As Spring Training kicks into high gear, I’ll be previewing each of the positions on the baseball diamond and talking about how battles (or lack thereof) that are raging. Since I’m a history buff (a.k.a. a huge nerd with too much time on his hands), I’ll even present a historical battle as comparison for each.

First up, the catcher position.

Drew Butera: The Twins' version of General Beauregard. Photo by David Richard-US PRESSWIRE

Who is in Camp?

As I noted this morning, there are nine backstops in camp with the Twins. Joe Mauer, Drew Butera, and Ryan Doumit are all on the Major League roster. They are joined by a plethora of non-roster invitees, a surprising number of whom are named Danny or Daniel: Danny Rams, Daniel Rohlfing, Danny Lehmann, Rene Rivera, J.R. Towles, and Chris Herrmann.

Is there a battle?

There probably is some sort of battle, but not for the starting spot. Barring another injury or Act of God, Mauer will squat behind the plate for all nine innings against the Orioles on April 6th. Doumit would appear to be the consensus number two catcher, though manager Ron Gardenhire has stated his desire to keep Doumit in the lineup on a regular basis as the designated hitter. If there is to be a position battle, it will be fought over the number three catcher slot.

Butera is the favorite for the job. He is a first-rate defender who can throw out runners and block pitches in the dirt, and by all accounts, Twins pitchers love to work with him. But aside from his annual Father’s Day clutch performances, Butera cannot hit at all. He has a career slash line of .178/.220/.261, and for a long stretch last season, it appeared he had a chance to break the record for worst batting average in a season.

Thus, it’s easy to think that Towles and Rivera would have a chance to compete for a job. Towles was once a top prospect with the Astros, but his .187/.256/.293 career Major League line is little better than Butera’s. Rivera spent quite a bit of time with the Twins in 2011, so pitchers are familiar with him. But again, he doesn’t offer much of an alternative in terms of hitting. In 114 plate appearances last year, Rivera hit .144/.211/.202. It may not be much of an exaggeration to say that the Twins have three of the worst-hitting catchers in all of baseball on their roster!

There is a darkhorse candidate. Chris Herrmann notched an impressive .380 on-base percentage at AA last year with a modicum of power, and he improved his stock with a strong performance in the Arizona Fall League. Herrmann’s lack of experience above the AA level will probably deny him any opportunity to make the team out of Spring Training, but if he plays well he could make set himself up for a call-up during the season.

How does this battle compare?

On a scale from drunken fistfight (easy, inconsequential battle) to Stalingrad (epic, bloody struggle), I’ll rank this battle as a Fort Sumter.Fort Sumter was the first battle of the Civil War, but unlike the rest of that war it was a relatively quick affair with a minimum of casualties. Likewise, the catching battle may make a little noise, but the outcome is probably a foregone conclusion, and I doubt that the Twins will waste a lot of time  and effort on this one.

Who will win?

Just as the General Beauregard and the Confederate Army had little trouble forcing the besieged Yankee garrison to surrender Fort Sumter, Drew Butera should have little trouble keeping his Major League position.

Butera’s hitting struggles probably force the Twins to at least think about giving a different player a shot, but the other options really are not much of an improvement at the plate, and they aren’t nearly as good behind it. And while it was a severe drain on the team to have Butera in the lineup for 93 games, 20 games of Butera in the third-string role would not be a problem. Keep in mind, though, that Fort Sumter was the start of a much larger conflict. The third-string catcher battle won’t end this Spring. Herrmann or another player may become a factor later in the season.

They run the gamut from young prospects who haven’t seen AA to grizzled MLB veterans. Among them are some hard-throwing pitchers, free swinging hitters, and stout defenders. And their personal stories are just as interesting. Almost all of them are struggling with some sort of adversity, whether it is a lack of opportunity, lack of respect, or, in one case, problems with drug addiction. Quite a few of them are former Tigers, some were once drafted by the Twins, and one of them is the nephew of a reality TV star.

But the thing we really want to know about them is which ones will play for the Twins this year. Unfortunately, all of these players have one built-in disadvantage in trying to make the Majors: they are not on the 40 man roster. In order to call any of these guys up, the Twins would need to place a player on waivers or the 60 day Disabled List. Those types of transactions do happen over the course of a season, but it can be a big impediment for a non-roster player. (more…)

One Steve Pearce represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. The other is a 28 year old, right-handed hitting first baseman and outfielder who will don jersey number 39 when Spring Training starts. No disrespect to New Mexico republicans (if any are reading), but I’m going to focus the rest of this article on the latter.

Steven Wayne Pearce played college ball for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. He displayed some incredible power for South Carolina, mashing 42 homers in just 128 college games. Apparently, he also displayed an appreciation for the work of Ed Norton and Demi Moore (I know you were just itching to know who Pearce’s favorite actors were). That college resume was enough to earn quite a bit of draft interest for Pearce. The Red Sox selected him in the 10th round in 2004 (he did not sign), and the Pirates took him in the 8th round in 2005 (he did sign). But the Twins were actually the first team to draft Pearce – they selected him in the 45th round back in 2003. So, in a sense, this spring is nothing more than an extended homecoming for Pearce. (more…)