Sometimes guys on losing teams become scapegoats. Sometimes those same guys are simply reasons the team loses in the first place. Most recent former Cub Michael Barrett fits comfortably into the reason category.
Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry worked late into the night (on an XL pizza) to trade Barrett to the San Diego Padres and in exchange received journeyman backup catcher Rob Bowen and a minor leaguer hitting .211 in class A.
Somebody might as well start engraving Jim’s name on the Executive of the Year award right now.
By now you’ve heard the term “addition by subtraction” a few thousand times. As Michael Scott once said to Andy Bernard, “That doesn’t make any sense. You mean addition by addition.”
Fine, whatever. Barrett’s departure is a good thing for the Cubs. A year ago, before he caught a foul ball with his testicles, Barrett was a .300 hitting catcher fresh off a year when he won the Silver Slugger. He was the pride and joy of Jim Hendry’s “guys I picked off the bargain bin” collection.
Now? Now he’s just the most prominent– in what you believe will be a series of moves to un-Dusty the Cubs. If you think this move gets made without Lou Piniella standing in the Cubs dugout, you’re a dope.
Barrett epitomized what was wrong with the Dusty Baker era in Chicago. Dusty, ever the optimist when it came to his players–well, only the veterans–only saw the good in his players as a reason to excuse the bad. Neifi Perez can’t hit, can’t get on base, looks like he just ate a live turkey? That’s OK, because he can play three positions!
Michael Barrett calls a lousy game, can’t block a baseball with anything other than his manbag and gets lost on the bases in Alou-like proportions? Yeah, but the dude almost won the batting title! He only finished about 100 plate appearances and 30 points away. So close!
Piniella looked at Barrett and saw his flaws. It doesn’t make you a pessimist because these babies are big enough to drive a truck through. Barrett’s acquisition has always been a head scratcher. In 2004 the Cubs were built around a powerful lineup and great starting pitching. Sounds like the kind of team who needs a tough as nails, defense-first catcher to keep the staff in line, right? Nah. Let’s trade for a guy who was coming off a season in which he spent most of the time in the minors and hit .208 when he did play in the big leagues. A guy who’s only solid offensive season had come in a year (1999) when he played more games at third base than catcher.
Barrett never really took to catching. He learned how to put the gear on and he found a catcher’s mitt, but that was about it. Greg Maddux was so impressed by him that in Barrett’s first season with the Cubs, Greg politely asked to have Gabor Bako catch for him.
But Barrett responded by hitting. He hit 16 homers in each of this three full seasons with the Cubs, he hit at least .276 each year drove in around 60 runs and was one of the few Cubs with an actual idea what to do at the plate other than just swing really hard and hope.
That helped build Barrett a nice little fan base. Mostly teenage girls and casual fans who only knew of him what they saw WGN or Comcast put on the screen under his chest when he’d start an at bat. Solid average, decent power.
The rest of us were troubled by what he did when he wasn’t batting. The strange plays in the field like the time he tried to throw Adam Dunn out twice in the same play, or the time he threw a dropped third strike into LEFT field in Philadelphia. He picked fights with Roy Oswalt (twice in one game when one was enough), with Dave Roberts (Dave Roberts? What did Dave do, pet Barrett’s dog too hard?) and with AJ Pierzynski.
Ironically, I defended Barrett for slugging AJ. That SOB had it coming. Besides, the Cubs’ season had long since ended and I was getting tired of watching them bend over and take it.
This year, he apparently decided to use Cubs games as a gallery in which he could display the depths of his defensive inadequacies for the world to see. You saw his Cubs’ career implode forever the day before Memorial Day in Los Angeles. In the span of about three hours he misread the Dodgers’ pitching signals and tried to steal third with two outs (he was out from here to Bakersfield) and botched a rundown so completely that he put the winning run 90 feet away with nobody out. It was all so dumb, so obvious and so non-big leaguer like.
It all came to a final head that Friday against the Braves when Carlos beat the hell out of him. Carlos was in the wrong, completely, for yelling at him in the dugout in front of God and TV cameras. Carlos was in the wrong when he punched him. Piniella sent Carlos to the showers, told him to clean up and go home and cool off. Barrett, proving that Mensa membership has its privileges decided that right there, during the game, when he should be—you know, watching the game—was a good time to run down the clubhouse to try to talk some sense into Carlos.
Look, mister, there’s… two kinds of dumb… a guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, a guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don’t matter, the second one you’re kinda forced to deal with.
Piniella ended his press conference that day by yelling, “Get me somebody who can catch the ball and run the bases!”
Gee, who do we think he was referring to?
Lou has managed some very good teams in his 3,000+ game career. His 1990 World Champion Reds had the great Joe Oliver behind the plate. The 116-win Mariners had Dan Wilson. Their Cooperstown invites will get lost in the mail.
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a catcher who can hit, but you can see why he’s comfortable just having a catcher who can catch.
Catchers do a lot of stuff during games that we never see. They have to make adjustments, they have to know the hitters, they have to know their pitchers. You can’t have your dumbest guy catching.
Until this season I had very little problem with Barrett. I probably should have looking back on that long list of stunts he pulled over the last four years. Mainly, I just poked fun at how the pitchers seemed to do better with Hank White behind home plate and all that.
Then, Koyie Hill, yes that great Koyie Hill duplicated the feat. He’s nobody’s definition of a top-notch catcher. He can’t hit and never has, and defensively he’s average at best. But he looked much more competent than Barrett behind the plate.
After games the media would ask him about pitch selection and he’d talk about how he likes to hang out with the next day’s starting pitcher in the outfield during batting practice talking about the other team’s lineup and how to attack them. What a novel idea.
