Cota and Doumit

I usually don't venture to Pirates.com much, but out of extreme boredom (back at school, syllabus week, nothing at all to do) I checked out the mailbag today. Good thing I did because apparently Ryan Doumit and Humberto Cota are going to be splitting time until Doumit "emerges" as a reliable major league hitter. Quick, who had an OPS of .672 last year? Cota (Doumit- .722). Who struck out 80 times in 320PAs? Cota (Doumit struck out 48 in 257). Who got on base at a .285 clip last year? Cota (Doumit- .324). Who needs to establish himself as a major league hitter? Cota. Hell, we'd probably better off with Paulino and Doumit next year. Cota may have been "clutch" but he just isn't a very good hitter. If he takes significant ABs away from Doumit next year we're going to have a problem.

At the end of the mailbag, Ed Eagle also discusses a question that I was wondering how long it would take Pirate spin control would get to. Spin control also assures fans that Craig is going nowhere and we definitely aren't going to be trading any of these prime free agents if we get off to a slow start this year.

Now I remember why I stay away from Pirates.com.