Sunday, May 18, 2008

Dioner Who? Thy name is Navarro

Looking for a decent catcher?


Who isn't these days, right? Unless you have a Soto, McCann, Martin or Doumit on your squad, it's probably slim pickins

When you check out the waiver wire and blur your eyes, they all sort of look the same.

Save for Dioner Navarro.

Who?

He's a 24-year-old Caracas native and he's hitting .368 this season.

Excuse me? Did I just hear .368 from a catcher?

It's not a typo. Actually, Tampa Bay's catcher was hitting .373 before a 1-for-4 day on Sunday.

And while he's not going to push Ted Williams as the next .400 hitter, Navarro did hit .285 after the All-Star break with 8 HR. 

The power is yet to come (1 HR, 13 RBI), but the way he's playing (.416 obp.), it's only a matter of time, playing in a good hitter's park, er, bubble, aka the Trop.

For those of you struggling with average and are sporting a Ramon Hernandez (.216), Kenji Johjima (.226) or J.R. Towles (.146), a Navarro swapout is a quick and easy boost that won't cost you anything on the trade market.

Plus, you can't beat the name Dioner Navarro. Certain names are just destined to be fantasy stars.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was Martin the Dodger catcher who is developing "Chuck Knobloch" disease? I heard on the radio that a Dodger catcher was having trouble with simple throws to first and the opposition was on to him? Might hurt his playing time. Tosscnrdk