FanHouse DougMirabelli

There was a time when the Red Sox were so convinced of Doug Mirabelli's importance that just a few months after trading him to the Padres for Mark Loretta in 2006 they determined they just couldn't live without him and traded back for him. So important was he that they flew him out first class on the day the trade went through and rushed him to the stadium in a presidential-esque motorcade to insure that he got there in time to catch to catch Tim Wakefield's magical knuckeballs (apparently, no one else in the world can catch such pitches).

So back to his post as Wakefield's catcher he went, but after hitting less than .200 in his time back with the Sox they have finally realized a specialty catcher that can't hit aint worth a roster spot. Or $750K. He was released today, a move long overdue in my humble opinion. I have a hard time seeing the value in retaining a player with only one skill -- with the exception of a lefty specialist out of the 'pen perhaps -- and Dougie Fresh clearly wasn't contributing enough to the team.

It looks like the Red Sox are planning to use 30-year-old Kevin Cash in Mirabelli's place, which actually seems a tad more ridiculous, considering he is a career .167 hitter who has never played more than 60 games in a season. I know a backup catcher is somewhat hard to come by, but are their options really so limited that they are willing to essentially sacrifice a spot in the lineup every five games? Red Sox fans, help me here. What do you think? Good move?

The Boston Globe is reporting that the Boston Red Sox are close to signing back-up catcher Doug Mirabelli to a one-year deal. To which I can only respond..."why?" If you recall, the personal catcher to Tim Wakefield arrived back at Fenway in a State Police car just minutes before he was to start a game against the Yankees in May of 2006. And that was pretty much the biggest highlight of his second tour of duty with the Sox.

Mirabelli hit just .193 in 161 at-bats in '06 and .202 in 114 at-bats last season. Not very compelling statistics to merit another season. But it has been Dougie's work behind the plate trying to tame Wake's knuckleball, not his prowess holding a bat, that has been his saving grace. But in his best offensive year in Boston (2004), he also led the league in passed balls (15) while throwing out just eight of the 46 attempted steals, a not-so-blistering 17%.

When you consider Wakefield's age, his injury last season, and the strength of the arms in Boston's farm system, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to keep Mirabelli around. Throw in the fact that Varitek is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth for an everyday catcher - meaning the back-up might see more than every fifth-day duty - and it makes less sense. Is it really so important to block a few errant knucklers that it is worth putting an almost guaranteed out in the batting order? I think not.

The Red Sox will likely explore options going forward and the Mirabelli signing may just be an insurance policy. The free agent market for catchers is pretty weak, however. And even with the depth of the Red Sox minor league teams, a suitable back-up catcher isn't in the mix. Get used to Doug, Boston, at least every five days.

Maybe the Orioles should consider broadcasting their games on television sans the broadcast booth because it seems that all their current broadcasters do is cause trouble.

First there was the incident in which play-by-play man Gary Thorne said that Doug Mirabelli told him Curt Schilling's bloody sock was just red paint--and it's not like Curt Schilling would ever say anything untrue--and now Rick Dempsey is in trouble for cracking wise about domestic violence during the Orioles loss to the Indians on Tuesday.

Dempsey isn't normally in the booth, but I guess Jim Palmer had a couple of underwear ads to shoot so he filled in on Tuesday. In the third inning, Thorne and Dempsey were joined by Jay Gibbon's wife Laura Giuliani.

Laura was in the booth to promote some charity work she's doing to help fight domestic violence. Well, with Gibbons struggling through a season long slump, Dempsey thought he'd come up with a good way to get him out of it.

His wife should choke him.

"Laura, will this kind of help Jay in the domestic violence area? If he doesn't start getting a few more hits, you might grab him around the neck and rough him up a little bit," Dempsey said, according to The Baltimore Sun. "[Is] this money going to go to help him a little bit with maybe some of the hospital bills or something like that?"

To that, Giuliani replied, "I don't know, Rick. I don't think I'm encouraging that. I'm definitely not ..."

"Not going there?" Dempsey interjected.

"Not going there," Giuliani replied.

"All right, I'll domestically violate him if he doesn't start getting some more hits," Dempsey said, according to The Sun.

Video of the exchange can be seen at Can't Stop The Bleeding.

Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne claims Doug Mirabelli told him Curt Schilling had paint on his sock during the 2004 World Series, not blood. Mirabelli responded by calling Gary Thorne a big fat lying lier, saying he doesn't even know the guy, let alone confided in him. Schilling was saddened by the accusation, Terry Francona was incensed and GM Theo Epstein was surprised.

But what about the actual surgeon who put the sutures into Schilling's ankle? Extra Bases, the Boston Globe's Red Sox blog, talked to Dr. Bill Morgan about the controversy this morning:

"C'mon," Morgan said today from the Fallon Clinic in Worcester, "we all know what the reality is. I don't know where that comes from.

"I drilled a whole bunch of holes in the guy's ankle when we put the sutures in, we put a dressing on them, and the blood soaked through the dressing. The sock is like a sponge. It doesn't take a whole lot of blood, but there's like a capillary effect.'' ...

"Anyone who's ever had stitches knows there's going to be oozing from the wound. I put a bunch of stitches in the guy, and then he had to go out there and pitch at a professional level. The sutures were tugging at the skin, it opened up a little bit. The thing expanded right before our eyes.''

Did how much did it tug open? At the risk of losing your lunch, see for yourself.

Personally, I can't see why anyone associated with the Red Sox would have stooped so low as to try fooling an entire nation with a dab of red paint. This was Game 6 of the ALCS, a do or die situation with the entire season on the brink. There was no shortage of drama attached to this game, and reaching for manufactured theatrics would have been a distraction as much as anything else. Unless more people corroborate the accusation, I'm not buying it.

Previously on FanHouse:
Gary Thorne Claims Schilling's 'Bloody Sock' Was a Hoax

You know your reputation as a slacker is firmly entrenched when your own teammates are surprised you showed up to camp on time.

Manny Ramirez, everyone's favorite loopy slugger, shocked the world today by showing up to training camp on time less late than he already was and ready to play baseball. Who'dathunkit?

"What's going on here?" catcher Doug Mirabelli said when he saw 15 reporters clustered near Ramirez's locker. Then, Mirabelli saw Ramirez and said, "whoa!"

Reliever Julian Tavarez, one of Ramirez's closest friends on the team, saw his hairdo - black braids with a few red ones mixed in. Tavarez yelled across the room to assistant equipment manager Edward "Pookie" Jackson.

"Pookie, Manny doesn't have running shoes and he doesn't have spikes either. Can you help him out?" Tavarez said, "and get him $10 so he can pay for his haircut."

He wasn't actually on time; Boston has already had four full workouts dating back to last week. But Manny arrived three days earlier than he was supposed to and a day earlier than the Tuesday cutoff day, after which teams can punish their players for absenteeism under the collective bargaining agreement. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein said he wasn't going to do that anyway: he gave Manny a free pass because the slugger's mother was sick.

Of course, Manny didn't exactly seem to be stuck bedside all week, either. Maybe he got a new car, managed not to blow out the transition, and decided to give it a whirl over to baseball practice today. Stranger things have happened.