Two words for you - holy shit!!! The Pittsburgh Pirates wasted no time in their attempts to eradicate their 2012 catching woes by inking veteran backstop Russell Martin tonight. Don't be tainted by the haters who will stress over Martin's gimpy .211 BA this year. He's a proven commodity yet still south of thirty years old, a three time all-star, a gold glover, hits for reasonable average with some pop, and above all else, he maintains a respectable 30% runners caught stealing percentage for his career. As far as intangibles, Martin has vast playoff experience in comparison to the Bucs' current roster, and by extension will bring a lot of seasoning to a club that desperately needs to learn how to play through the pressure of late summer games.
Again, the haters will be all over this, but in my opinion, this move comes with little downside. Martin is clearly an appreciable upgrade at the position that has most troubled the Pirates over the past few seasons, even at his 2012 numbers. Martin was the biggest catching name still available. The ability to actually go head to head with the normal MLB price setters and lure home a quality name is something that the Bucs are not known for, and something that GM Neal Huntington should be lauded for tonight.
Here is Martin's Baseball-Reference.Com link. Again, the numbers don't lie. The Bucs signed a decent catcher tonight. Kudos.
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Admittedly, I am usually a hater. But I like this signing for one reason and one reason only....they got the best guy available.
That shows commitment to the on-the-field product.
Hats off to Huntington for this one.
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