twins/mlb

This is a great decision to give Steve Holm a chance. He batted around .375 in spring training vs. Butera who was somewhere around .186. I look forward to the battle for back-up catcher over the next 2 weeks and hope for a quick recovery for Mauer.

Wish Wilson Ramos were here.

According to the article's subtitle..they are both good defensively while Holm is a better hitter. Why, then, is Butera the backup before Holm??? Same reason Cuddyer never sits, Punto was a starting major leaguer, Ullger still has a job!!!

Jason and Nobull - did you read closely? Holm is a career .242 hitter...in the MINORS. Slightly better than Butera, but not exactly the second coming of Ted Williams. Additionally, his numbers are inflated because of his 2006 season, where he was 26 years old playing A ball, where the average player age is just under 23.

The only reason the Twins traded Ramos and Morales instead of Butera is nobody wanted him. While trading Ramos for Capp was a good trade, we should have kept Morales, who we got only a minor league pitcher for.

gbgsp1 - If Ramos was here it would be a no-brainer that he would be the back-up catcher. But since he's gone, and Mauer takes a break from catching at least once a week, back-up catcher is a significant position. Ironically, through yesterday, Butera and Holm have each played in 54 games over their careers in the majors. Butera's batting average is .191 and on-base % (obp) is .228. That's pretty bad for an MLB player. Obviously if Holm was a .300 hitter he would have already beat out Butera. But Holm's MLB batting average is .264 and his obp is .364. If he is not a defensive liability at this level, I would take him over Butera. We'll see over the next 2 weeks who earns the spot.

If Ramos could not win the back-up job last year, I doubt if Holm will unseat Butera this year. Do some of you folks not know Gardy any better than that by now?

you mean the same gardy who gives morneau the day off versus a right handed pitcher and sits thome the day before against a right handed pitcher, all just so he can keep his boy mikey, who cannot hit against rhp in the lineup?