Yesterday, during the early part of the Cubs’ pantlode of a loss to the Reds, I was in my car and so I had XM on and was listening to Marty Brenneman’s call of the game for the Reds. He talked about “the Cubs’ excellent young catcher, Michael Barrett.”

From an outsider’s perspective, it seems, that people really do seem to think that Michael is both excellent and young. Those of us who follow the Cubs, while we are by definition ‘not all there’, know that in reality, Barrett is neither of those things.

He’s not old, by any means. He’s only 29. And since he only really started catching as a vocation about six years ago, he’s even younger in catchers’ years. But he’s not “young” either. The Marlins are young. They’re the only team in baseball with a pitching coach, a hitting coach, a bullpen coach and a babysitter on staff.

He’s also not excellent.

Michael won the Silver Slugger for his hitting prowess at catcher last season in the National League. In truth, he did have a pretty solid season at the plate last year. He hit .276 with 16 homers and 61 RBI, and got on base at a .345 clip, which isn’t bad. He also struck out only 61 times and drew a respectable, though nothing to brag about 40 walks. It was a year when the few catchers in the NL who could hit got hurt: Ramon Hernandez when he was still in San Diego, Mike Piazza and Johnny Estrada.

Barrett’s profile was raised even more when Buck Martinez picked him for the World Baseball Classic. Buck proved to be overmatched by the tournament, and his logic in having Barrett catch Roger Clemens’ starts should have been an early tipoff. Buck said he assigned Michael to Roger because Michael was used to catching those big, strong, hard-throwing Cubs’ pitchers like Carlos Zambrano, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. That ignores the reality that both Zambrano and Prior were caught almost exclusively by Henry Blanco last year and that Wood has been hurt for the vast majority of the time that Barrett has been with the team. Honestly, the bullpen catcher has had more experience working with Wood than anybody else. He’s the guy who catches all of Kerry’s record breaking simulated games.

What dawned on me is that while we always hear announcers talk about players who you really start to appreciate for all they have to offer when you see them play on a daily basis. But you never hear announcers say stuff like, “Wow, I thought this guy was good. But when you see him every day, he’s a hack!”

Barrett likely hit to his offensive potential last season. .270, 16-18 homers and 60-70 RBI seem about his capability. It’s not bad. It’s also why he’s not a third baseman anymore (that and the fact he threw lots of balls into the stands probably sped up the position change process.)

What you learn when you watch him every day is that Michael has some real deficiencies behind the plate. Erratic throwing, poor pitch calling (remember the Yankee Stadium appearance where Rich Hill threw almost all fastballs?), poor decision making (famous tosses into left field twice last year, one that ended a game in Philly and one in Cincinnati where he tried to throw out a runner who had already been tagged out earlier on in the same play) and lots of time spent chasing pitched balls back toward the screen.

It was my lament for most of 2004 and 2005 that I could not understand why a team built around a dominant pitching staff had such lousy defense and such an inept catcher. But hey! Now they don’t have any dominant pitching, so what does it matter?

Now it’s easy to discount these as the rantings of the president of the Hank White Fan Club. I enjoy the absurdity of the fan club. We picked the most inept offensive player this side of Gabor Paul Bako II to root for last year and he responded with a career year at the plate. I’d love to see it happen again. I’m not exactly betting the ranch on it. So I’m not calling for 130 Hank White starts this season. I’m not asking for more playing time for Henry. Just less for Michael.
In days of yore, there were two positions where you could “punt” offense on a good team. You needed a shortstop who made all the plays and covered ground and you needed a good defensive catcher. The ball is going to be thrown at him on every defensive play all game long, it’d be nice if he could catch the ones not smacked out onto the field by the guy with the stick.

See, this is not complicated.

Now, most teams have found shortstops who can hit, at least a little bit, but the good teams all have guys who play good defense first. Of the final four in last year’s playoffs you had good-field, OK hit guys like Adam Everett, Juan Uribe, The Garden Gnome and Orlando Cabrera.

