Player: Gary Bennett
2008 Stats: .190, one homerun, four RBIs
2008 Analysis: Bennett had a bit of an odd year. He had one excellent game offensively, coming May 15th against Milwaukee when he collected his one homerun and all four of his RBIs for the year. The rest of his year, though, was noted by his inability to throw the ball directly back to the pitcher. He was placed on the 15-day DL on May 21st with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. I have no idea what that is, but it must have been bad, because Bennett was not seen from during the rest of the year.
2009 Outlook: The Dodgers had a $900,000 club option on Bennett for the 2009 season, with a $50,000 buyout, which the Dodgers have exercised to make Bennett a free agent. I definitely think Danny Ardoin would be a much cheaper alternative, and one who would probably put up better numbers anyway. I don't doubt that Bennett will be able to find a job with another team, but I don't think it'll be with the Dodgers.
In my last post, I covered starting catcher Russell Martin. In these next posts, I'll cover everyone else who played catcher this year.
Player: Danny Ardoin
2008 Stats: .235, one homerun, four RBIs
2008 Analysis: After starting the season in the minor leagues, Ardoin came up to replace an injured Gary Bennett and did an adequate job. He didn't hit that well, but he was better than Bennett. He also provided adequate defense, though again, he was better than Bennett. Still, I start to wonder what it is that we really require from a backup catcher. What kind of stats we would have to get from a backup catcher that would make me want to have him back the next year?
2009 Outlook: If Ardoin can be brought back for cheap (and I mean cheap), then he wouldn't be a bad option as a back up catcher. Ideally though, I would like to get a better hitting catcher so that we could give Russell Martin more days off without having to worry about a black hole of offense coming from the #8 spot.
2008 Analysis: Bennett had a bit of an odd year. He had one excellent game offensively, coming May 15th against Milwaukee when he collected his one homerun and all four of his RBIs for the year. The rest of his year, though, was noted by his inability to throw the ball directly back to the pitcher. He was placed on the 15-day DL on May 21st with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. I have no idea what that is, but it must have been bad, because Bennett was not seen from during the rest of the year.
