Thread: Notes from Rob Antony Interview with Pelissero and Souhan

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

The hard part for me is that all this likely means significantly less time for Ryan Doumit, and that would be too bad. He's a proven veteran with a track record of hitting.

Why do you think that? He'll still likely be the backup catcher for Mauer. And when he's not, they'll have a spot at him at 1b, DH or RF, depending on the alignment they want to go with. The only person that is going to push him out of the lineup is Plouffe, and that would only be against LHs, which might be appropriate.

I think my 'roster math' was off. As Rob Antony said, there are really five players fighting for two roster spots (Butera, Towles, Burroughs, Florimon and Revere). And if we assume Revere is on the roster, there are four people for one roster spot. Parmelee's a given. Means that it's the 3rd catcher or Burroughs, and if it means Doumit is in the lineup more, I'd go with the third catcher. I do like the flexibility of so many players.

I too like Doumit's veteran persence, but I don't think a reduced role for him is a terrible idea. He may be more injury prone than anyone on the team and that's saying a lot. He could fill Thome's late inning pinch hitting role well with the added bonus of being able to catch day games.

Originally Posted by Jim Crikket

I don't think that's necessarily the case, Seth.

Gardy needs a 3rd catcher as a security blanket if he's going to use a catcher, be it Mauer or Doumit, regularly as a DH to protect against the unlikely event of his starting catcher getting nicked enough to leave a game, requiring the DH to catch and thus lose his DH for the rest of the game.

But if, for example, Morneau is going to be the full time DH, while Doumit and Mauer both play defensive positions, the catcher getting dinged just requires defensive adjustments, but doesn't cost Gardy the DH for the rest of the game.

If Mauer will be more likely to play 1B when he takes a day off from behind the plate than to DH, it's really not as big a deal to go with 2 catchers.

Pretty much this. Besides, Butera was worse than the average pitcher. I dont' see the big deal of losing a DH for 1 game, when the guy you bring in won't be any better than whomever happens to be on the mound.