Up Shit Creek with a Salty, Yippy Paddle?

The news of Victor Martinez signing with the Tigers came as a big blow to me. I shouldn't have been surprised since all signs were pointing to him not signing with the Red Sox and had I not been as emotionally invested in Martinez I would have conceded defeat weeks before. As it was however, I spent the good part of Tuesday wondering what the heck Theo was thinking and lamenting the huge loss.

Now that a few days have passed and I've reluctantly made my peace with Victor not being with us next year I've turned my attention to who is currently in line to be our starting catcher next: none other than the man with the longest name in the MLB, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. I remember when Salty played with the Rangers (who can forget a name like that?) and I always admired the horseshoe shape his name made around his number on his jersey. That's really all I noticed about him. When he got traded to the Red Sox in July I hurried out to buy his shirt because I wanted that cool looking horseshoe name on the back of a shirt. To my dismay, MLB chose to shrink his name down to little letters and not give me a horseshoe shape.

That of course is neither here nor there when it comes to his playing and his ability to be our everyday catcher. The thing I find most fascinating and frightening about Salty is the fact that he had the yips last season. For those of you who don't know the yips  "is an expression used to describe the apparent loss of certain fine motor skills seemingly without explanation in one of a number of different sports." (wikipedia) Salty had shoulder surgery at some point last season and when he returned he had these yips. Apparently he could throw fine unless he was throwing to the pitcher. He exhibited no sign of these yips during his time with the Red Sox although he only played in 10 games with 19 at bats last season (with a .167 average) so I'm not sure that's a good indicator.

However, not all is lost. Lest you think I'm just sour grapes about Victor leaving, I do think that Salty could turn out OK. He was a highly touted prospect not that long ago. He has a career average of .248 which isn't great but isn't alarming either. It increases the chances that Tek will stay next with Red Sox next season. And Josh Beckett seems to like him. Anything that might help Beckett get back to his old Beckett-ness is fine in my book so I'm throwing my support behind Salty as of now, despite the yips and the lack of horseshoe shape on my Saltalamacchia shirt.