Doug Mirabelli, no. 28

Because Wednesday is Prince spaghetti night (I swear it made sense in my head. Also, it turns out that his middle name is Anthony, so there you go.)

Birth Date: October 18, 1970 in Kingman, AZ

Height/Weight: 6'1", 205 lbs.

College: Wichita State University

Contract: Though not yet official, word is: he'll get $550,000 for the year.

Aww, Doug. When I apologized to you I meant only that I was wrong for implying that your job was easy. I didn't mean that all was forgiven and that you should go out and ink a new deal. We still have the problems of your general inability to hit the ball and your (at best) average defensive play to deal with.

Mirabelli's Batting Average for last season was just .202, which is getting down into pitcher territory. He had 23 hits and struck out 41 times (almost 36%). He walked 11 times. All of which led to his On Base Percentage being a minuscule .278. Aided by only 8 extra base hits (3 doubles and 5 home runs) his Slugging average topped out at only .360. His On-base Plus Slugging was, therefore, only .638.

His Fielding Percentage is slightly better than league average (.995 compared to .991). He had 194 put outs, 19 assists, 4 double plays and was charged with only 1 error. He also had 6 Passed Balls. His Range Factor this past season (6.55), however, was below the league average (7.28). It's the first time since the 2000 season that his RF9, as a catcher, has been below the league average.

I suppose the fact that defensively he's nearly a league average catcher when he catches almost exclusively for a knuckleballer is impressive. And I suppose that he is only the backup catcher and as such being league average is pretty good. Tim Wakefield likes him and I like Wakefield, so I should probably find it in my heart to be nice to Doug. It's hard though; it's much more fun to poke fun at him. He does have a sense of humor, according to Schilling.

Next season, who knows? He is 37. I wouldn't expect too much from him offensively. He might be able to pick things up if he lost some weight though. Defensively, I suppose it depends on how well Wake's shoulder holds up next season and if he can manage to keep himself healthy, as well.