Thread: The dreaded return of Butera

If you cannot hit .230 or above as a position player - NO GO!
This is not Earl Weaver's 1970's
The game of Major League Baseball cannot be inhibited by great field/no hit baseball players anymore. The game has changed. Offense needs to be tied to the fielding attributes of a position player as defense needs to be tied to an offensive player's hitting prowess, unless you are a DH. Mark Belanger is a relic of history, not an example of modern Major League Baseball.

Originally Posted by thrylos98

+1 (and not only the modern history, Ancient history as well)

and with Gardenhire's need to play him at least every 5 days when Pavano starts, you know that the team will have at least 200 futile PAs.

My cat can hit better than Butera and can work a few walks as well. Anybody but Butera.

Originally Posted by TwinsFanLV

Any criticism of the roster should be directed at Gardenhire and Ryan. Please give Butera a break!

why?
He is a terrible player I cant stand him.
He stinks
And he deserves to be constantly booed.

I'm with Mr. Bonnes, lets be real fans. WE ALL KNEW Butera was going to see Big Lg. time , at some point. Well, unless Mr. Mauer turned into IRON Man 2.0 before our eyes this April.

Plus, Butera is hitting .290 (i know SSS) But still he's the Red Wings 3rd or 4th best hitter right now.... Seriously.

He won't be worse then Burroughs.

Full strength Mauer catching 120 games plus Doumit catching 35 games plus Butera catching 7 games still equals the best catcher in baseball. Casilla is the only player in the starting lineup likely to get pinch hit for, and their will almost always be a Plouffe or a Parmalee or a Burroughs on the bench. Not worried about this at all.

Originally Posted by shs_59

I'm with Mr. Bonnes, lets be real fans. WE ALL KNEW Butera was going to see Big Lg. time , at some point. Well, unless Mr. Mauer turned into IRON Man 2.0 before our eyes this April.

Plus, Butera is hitting .290 (i know SSS) But still he's the Red Wings 3rd or 4th best hitter right now.... Seriously.

He won't be worse then Burroughs.

Butera will be much, much, much, much worse of a hitter than Burroughs. It's like comparing Toby Gardenhire to Miguel Cabrera... much worse!

Originally Posted by Han Joelo

Full strength Mauer catching 120 games plus Doumit catching 35 games plus Butera catching 7 games still equals the best catcher in baseball.

If you are going to have a player on an MLB bench to only play in 7 games, you are better with an other arm in the pen... even a horrible arm that you can use only when you are down by a lot as a mopup pitcher.

I believe we are all still living the Mike Redmond dream. For a few years we had arguably the best backup catcher in baseball and we were all spoiled. Perspective is the name of this discussion.

Can anybody guess what the numbers were for catchers last year? Let's narrow it down, go with primary backup catchers only. We are talking about the arguably worst offensive position in all of baseball. If the guy coud hit .250 while playing solid defense, he would probably be starting somewhere.

If Doumit is going to be a FT position player while seeing some time behind gthe plate, it makes sense to carry a third catcher. Considering Doumit's defensive liability, it makes sense that the 3rd cartcher be a defensive player. The overall concern would be how many at-bats this player gets.

The other part of this discussion that confuses me is the heighten passion involved. I would think that with all of the other issues the Twins currently have:
- Large number of injuries
- Liriano pitching horribly
- Starting pitching looking wretched as a whole
- Nobody in the minors to come up and adequately backfill, well, any position

The last spot on the bench does not seem like the best spot to be focusing our attention

Last year after the Twins traded Jim Thome, Gardy said having a one dimensional player on the bench really hamstrung him. I guess he just can't handle a good bench. We opened the season with one of the strongest Twins benches in years - Revere for speed and defense, Burroughs - for a professional left-handed bat who could play corner infield, Plouffe - a versatile right-handed bat who can play infield and outfield, and Hughes - another infielder with right-handed pop. I get that Revere needs to play every day and needs more seasoning and Thomas is an adequate replacement for him. But Butera for Hughes makes me want to throw up. Butera is just as one dimensional as Thome - only worse. Why would you ever use Butera to pinch hit off the bench. If Mauer or Doumit get injured during a game and you use Willingham for a few innings for one game and call up Butera for the next day it's no big deal. If MLB had a taxi squad of players available only in an extreme emergency you could carry an emergency catcher. But since they don't, leave Butera a plane ride away at Rochester.

Out of 108 major league C's to play last year, Drew Butera's avg. was tied for 93, the only C with at least 100 PA who was worse was Rene Rivera, who came in at 100. The Twins got a .160 BA out of two C's who combined for almost 360 PA's. And based on the advanced stats (RF, CERA, and CS%) Rivera outperformed Butera, albeit in a smaller time frame. Hopefully the team will not need either of them this year and Towles or Herrmann is ready to give Mauer his days off next year.

I guarantee you that even Danny Lehmann would out-perform Butera and Rivera for the Twins right now.