Remember a few years back when Doug Mirabelli was flown in by the Red Sox to catch Tim Wakefield, after the Red Sox realized that Josh Bard couldn't catch the knuckleball?

Personally, I have always found it hard to believe that Mirabelli's defense was worth all the trouble. (See below for further discussion on "the trouble.") It's true that Josh Bard had a lot of trouble himself early that season, allowing a number of passed balls. But I really wonder if Boston wouldn't be better off training a young catcher in the off-season to handle the knuckle, rather than continuing the trot Dougy out there.

First of all, here are the worst batting averages for players with at least 400 PAs over the last 3 seasons:

  Cnt Player              **BA**    PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS  OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+---------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Mark Bellhorn        .198     661 2005 2007 30-32  222   567   71  112  31   2  16   58   88   1  207   2   0   4   7    3   0  .306  .344  .650 /4536D9   TOT-SDP-CIN
    2 Doug Mirabelli       .206     481 2005 2007 34-36  171   433   38   89  17   0  17   59   40   0  148   7   1   0   8    2   0  .283  .363  .646 *2/D      BOS-TOT
    3 Brian N. Anderson    .216     459 2005 2007 23-25  160   416   52   90  25   1  10   36   32   2  109   5   3   3   7    5   7  .279  .353  .632 *8/7D9    CHW
    4 Jason LaRue          .216     847 2005 2007 31-33  248   721   74  156  41   0  26   94   85  16  218  25  11   5  17    2   0  .318  .381  .699 *2/95     CIN-KCR
    5 John Mabry           .216     550 2005 2007 34-36  247   490   46  106  24   2  14   62   48   1  130   1   6   5  12    0   0  .285  .359  .644 /3975D    STL-CHC-COL
    6 David Newhan         .217     475 2005 2007 31-33  191   423   54   92  14   1  10   45   37   2   86   5   5   5   7   15   4  .285  .326  .611 /8795D43  BAL-NYM
    7 Tomas Perez          .220     430 2005 2006 31-32  193   400   48   88  19   0   2   38   16   2   71   2   7   5   9    2   0  .251  .283  .534 /563497   PHI-TBD
    8 Joe Borchard         .221     484 2005 2007 26-28  206   430   53   95  18   1  14   47   49   6  133   5   0   0   9    4   4  .308  .365  .673 /97D83    CHW-TOT-FLA
    9 Nick Green           .221     509 2005 2007 26-28  180   439   65   97  20   2   7   33   44   0  129  12  11   3   7    4   5  .307  .323  .630 *4/5693   TBD-TOT-SEA
   10 Scott Thorman        .222     440 2006 2007 24-25  175   415   50   92  29   0  16   50   19   3   91   3   1   2   6    2   1  .260  .407  .667 *3/7      ATL

Thank goodness for Mark Bellhorn, or maybe more people would realize that Mirabelli has given Boston absolutely NOTHING offensively.

Now, when Boston originally traded away Mirabelli, they got Mark Loretta in return. During his one year in Boston, Loretta put up .285/.345/.361, a rung below his career averages, and then he walked as a free agent. Not a bad trade considering how worthless Mirabelli is (particularly to a team with no knuckleball pitchers,) but certainly nothing to write home about.

But to get Mirabelli back, the Red Sox had to send Josh Bard and Cla Meredith (plus some cash) to the Padres.

Since, Bard has put up an OPS+ of 122 in 1.5 seasons with the Padres and he looks like a decent player. Meredith put up a 0.711 WHIP in 2006 along with an ERA+ of 380. Last year, he came back down to earth with a 1.393 WHIP and an ERA+ of 115. If he can perform somewhere in the middle in 2008, he'll be just great.

In any case, both players have more value than Mirabelli. I just cannot believe that Boston uses one of 25 roster spots on this guy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.