2011 Position Preview: Catcher

Although he didn't hit at all after joining the Pirates last season, Chris Snyder either showed enough on defense to keep the job, or there was just no one else to take the job. Either way, Snyder returns this year with a chance at a full season as the starter.

He may not be interesting, but I think Snyder is one of the most important hitters in the lineup. It's important for a National League lineup to go seven deep, and I'm not expecting anything from Ronny Cedeno. If Snyder can match the numbers he put up in his better seasons, he'll be a major benefit to the offense.

2008: 115 games, .237/.348/.452, 47 Runs, 16 HR, 64 RBI
2009: 61 games, .200/.333/.352, 20 Runs, 6 HR, 22 RBI
2010: 105 games, .207/.320/.376, 34 Runs, 15 HR, 48 RBI

After compiling numbers of .251/.346/.438 from 2006-08, great for a catcher, Snyder's offense has completely fallen off for the past two seasons. He's set to earn $5.75 million and is only 30, so the Pirates have little choice but to play him and hope he regains his earlier form at the plate. Snyder's defense has always been major league average, which was a revelation in Pittsburgh.

The silver lining offensively is Snyder's walk rate. He's walked in between 14 and 16 percent of his plate appearances since 2008, which is huge for a player who hits for a low average. Snyder is a reliable 15 home run hitter with regular playing time, so he won't hurt the offense much if he continues to be selective at the plate. I'm counting on 400 at bats and a line of .220/.340/.380 with 40 runs, 15 homers, 55 RBI, and an eighth consecutive year of zero steals.

Backup: Ryan Doumit
The Opening Day catcher for the past three years, Ryan Doumit enters 2011 as a backup who is also on the trading block. Despite Doumit's above average offense for his position, the Pirates have yet to find a taker for his $5.1 million contract. So Doumit will open 2011 as the Pirates' backup catcher and top pinch hitter.

2008: 116 games, .318/.357/.501, 71 Runs, 15 HR, 69 RBI, 2 SB
2009: 75 games, .250/.299/.414, 31 Runs, 10 HR, 38 RBI, 4 SB
2010: 124 games, .251/.331/.406, 42 runs, 13 HR, 45 RBI, 1 SB

A lot has been made of the idea that Doumit should be a designated hitter, but he's really not a good enough hitter to do that. He's a good enough hitter to be the best hitting backup catcher in baseball. He's also a defensive liability, but what backup catcher is perfect? I'm fine with keeping him for 2011 if no team wants his contract.

Doumit should get only about 250 at bats in his initial role, catching twice a week and pinch hitting. However, as it did late in 2010, his playing time could increase into a 50/50 timeshare if Snyder doesn't hit. In either event, I think he'll benefit at the plate by not catching every day. I expect Doumit to hit .260/.330/.440 with 30 runs, 10 homers, 40 RBI and three steals.

Ryan Doumit's 2011 Status

I recently wrote about the likelihood that Zach Duke would not be tendered a contract this offseason. There are also many question marks surrounding whether the only other Pirate who dates back to 2005, Ryan Doumit, will return in 2011.

He has been something of a lightning rod for criticism, with some arguing that his on deck song (Danzig's "Mother") should have been changed like four years ago, while others argue that Doumit is ahead of his time, a portent of a future generation in which every player comes to bat to the tune of a different Danzig song. Doumit is signed through 2011 and is owed another $5.6 million in guaranteed money after this year. He has $15.5 million in club options for 2012 and 2013 which are as likely to be exercised as Ryan Doumit is to button his shirt.

That contract, of course, is the product of signing at the right time. Doumit inked the deal after a 2008 which saw him hit .318/.357/.501 while throwing out a respectable 27% of baserunners. Since then, Doumit has been alternately injured and slumping. He has struggled on balls in the dirt and with throwing out runners.

The Pirates brought in Chris Snyder at the trade deadline to be the everyday catcher and announced that Doumit would play some right field and back up Snyder at catcher.

Today's story in the Post-Gazette indicates that Doumit has done better in that role since the trade. That's partially true, but he's still only hit .248/.352/.438 in that time. Those numbers are fine for a backup catcher, but not at over $5 million for one year. And they're inadequate for a right fielder who is both slow and a poor defender.

I think the best move is to trade Doumit and eat some of his contract if necessary. If no trade is available, Fangraphs projects Doumit as a .267/.353/.433 hitter going forward which is fine for any bench player. And as a final positive, the Pirates will have Tony Sanchez starting at the major league level in 2012.

