Yet another catcher!
JMB · November 18, 2005 at 1:25 pm · Filed Under Mariners
I can only find this in one place (scroll way down), but apparently the M’s have signed C Corky Miller as a six-year minor league free agent. Because, you know, they didn’t go through enough catchers last season.
Seriously, worse things have happened. Miller was once a decent prospect in the Reds’ org., though he’s a standard veteran minor league catcher at this point. Decent eye at the plate and some pop; he hit .229/.379/.465 at AAA Rochester last season. He’s 29 and owns a .251/.349/.433 line in just over 1,000 AAA at-bats, and his new, USSM-endorsed nickname is “Rene Rivera insurance.”
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43 Responses to “Yet another catcher!”
Abraham Phillip Miller was 13 years old when the show “Life Goes On” started. I’m sure having the nickname “Corky” made Jr. High really fun for the kid!
Geez. Did the back-up catcher burn down the clubhouse again?
I like Corky Miller. He’s like having 80% of Greg Zaun.
Five Golden Tickets have been hidden inside five catchers in professional baseball.
Does having (potentially) Johjima and a replacement-level catcher make Torrealba trade bait?
Let’s hope a signing is in the works. Better Kenji than Bengie, right?
I suppose this makes JoeJessica expendible if we score Jojima? I assume if we score Jojima, the backup guy will only play about once or twice a week?
Corky Miller, at least it isn’t Pat Borders.
Though “Ob-La-Di Ob-Li-Da life goes on”, look on the bright side it isn’t Borders. And he won’t probably see the light of Seattle unless something bad happens, very bad. Johjima should be there soon enough.
I’m sure he’ll take his rightful place in forgettable Mariner spring training lore along with Dave Stapleton, Kuis Polonia, Alex Arias, Jamey Wright, Eric Owens, Ricky Gutierrez and Benji Gil ….
But since he’s a catcher, and already signed, not just an invitee, he’ll stick around in AAA to be called up when somebody goes down.
Brian Rust, I like your thinking. Let’s run the team together.
hey, doesn’t every baseball team need a “Corky” at some point in its history?
ok. just had a sudden mental picture of Corky St. Claire joining the M’s….
#2 — Greg Zaun played in AAA Rochester as well…
#11- Zaun, never played in AAA Rochester this yr, but AA New Hampshire. He hasn’t played in Rochester since his O’s days in 96.
Let’s not forget 2005 AAA Rochester standout Jason Tyner … scrubtastic to the core.
Tyner at least played with the Twins this year. He might have a chance with Ryan and the don’t spend any money Twins to make the bench.
Still, Tyner is at best a AAA player, or a 4A player. That what I noticed watching Tyner when he played with AAA Durham at Toledo.
I’m hoping that we don’t do the JoeJessica for AFM deal that was thrown around here earlier in the week. There’s got to be something more substantial we can pry from Colorado.
Tyner makes for a good Sept. call-up designated pinch runner. You’ve gotta have guys like that in the organization.
Requires a log-in ID though…
Bug Me Not suggests:
tmogardo@mailinator.com
juvie211
If you’re so interested.
Slow news day. Well, 40-man rosters have to be finalized by tonight and that should give us something to yak about.
Hey – that means we might get a nifty pre-rule-5 post from Dave.
Corco is glad to see a Corky on the team.
Speaking of pre-Rule-“V” 😉 moves, Houston just cleared 40-man space by waiving former M’s bench hero Charles Gibson. Ooh la la!
Aw, man, there shoots my hopes of us picking up Matthew LeCroy.
#21- Don’t fret LeCroy can play first can’t he? He can back up Sexson, so maybe he can still be an option. Miller can’t be a serious option for a MLB spot. He’s more of a AAA filler player at the best these days.
They probably won’t announce his contract so that he doesn’t get R5D’d, right? That’s my guess as to why we don’t see it anywhere.
Don’t fret LeCroy can play first can’t he?
Yeah… it’s not like he can play catcher.
This is getting to be like pledge induction ceremony in Animal House – every player gets a nickname.
“Your Delta name is… JoeJessica”
“Your Delta name is… Rene Rivera insurance”
#24- Well if you want LeCroy signing him to backup Sexson might be your best option. The M’s front office doesn’t see to get the flier to get rid of Torrealba. Then they can play LeCroy at catcher.
Anyway, Sexson will DH a pretty good bit in 06, so having him to split time at 1B/C/DH won’t be a bad idea at a cheap salary. My goodness, just be glad your not the Orioles then you have Peter Angelos to wake up everyday to. At least you wake up to Bavasi, Lincoln, and Nintendo everyday which is a 1,000 times better than dealing with Peter Angelos as your owner, team’s GM, and team dictator. Be glad you don’t have this clown as owner.
John Brooks says “#11- Zaun, never played in AAA Rochester this yr, but AA New Hampshire. He hasn’t played in Rochester since his O’s days in 96.”
I certainly never said he played there this year. I said he played there. A point which you agree with…
Yea, once the cuts are announced, I’ll do a quick write-up on who we might lose. Heaverlo and Green are probably the two most likely guys who won’t be protected that could get rule 5’d, but we’ll see after the additions in a little bit.
My $ says Bohn, Huber, and someone else get purchased.
I’ll take that bet. I don’t think Huber’s on the list.
I’m more interested in who might be available, but your idea is good, too.
You don’t? I think that mainly because he got a semi-random NRI to ST last year, so the org must be a little high on him, unless their opinion has soured some.
Hunter Brown for Third!
hey, #25 — sometimes they also get nicknames like “King Felix”, though.
It could be worse, sort of like that commercial with the Mariners ‘official nickname consultant’… “But he came up with Cammy! And Nelly! And Shiggy!”
Three items from Miller’s stats. One worth noting, one interesting, one amusing:
1. He hit .347/.430/.569 in his first year at AAA. In the four years since he’s .235/.321/.411.
2. He pitched an inning at Rochester this season, gave up a HR for a 9.00 ERA.
3. He’s an HBP artist. If BaseballCube is to be believed, he took 30 for the team in 317 ABs at AA in 2000, with similar propensity throughout the minors. 11 in 244 big league at-bats. For comparison, Gritty Willie B. has taken only 2 in 666.
If I remember correctly, Corky Miller is a perennial favorite of Jason Stark. He is apparently the last MLB player to get a hit at the start in the MLB for 2 years running.
Matthew LeCroy is indeed only a catcher in the “emergency catcher” sense of the word. No reason he couldn’t be a bench guy, though, with the way he’s hit left-handed pitching.
And I was hoping they’d bring back Weaky Gonazlez.
Well, it seems that the M’s have bagged Jojima, and are trying to get Delgado via trade. My indirect source is ESPN which stands for Excellent Sports People — Not. I think Torreable becomes the back-up unless he is not happy with that which in this case makes sense why they got yet another catcher.
Apparently Jojima’s (soon to be ex-) coach (Oh-san) leaked it out indirectly by taking him off the japanese team for the World Baseball cup and saying something about him and the major leagues. Oh, isn’t this fun, just listening to “unofficial news”.
#3 Youre awesomely humorous!
Its like I always say, if you have no starting pitching, you can never have enough catchers or shortstops in your system…..
He sounds like Pat Borders minus 10 years or so, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Nothing wrong with a little depth, considering Rene Rivera might be hard pressed to pull a .850 AAA OPS next year…
I assume the M’s dumped so many scrub catchers this year that they suddenly realized that they needed to get one back.