Same with the final four catchers. Brad Ausmus, The Banjo Playing Kid from Deliverance, Bengie Molina and AJ Pierzynski. OK, Pierzynski’s not exactly a defensive whiz behind the plate, mainly because he moves back there like his joints have all fused together. But even the guys on the Giants who hated his guts all said he at the very least, called a good, smart game from back there.

The Cubs went into last year with a fence post at shortstop (who immediately tore his groin in half) and Barrett behind the plate. How are you supposed to capitalize on your pitching strength (real or imagined, you make the call) when medium speed grounders are 14 hopping their way to the outfield grass unabated by any leather, and every 0-2 waste pitch with a runner on third is inevitably followed up either by an outfielder turning and sprinting to the wall, or the pitcher covering home while the catcher tries to figure out which way the ball bounced past him?

We used to sit and lament about how many 0-2 and 1-2 pitches Cubs’ pitchers got hurt on last year. Gee, you think maybe it’s because they have a very real concern that wasting one in the dirt is going to end up costing them a run? Nah. That’s crazy talk.

Here’s an idea.  If people around baseball think Barrett’s become pretty good (unfortunately, neither Marty or Buck is running a team right now) catcher, trade him!  Move him while he’s hot!  Get a starting pitcher or a right fielder not named Jock for him.  Something.

If this all seems a little harsh for a season that’s two games old, that’s probably true.  But this is his third year now.  We’ve seen this movie a few dozen times, at least.

However, if you are as big of a Mike Barrett fan as Jim Hendry is (which is why Michael’s not going anywhere), rest assured that though we’ll throw bombs at him from time to time, Michael’s not even close to being the leading candidate for 2006 whipping boy.  No sir.

Isn’t that right?

The Cubs hit three two-run homers in an 8-6 loss to the Reds.  This is encouraging.  They had men on when they hit all of their homers.  Last year it would have taken six homers to lose 8-6.

Michael says he found yesterday to be “personally frustrating.”  Join the club, chump.

John Rooney chats with Steve Rosenbloom.  He went from one meth hotbed to another moving from the south side to St. Louis.

The Bulls’ win in Philly last night moves them into the final playoff spot in the East.  A win on Saturday and they can extend that lead over the Sixers.  Who knew?

Luol Deng, one of my favorites, doesn’t worry that getting the eighth seed means a certain early ouster against Detroit.  He missed the playoffs last year and wants to see what all the fuss is about.

Groucho knows how to do a mailbag, and he gives the first definitive breakdown of just how disastrous the Eddy Curry trade could be for the Knicks.  We all know the Bulls have the Knicks’ number one pick this year, but they also have the option to swap picks with them next season and it’s not lottery protected.  They might have traded Eddy for the number one pick in not one, but two drafts.  Wow.

A Chicago team has the fourth biggest payroll in baseball.  It’s not the Cubs.  That’s misleading, of course, because the money the Phillies are sending to cover a huge hunk of Jim Thome’s deal shows up on the Sox payroll, just like how the Orioles payroll had all of the money the Cubs were sending them to pay Sammy last year.  But still.

Jim Hendry’s extension is done, they’re just waiting for the booing to stop before they announce it.  Looks like Dusty might well get one soon, too.  Guh.

Mark Prior has been practicing for his “Just Ducky Too” trial, by doing what he does best, simulating it.  He’s been working on “Mock Trial with Judge Reinhold” with music, of course, provided by William Hung and the Hung Jury.  And yes, if you didn’t watch, what we now know is the last ever, Arrested Development, you have no idea what this is about.

A company is making a Ben Wallace inflatable doll.  Jim Edmonds just ordered three.

Fantasy (of another kind, Jim) alert!  Jon Papelbon is already the new closer in Beantown.

Here’s something Adam Morrison can cry about (with pride, sweet, sweet pride).  Gonzalga’s baseball team turned identcal 3-6 triple plays in back-to-back innings.

America’s finest news source says that Detroit has been sold for scrap.