There's alot of uncertainty being voiced in comments on various blogs in reaction to the Monday signing of free agent catcher Mike Piazza to the San Diego Padres. I for one like this move: $2M is not a big commitment, and the combination of Doug Mirabelli and Piazza will surely sport more offensive pop than last year's platoon of Hernandez/Olivo/Ojeda. Defense is the bigger concern, an area of Piazza's game that's declined since the late 90s. However, BosoxBob makes a great point in his comment: "Piazza's poor throwing should be less of an issue in the NL West, where the Giants, DBacks, Rockies and Dodgers ranked 11th, 12th, 14th and 15th in SBs last year." The second year option on the contract probably won't materialize, so what we have here is a decent offensive upgrade and average defense. One thing is for certain: Piazza's star power will sell more tickets. I like this acquisition.

This post was added on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 at 10:02 am and is filed under Player Acquisitions . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.