Catcher Snyder Acquired

As speculated here earlier, the Pirates acquired catcher Chris Snyder from the Diamondbacks. He'll immediately become the starting catcher for the MLB team.

Snyder is hitting .231/.352/.426 this year; .233/.335/.402 career. He's an average defensive catcher at the MLB level which is a lot more than can be said for Ryan Doumit. Doumit is also hitting worse than Snyder at .258/.329/.412 and is perennially on the disabled list including right now. Snyder is signed through next year with a pricey option for 2012 that probably won't be picked up.Going to Pittsburgh are D.J. Carrasco, Bobby Crosby and Ryan Church. As you well know, Carrasco is the only useful piece out of that bunch. He's gone 2-2 with a 3.88 ERA in 45 games. Crosby hit only .224/.301/.295 and was a minor disaster at all four infield positions. Church hit .182/.240/.312 this year and frankly it's shocking that any major league team would want him.

This is a great move which upgrades the Pirates in 2010 and for the upcoming championship season of 2011. Snyder will never hit for a great average but has walked in 16% of his plate appearances over the last two years, meaning he gets on base at an above average rate for any player let alone a catcher. He also has 20 home run power although he's never been a starter for a full season. Starting Snyder over Doumit clearly is a major upgrade to the defense as well. Doumit's lack of prowess at catching balls in the dirt made the late innitngs a real adventure. With a competent backstop, pitchers are able to confidently rely on their full arsenal including low breaking balls with men on base.

The Pirates apparently will convert Doumit into an outfielder/first baseman. Hasn't this been tried before? Expect problems at any position Doumit plays.

The Diamondbacks threw in Pedro Ciriaco, an AAA infielder who plays good defense and can't hit. He's 24 and hitting .259/.278/.392 in the Pacific Coast League. I'm not sure what role he plays in the organization other than minor league filler.

Trade Possibilities: Ryan Doumit

PITTSBURGH, Pa. / June 16, 2010

I know, I know, I claimed the Pirates would win the World Series this year. I'm not giving up just yet, but it's a fact that the team's record is 23-41 and they're behind, well, every team in the National League in the playoff race. This being Pittsburgh, it's looking likely that once again the Pirates will be sellers at the trade deadline.

I expect nothing close to the carnage of 2009, when Adam LaRoche, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Nyjer Morgan, Nate McLouth, Eric Hinske, Ian Snell and Sean Burnett all left Pittsburgh via trade. Nevertheless, the Pirates will no doubt be listening to offers for several players on their roster. In the coming days I'll take a look at the players who could be on the way out.

Why Trade Ryan Doumit?
As the old maxim goes, any player with a bobblehead is likely to get traded by the Pirates. Ryan Doumit falls into this category.

Of all the Pittsburgh position players who can actually hit, Doumit is the only one who's not here on a cheap contract with many years of club control remaining. He's hitting .273/.351/.444 which are numbers good enough to draw interest in a trade.

One reason to potentially trade Doumit is that as a below average defender, he has more value to an American League team. He's cost the Pirates more than a few runs this year with his defense. But in the AL, Doumit could DH every day and also serve as a backup catcher to whatever team traded for him. Many AL teams are using crap at DH and almost all are using crap at the backup catcher spot. Doumit would fill both roles with one roster spot.

It's also not beyond the realm of possibility that another team would trade for Doumit in order for him to be their starting catcher. Sure, he's been bad on balls in the dirt and at throwing out baserunners. However, some teams just value offense more highly than defense as an organizational philosophy. Washington comes to mind. Also, no general manager has seen every game Doumit has caught this season. You would have to watch the team quite a bit to realize just how bad he's been behind the plate.

With Tony Sanchez as their catcher of the future, the Pirates may want to trade Doumit while he's hitting and healthy. He's spent time on the disabled list every year of his career except for 2010.

Doumit is making $3.55 million this year, $5.1 million in 2011 and has club options for $7.25 million in 2012 and $8.25 million in 2013. That's a big contract for a Pirate but many large market teams easily could pay it.

What would the Pirates get?
Victor Martinez is an apt comparison. Martinez was traded last year from the Indians to the Red Sox. Like Doumit he's a good hitting catcher with a below average defensive reputation. At the time of his 2009 trade Martinez was hitting .284/.368/.464, comparable to Doumit's 2010 numbers, and like Doumit is now, V-Mart was coming off a year when he hit poorly and lost half the season to injury. Victor also had a year and a half left on his contract.

