35 Reasons to Believe

The Phanatic Magazine continues its preseason coverage of the Phillies, profiling one player per day to get you set for the 2007 campaign. Our 35 straight days of Phillies coverage kicked off on February 25th, and will continue to roll until Opening Day on April 2nd. Then we will hand it over to Michael Rushton, who will provide an in-depth season preview before the first pitch is dealt.

DAY 29: Rod Barajas

By Eric Redner
The Phanatic Magazine

The catcher position, along with the bullpen, could be the problem that turns a great Phillies season into another "wait until next year" that has been muttered all too often for a very long time.

So to address the need the Phillies inked Rod Barajas, the former Texas Rangers backstop, in the offseason to make up for the loss of Mike Lieberthal, who left the Phillies after 13 years of service to join the L.A. Dodgers.

Last season the Phillies survived, very well, platooning Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste after Lieberthal spent time on the D.L. and fan favorite Sal Fasano was released. While they did not put up huge numbers, they did do an adequate job. However, Pat Gillick brought in Barajas to be the starting catcher and he will handle the majority of games this season, with Ruiz the team’s backup.

To say the Barajas signing isn’t Pat Gillick’s finest hour is an understatement, in my estimation. Let’s review Barajas production at the plate:

Barajas hit a paltry .256 last season and that was his career-high over eight seasons. He also added 11 home runs and 41 RBI over 97 appearances last season with Texas.

He will most likely hit in the eight hole in a lineup that might have some production problems this season with Aaron Rowand, Wes Helms, Barajas and a pitcher making up the 6-9 spots, leaving the top of the lineup to be relied upon to produce.

Barajas does have a bit of power and hopefully he can improve on that over the course of the year. If he gets the bulk of the starts for the club and can produce say 15 home runs and somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 RBI with at least a .270 average he will help the team get some production from the bottom of the lineup.

He is having a decent spring thus far as he is hitting .300 with a home run and eight RBI

Guiding the pitcher through a game, keeping runners from swiping bases and being a roadblock at home plate is what catchers do. This is where Barajas will be his most help for the team. Last season he threw out 28 percent of potential base stealers and he works well with the pitchers.

While the catcher position is not terrible, it's far away from anything considered a strength. All we can hope from Barajas is that he won't lose games for the Phillies, because it is far from likely that he will win very many for the team.

Tomorrow: Aaron Rowand