Koyie Hill was making Michael Barrett look bad. And Michael was making it easy.
Maybe Barrett will go to San Diego and get his season straightened out. He’s not likely to be the every day catcher, he’ll probably split time pretty evenly with Josh Bard. Maybe at his age (30 is old for most catchers) the lighter schedule will help him pick it up. He played better in Chicago after Lou started playing Koyie more.
But the Padres aren’t going to make Michael a good defensive catcher. It’s not too late for it, there was never a time for it.
The Cubs’ catching situation is up in the air. Bowen and Hill are probably going to split time. Neither has ever hit well in the big leagues (though Bowen’s numbers this year, when compared to the season Barrett had before he came to the Cubs make Bowen look like Yogi Berra). Hank is facing likely season-ending back surgery. Maybe there’s another trade in the works? I doubt it. At least not for a catcher.
Make no mistake. This trade wasn’t about Rob Bowen or the minor leaguer they got. This was about the Cubs feeling they would be a better team without Michael Barrett than with him. And nothing that’s happened so far this year makes it seem like that’s a foolish idea.
There had to be some team that would have traded us some bullpen help for him.
Bravo
Please don’t drive a truck thru us. Go two blocks over to the “loop holes.”
Oh, and Asshole Catcher? Expect some chin music next year when you come to Wrigley.
Why no love for my awesome negotiating skills?
Was it my failure to secure a reliever from a team that’s neck-deep in them? Or perhaps my lack of foresight to deal with an AL team, where ODC would have had additional trade value as a DH, which might have helped us land more than a back-up catcher and a guy who might never make it to Double-A ball?
Or maybe it was just my chocolate eclair breath?
One down… three to go?
I’ve wanted our dumbass catcher out of here since ’05. You couldn’t have been more right when you noted that Barret’s stock was higher than ever after Buck Martinez raved about him during the WBC. The world viewed him as a passionate player who could hit, but we all knew the truth. Barret played worse than ever this season but he’s made those bonehead plays his entire Cubs career. Thank god he’s finally gone, and screw Hendry for waiting until Barret fell completely out of favor with the entire baseball world in order to trade him.
Remember when Pudge wanted to come here and we didnt sign him??? All he’s done since then is catch a no-hitter and go to the world series, while we’ve………sucked exponentially each year since 2003…..Is there a link, maybe
You all will rue this day.
“Piniella ended his press conference that day by yelling, “Get me somebody who can catch the ball and run the bases!â€Â
“Gee, who do we think he was referring to?”
Gee, I have no idea? Barrett? Jock?
Hey!!! Don’t forget about me. Hendry’s fat ass was so smug after thinking about the trade that he ate a whole box of me and then watched as his belt revolted and broke.
I never, ever, ever thought I would say this… and it pains me to do so…
But you absolutely nailed it.
One down, three to go.
“Go Fuck Yourself San Diego” would make a great song.
I don’t like Barrett, but we should have gotten more for him. A ham sandwich, perhaps.
I’m not against trading him, but a bullpen arm, or at least a major-league starting player of some kind. Not another backup catcher and a useless A-Ball ‘prospect’.
Seeing as I dropped an extremely catchable fly ball during that game…I’d say Lou was also referring to me in that tirade. The fact that I got shipped to AAA not long after helps to reinforce that. Morans.
I’m still available.
is how im spelled.
#15 has never paid any attention to me.
Watch and learn Barrett….watch and learn.
Im probably 52 by now, but Jock still sends me death threats because every time they rerun the commercial I make him cry.
Its okay if the ball takes a couple hops before it gets to the plate…just make sure the hops start a little after it hits the infield.
You’re preachin to the fucken choir #18
Who was catching when Lee got plunked? Was it Bowen? Might be an “uncomfortable” clubhouse tonight.
Undirty Sanchez is right. Barret sucked all along for all the reasons that are now too obvious. At best his offense was never close to worth the rest. Has Hendry ever sold high? Anyone?
You know, “buttsex” is just a great word, isn’t it? Gets right to the point.
Does my cholesterol count #21? Its always high
Does anyone know a good place in the San Diego area where I can buy some brass knuckles?
you stay classy michale barrett. Milk was a bad choice.
Boy this fucking blows so far.
which in German, I mean, Michael Barrett is a whale’s vagina
Sorry, but this is another pathetic Hendry trade…What happened
to the old Hendry of the days of stealing good players for nothing
from teams like Pittsburg? This is pathetic …a 22O average catcher
and a 1A minor leaguer?
Punching Aj Eyechart was another incredibly dumb move – Derecles had just gotten hurt, and Barrett’s bat was needed in the lineup, not on the suspended list. One more thing that let you know Barrett was a true bonehead.
> Has Hendry ever sold high? Anyone?
Back in the day, yes.
Seconded.
Your 2007 team will end up worse than mine was; you guys blow!!
I’ll admit it. I liked the fiery guy behind the plate, but it had a lot to do with the hitting. I wasn’t super excited by the trade because I did like Barrett. After reading the well written and well thought out posting above, I was reminded of the many times I did get annoyed with Barrett. That being said, I’m not a hater and hop Barrett does well, but I hope the Cubs do better. Hopefully the yungins can develop into a nice little core for the North Siders and play together for awhile. Of course, now that we have so many youngsters playing for us, doesn’t it make the hiring of Piniella instead of Girardi look even worse?
I still work for the Cubs and will be at every game. I am the one Sh**ing out of my mouth for all the world to hear. The other guy eats that stuff up!
My name IS awesome.