On the eve of a potentially make-or-break Steelers-Ravens game, rife with story lines, the Pirates stole the headlines, at least for a few hours. That's not the biggest coup in this story, though.
It's a far too familiar story in Major League Baseball. All-star player available on the free agent market. His current team apparently just doesn't have the money to make an adequate offer. An opposing team swoops in, offers a chunk of cash, and snags the guy away. Only this time it was the Pirates taking the player away from the Yankees!
Former gold glove, all-star catcher Russell Martin, signs a two year, 17 million dollar deal with the Bucs! Cheers Neil Huntington! Well done. Hmmm I may be reconsidering my adamant stance against re-upping my season ticket package. Martin has worked with McDonald and Burnett before. By one man's measure, he was the second best catcher in the league at framing pitches from 2007-2011. That is an invaluable skill! At 30 years old, he's in his prime. This move leaves Michael McKenry in the role he is best suited for, back-up catcher, rather than one he is far less qualified to play -- platoon catcher (or even, god forbid, a starter, yikes), which is also great news.
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| nice 'stache dude |
I've collected a few other interesting articles:
Oh, and check this out. Here's a list of available free agent catchers and their age. Martin is younger than all of them. Napoli can hit but isn't really a catcher. Normally I would expect the Pirates to go for, oh I don't know, the Kelly Shoppach's of this list. In fact, this entire list -- except for Napoli -- is exactly the kind of guy that the Pirates would normally get in this situation. Hell, there actually are 3 former Pirates on this list!
- Rod Barajas (37)
- Henry Blanco (41)
- Mike Napoli (31)
- Miguel Olivo (34)
- Ronny Paulino (32)
- A.J. Pierzynski (36)
- Brian Schneider (36)
- Kelly Shoppach (33)
- Chris Snyder (32)
- Yorvit Torrealba (34)
- Matt Treanor
