The Ryan Doumit Thing

I am going to be talking a ton about Ryan Doumit in upcoming weeks and months.

For this post, I am going to leave numbers out of it (for the most part). If you want a more intelligent article on what the Pirates should do with Doumit, I highly recommend this WHYGAVS post.

I don't really even need numbers to make my point here. Here's a sentence:

If the Pirates do not re-sign Doumit next year, they will have a full year of Michael McKenry and Matt Pagnozzi as the primary catchers.

Those guys both suck. I don't care how much you love McKenry, he sucks and is not a major league catcher. Okay, he might be a major league catcher, but he is so far away from being a major league hitter that it takes away any thought in my mind of calling him a major league player. As for Pagnozzi... who the hell is that?

This offense is bad. It's very, very bad. The only proven competent hitter the Pirates have is Andrew McCutchen. Neil Walker gets hot sometimes, and Jose Tabata and Alex Presley can also rake from time-to-time and could easily turn into players that can rake very often, but it's not a sure thing. This year, Doumit has been the Pirates best hitter when in the lineup. He missed a lot of time in the middle of the season, but has been great ever since returning. That might be because of an extra motivation he has gotten because he knows his contract is running out, but it is true regardless.

It's not going to be cheap to bring him back to Pittsburgh, but I'm starting to wonder if the Pirates even have a choice. If they want any chance at all to improve on this year's win total, they are going to have to score more runs. They aren't going to do that without Doumit in the lineup unless Pedro Alvarez turns it around or they make a splash by signing someone like Carlos Pena in the offseason (which I'm still all about).

Right now I'm not concerned with money. Why should I be? It's not my money. As a fan, it's a no-brainer, re-sign Doumit and enjoy the runs he adds with the bat. Don't give the crap about the runs he costs us on defense, because he is so far ahead of everyone else we have with the bat, and that makes the argument mute.

Sorry to be close-minded and rude, but if you think the Pirates are a 2012 better team without Doumit, you're out of your mind and I never want you to read my blog again (that's a lie, I want everyone to read my blog). Isn't the goal of spending money to make your team better? That's what other teams do at least, maybe the Pirates should try it. In conclusion, the Pirates should re-sign Doumit, please.