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A New Maddux Caddy
2004-12-07 22:43
by alex ciepley

You take the good, you take the bad

You take 'em both and there you have

The facts of life, the facts of life
Correctly thinking that one more year of Paul Bako might be one year too many, the Cubs decided to forego offering him a contract. In a strange twist, though, they chose once again to get a backup catcher who can't hit. Digging down to a lower level of Hell, the Cubs unearthed Henry Blanco and signed him to a two-year, $2.7M contract.

Blanco is a pretty awful hitter, and he's not even left-handed, which you could at least pretend was a plus for Bako.

        AVG    OBP    SLG
1999   .232   .320   .369
2000   .236   .318   .394
2001   .210   .290   .344
2002   .204   .267   .335
2003   .199   .252   .272
2004   .206   .260   .368
Hmm, maybe Blanco was added just to give Neifi! and Macias a run for next year's Suck Award.

To be fair, by all accounts Blanco is a genuinely talented defensive catcher, though he wasn't as effective at throwing out runners last year as he has been throughout his career. According to Baseball Prospectus, Blanco saved 14 runs above average on defense in 2004, an excellent number.

And, of course, Blanco comes with his Maddux Gold Mastercard, having caught Greg for a couple years in Atlanta. No finance charges on expenses accrued through April 1, 2005. No OBPs above .260 posted anytime following that date.

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