For Martinez the Indians got three pitchers. Justin Masterson headed the deal. Masterson was a 24-year-old righthanded starter with a 3.76 career ERA and 7.6 K/9 at the time of the trade. Not bad numbers in the AL East. 22-year-old lefthander Bryan Price, who was the #45 overall draft pick in '08 but had a 6.54 ERA for Boston's high Class A affiliate, nevertheless strikes out a lot of minor league hitters and was a legitimate prospect at the time of the trade. Nick Hagadone, the $55 overall pick in 2007, like Price was striking out more than a batter an inning at Class A. Yet he was also a 23-year-old low Class A reliever with no command.

Of course, Ryan Doumit would probably yield less than Martinez because his career just hasn't been as good. But he's not light years behind either. A Masterson-type pitcher might get a deal done without the two other pitchers.

Who Would Want Doumit?
I see three contending teams that would greatly improve by adding Doumit, along with a fourth that could be contending if they get on a hot streak. More teams could enter the picture with injuries, which are of course common at the catcher position.

1. The Tampa Bay Rays have the third best offense in the American League but has been getting poor production from their DH spot all year. With Pat Burrell released, Hank Blalock (.250/.291/.356) and Willy Aybar (.248/.273/.400) have been splitting time. Doumit would represent a clear upgrade over both. One problem with this destination is that Tampa is one of a few major league teams that actually has two good catchers, John Jaso and Kelly Shoppach.

2. The first place Texas Rangers have been using Matt Treanor as their starting catcher. The 34-year-old backstop is hitting .218/.303/.371, showing why he's never previously been a starter in his career. Texas has Taylor Teagarden and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both hitting poorly in the minors. Doumit would help their lineup quite a bit. However, Doumit wouldn't be able to DH at all in Texas with Vladimir Guerrero raking at the position.

3. The Chicago White Sox have been getting awful production from both the catcher and DH spots. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski (.236/.277/.372) should at a minimum be sitting against lefthanders. The White Sox have used various players at DH with Mark Kotsay (.202/.299/.364) the most common choice. Doumit would greatly upgrade the Sox lineup at either spot. The problem here is that it's unclear whether the 29-34 Sox will be buying or selling at the deadline. Pierzynski also has ten-and-five rights meaning he can't be traded without his approval.

4. Finally, the San Francisco Giants, in contention in the NL West on the strength of their pitching, have Bengie Molina as their starter hitting .256/.312/.337. The Giants could decide Molina is washed up at 35. I think this is a long shot because he drove in over 81, 95 and 80 runs for them the past three seasons with 19, 16 and 20 home runs.

The Verdict
Keep him. Unless the trade netted a major league catcher in return, losing Doumit would leave an immediate hole the Pirates are unable to fill. Jason Jaramillo is hitting .172/.246/.259 this year.

Perhaps the 2010 impact is irrelevant, but a Doumit trade would arguably constitute giving up on 2011 as well. Tony Sanchez is a great prospect, the best prospect the Pirates have who's still in the minors, but he's also playing at Bradenton. There's no way he'll be playing in Pittsburgh next year. Yet he probably will be in 2012. Trading Doumit would thus create a need for a catcher who is signed through 2011 only, which is exactly what Doumit himself is. No above average hitter would come here on a one year contract in 2011, so it's Doumit or some garbage free agent.

In his first five years Doumit threw out between 22 and 40% of baserunners, league average numbers. Thus this year's caught stealing numbers look like an aberration. More concerning is his poor performance in catching breaking pitches in the dirt, but with no other viable options that it something the Pirates have to live with (while working with Doumit on eliminating the problem).

Sanchez could progress to the point where by mid-2011 he represents an immediate upgrade to Doumit. If that happens, the time to deal Doumit will have come. It hasn't yet.

Pirates Revamp Their Lineup

PITTSBURGH, Pa. / June 11, 2010

As Pirate fans well know, the Pittsburgh offense has been a minor disaster this year. How bad is it? With 196 runs in 60 games, the hometown nine are scoring fewer runs per game than any Pirates team since the 1917 Pirates, a dead ball era team which collectively hit 9 home runs all year.

They're also a pace to score 100 fewer runs than last year's team, a team which itself finished 30th in baseball in runs.

Given all this, it was painfully necessary to start promoting hitting prospects.

Neil Walker (.321/.392/.560 at Indianapolis) was the first to come up and is now the everyday second baseman. In 15 games he's hitting .322/.365/.492 which actually makes him the best hitter in the Buccos lineup thus far, slightly ahead of even Andrew McCutchen.

