, when a southpaw is starting.

I’ve also seen Butera “hit”.

The thing: this is the lowest bar imaginable.