Bard Comes Back on NRI
The January Baseball Doldrums brought news that Josh Bard re-signed with the Mariners today, providing competition for Adam Moore at the back-up catcher position, or at least more competition than Chris Gimenez is likely to provide. Note also how much Bard’s comments seem to mirror those that the front office is likely to make, right down to the “at the end of the day” in the third sentence. Also that we apparently have the green light to call our new manager “Wedgie,” though I would not encourage it.
Bard only appeared in thirty-nine games with the Mariners last year, which seems off until you realize that Adam Moore and Rob Johnson caught roughly the same number of innings last year, and we also saw Eliezer Alfonzo for a while. That he was the best hitting Mariners catcher last season is equal parts enlightening and appalling. In Tacoma, however, the best hitter was Rob Johnson followed by Moore, so at least that’s moderately encouraging. Bard may see more of Tacoma this season depending on how things shake out during spring training.
Any good catchers on the horizon in the next draft, the low minors, the international market, the potential 2012 free agent class…?
The international market is hard to suss out around this time of the year. Usually things don’t start to coalesce until the spring. The draft has a few catchers that would turn up in the 10-20 range, including Blake Swihart out of New Mexico, where we run a decent scouting operation, but our hope there would be that a Greg Bird or an Andrew Susac drops to us in the second round. Even then, there’s a high bust rate at catchers in the draft and they take forever to develop, which makes neither the int’l market nor the draft especially appealing. On the free agent front, we have Yadier Molina and… a bunch of old guys. The second and third best options would be something like Kelly Shoppach and Chris Snyder.
Personally, I’m holding out hope that Ji-man Choi catches more than they say he’s going to and is awesome at it.
I wish we didn’t have to hear news like this until Spring Training. It’s really depressing. I know that the media has to report and all, but man it’s just depressing. I just have to keep reminding myself it’s a rebuilding year and that we’ve got either Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole, Matthew Purke or some other stud coming because of it.
What about the Mariners trying to acquire Max Ramirez from Texas? Wasn’t he DFA’d? Does he still have prospect status? He at the very least could provide an upgrade for our depth at the bleak C position in our organization’s farm system.
Steve Baron is improving somewhat in the minors. It’s truly a project for young catchers to re-learn everything. He improved somewhat this year but still has a long way to go. I think he is only 20 oe so though. It’s very rare for a catcher to reach the majors before he is 23 or 24.
It’s not an M’s offseason without a disappointing outlook for C, LF, or both….
This is the thing that makes me so sorry RRS is not going to be back. Aussies apply the diminutive to everything (motorcycle gang members are, seriously, called “bikies”) so you know “Wedgie” was going to slip out in an interview or a tweet or something.