Tabata Added
The other shoe dropped Wednesday. Jeff Clement and his .230 OBP was finally optioned to Indianapolis. He'll turn 27 in two months, and still looks like an AAA player. I think Clement's knees robbed him of a shot to stick in the majors, since he probably has enough pop to be a backup catcher but nothing else. With the move to first, he looks like an AAA lifer.

In exchange, the Pirates promoted Jose Tabata, .308/.373/.424 at Indianapolis. Tabata immediately becomes the everyday left fielder and leadoff hitter. Tabata is a wild card; his Indianapolis numbers were the same as McCutchen's 2008, but there are questions about his age among other things. I'd say his most comparable player is Nyjer Morgan, meaning that he should really be a starting center fielder or fourth outfielder. But despite his lack of pop, he should at a minimum tie Lastings Milledge's year to date total of zero home runs. I for one had grown tired of Milledge taking bad routes to balls in the outfield and making dumb outs on the bases.

Doumit to first
Ryan Doumit started at first base last night for the first time since 2007. Unlike Jim Tracy, current management actually had Doumit, you know, work out at first base before putting him there in a game. Mad props. Of course, first base proved to be yet another position where Doumit can mishandle a ball in the dirt leading to a run. It's unclear whether he will start at first regularly or only on his off days from catching, but I'd expect a 50/50 split as the Pirates try to build his trade value up. Regardless, this means Doumit will be in the lineup every day which obviously helps the offense.

Wherefore art thou Pedro?
The Pirates have one move left, which is to promote Pedro Alvarez. Pedro is on an absolute tear, 13-for-24 in his last seven games including six extra base hits in that span. His stats are up to .291/.380/.552, basically the same numbers that merited promoting Walker. He's also scored 40 runs and driven in 50 over 61 games and has a good walk rate.

Pedro is still striking out once a game on average but is producing about as much as a player possibly can while doing it. His K rate is still my main remaining question; if like most players he strikes out more in the major leagues, we're talking 180 strikeouts a year. The lefthander has answered questions about his platoon splits this year, hitting an absurd .320/.420/.683 against southpaws.

Current third baseman Andy LaRoche had a decent 2009 but is hitting .240/.306/.329 this season. Is that an off year or his true talent level? Consider that he's also hitting .231/.313/.349 career. Since May 5 he's driven in five runs. It's Alvarez time.

Your 2011 Pirates
Here's the lineup I think you'll see starting this coming homestand, and continuing for the rest of the season barring trades. And for that matter, in 2011 except that we might get a semi-real shortstop.

1. Tabata
2. Walker
3. McCutchen
4. Jones
5. Doumit
6. Alvarez
7. Jaramillo, Milledge or Church
8. Cedeno
9. Pitcher

Looks like a legitimate major league lineup! Wooooooo and GO BUCS!

Our Imperfect Catcher

PITTSBURGH, Pa. / May 24, 2010

In just two games this weekend, we saw a microcosm of Ryan Doumit's career, both the good and the bad.

Saturday, Doumit came on as a pinch hitter and caught just one inning. During that innning he mishandled a two-out third strike with the bases loaded, allowing the Braves to score a key insurance run in their 4-2 victory. Then yesterday he redeemed himself with a walk-off home run in the 10th off of Takashi Saito, capping a 3-for-5 day.

Ryan is now hitting .286/.371/.459 on the season and appears to be on track to repeat his 2008 career year, when he hit .318/.357/.501 with 71 runs scored, 15 home runs and 69 RBI. His biggest pre-2010 offensive shortcoming was plate discipline, but he's managed a career-best 9.3% walk rate.

He's also showed a flair for the dramatic with each of his four home runs. In addition to Sunday's walk-off he hit a majestic three run shot in front of the sellout Opening Day crowd, a game-winning grand slam in the top of the ninth April 27 against Trevor Hoffman, and a pinch-hit, game-tying solo shot in the ninth inning the very next day.

Unfortunately, while Doumit has been one of the top hitting catchers in the league, he's been one of its worst defensively. He's thrown out only three of 37 opposing baserunners (8%). He's also struggled noticeably on balls in the dirt, allowing 15 wild pitches and leading the league with four passed balls.

With a better hitting club, the Pirates might be able to go with Jason Jaramillo behind the plate more often. Jaramillo is clearly the better receiver of the two but hits more like a typical backup catcher (.251/.306/.364 career). However, Doumit is an asset to this team as currently constructed. He and Andrew McCutchen are the only two hitters providing above average offense for their positions. Considering the number of good outfielders in the league, if Doumit keeps hitting he has a better than 50/50 chance to be the Pirates' All-Star representative - even if he's removed for a defensive replacement before he can catch the World Series clinching pitch.