Doumit or not

With the likely 12-man staff to start the year, there’s a roster crunch on the bench position players. Rowand would have to get traded to free up cash, in a scenario where we eat lotsa skrilla ducats ($). This wouldn’t happen with the buccos straight up for Doumit though, since it looks like they have Tabata, Cutch, and Jones/DIaz in the OF. What if PIT accepted Whitey & Ishi for Doumit & $? (Overbay deal today complicates thangs.)

I could like this deal b/c ditching Eli for Doumit would mean we would still have 3 potential OFers on the bench (Nate, DeRosa, and Doumit, in descending defensive value), while opening up a roster spot for true back-up RH SS to complement Fontenot up the middle. Doumit and DeRosa cover the corner IFs to start. Under this scenario, the 5 bench players are Nate, DeRosa, Doumit, Fontenot and I’d take O-Cab or Rent for 1.5mil. Pretty nice balance of pinch batter types, IMHO.

Once the pitching settles in and either an easy schedule stretch or injury happens, mayhaps Belt gets the call-up.

Ah?

Catching defense being as difficult to measure as it is, there is evidence that his defense is among the worst catchers in the league. His salary is $5.1m in 2011, steep for a backup/pinch hitter. Yes, he “can” play outfield and first base, but would he EVER be a better option than Burrell, Schierholtz, Rowand, Ishikawa and Belt? Because those are the candidates to lose playing time to him.

I’d say “yes” if the Pirates took half his salary, the prospect cost was close to nil, and we could be guaranteed he’d be limited to starting 30 games at C against righties and pinch hitting. The Pirates would be better off hoping he has a strong first half and someone needs a starter than shedding a couple million to a team that thinks Eli Whiteside is good at baseball.

But there is something to be said about having a viable alternative if Posey gets hurt, and it ain’t my money….

my above comments are with the caveat of extreme skepticism of Doumit not being even more horrible a defender in a part-time role, and that the buccos eat enough cash such that the the giants pay him and the since-traded Rowand the same as if Rowand was still here, poopin’ his full millions.

Sooner rather than later, the giants will need to institute an anti-burnout plan for Buster. heresy alert look what happened to SIRM’s grueled production the last 3 yrs.

forbidden doumit

I don’t see them taking on any more salary. I’m kind of surprised they resigned the guys they did to the increases that were required to make it happen.

Ideally I’d like a better backup catcher to take some of the pressure off Posey playing so many games, so I think this idea in theory. But Pittsburgh got to a point of having essentially zero faith in Doumit’s glove. And, as mentioned, the salaries would have to be worked out.