Ryan Doumit

2005 key stats: .255/.324/.398, 6 HR 35 RBI in 75 games/257 PAs
2006 ZiPS: .264/.327/.424, 13 HR 54 RBI in 118 games/414 PAs
Random fact: Hit by 13 pitches in 257 PAs, good for 7th in the NL

Doumit goes first based on the assumption Jim Tracy will realize he should be our every day catcher, which is a big assumption, given his (somewhat unfair) reputation as a poor defensive catcher. He's certainly going to be a much better hitter than Humberto Cota next year. My gut feeling with Doumit is that he's going to exceed the ZiPS projections by a bit if he's given a chance to play every day. He battled injuries for a lot of his minor league career, but since 2002 his lowest SLG in the minors was .434 and his lowest OBP was .343. He's similar to Craig Wilson in that he doesn't walk a ton, but he's not afraid to put himself in front of a pitch, which accomplishes the same thing.

He's a switch hitter, but played primarily against righties last year (177 ABs vs. righties compared to 54 vs. lefties) which is curious because his numbers were much better from the right side of the plate (.361 OBP/.426 SLG/.787 OPS vs. lefties compared to .313/.390/.703 vs, righties last year, though 5 of his 6 homers came against righties while batting lefty), though it could just be a small sample size. I don't have his minor league splits, but WTM's site has him as a very poor right handed hitter up until AA, which indicates that he's done a lot of work from the right side of the plate to avoid Orlando Merced syndrome.

Those are the numbers, now for the bias. I like Doumit. I like him a lot more than I like Cota, that's for sure. I thought he should've got more playing time last year (he split time with Cota until almost August, which is unacceptable given that Cota's best quality is his "magical clutchness") and I liked what I saw. Obviously his .345/.415/.630 line from AAA last year is something similar to Duke's line in the major's last year, fantastic but not realistic to happen again. Still, if he's allowed to settle in I certainly think he's capable of a .275/.345/.430 type season. The real question is whether he'll be given the chance.