Jim Bowden is awash in the Christmas spirit
The Nationals today signed catcher Paul Lo Duca.
Of course, this means little for the Nationals chances of winning the NL East (they won’t). But it’s just more evidence that Jim Bowden loves the blogosphere and will do anything and everything within his power to make our lives easier.
Because, when you’ve already signed a guy with five children by four different women whose wife recently sought a restraining order against him, another guy who was cut from his previous team because of a drinking problem, and a third guy who wants to be a gangsta rapper and pissed off his teammates so much they hung a sign in his locker reminding him to mind his p’s and q’s, why not sign a catcher with a history of gambling debts and extra-marital affairs with 19 year-olds?
I can’t think of a single reason.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Well, there’s that idea. Then there’s the idea that Bowden acquired Lo Duca because he rated an astounding 92% in “grit”.
Lo Duca is terrible. Never liked the guy.
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December 11th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Well, I agree that Lo Duca was pretty bad as a Met. But he was pretty great when he first broke in with the Dodgers.
I mean, up until the Steroid Era, how many 35 year old catchers were all that good? Almost zero.
The real shame is that the Dodgers kept Lo Duca languishing in the minor leagues for something like 8 years, despite the fact that he never hit less than .300 at any level. I’ve always wondered what kind of career he could have had if someone had let him break into the majors at age 25 instead of age 30.
I mean, if memory serves, he was OPS’ing about 1.000 at Triple-A for *three years* before they finally gave him a shot rather than blocking him with bums like Todd Hundley.
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December 11th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I know what you’re saying. But if you look at his numbers, Lo Duca has only surpassed the mean OPS for catchers like twice in his entire career. Granted, in 2001 he had what was probably the best year of any catcher, but aside from that season, he never really was anything special.
Besides, it’s not like Hundley was THAT bad for the Dodgers when he was healthy. He had a terrible OBP in ‘99 but he made up for most of that with power. I can’t really blame LA for that.
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December 11th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
So are gambling debts and affairs listed under intangibles or VORP or what?
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December 11th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Putting aside for a moment the debate over Lo Duca’s past accomplishments, let’s all agree that the Nats paying him $5 million for 2008 is a little crazy.
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December 11th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
That, Rich, is called leadership.
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December 15th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Well, I guess we know a lot more now about how Lo Duca hit those uncharacteristic 25 home runs in 2001 than we did a few days ago when these comments were posted!
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