ESPN.com: MLB – Marlins land Pudge Rodriguez for one-year, $10 million

ESPN.com: MLB – Marlins land Pudge Rodriguez for one-year, $10 million

The big news here is that Pudge won’t be able to DH. And since it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to catch 140+ games, his value is diminished some. Or rather, he’s likely to put up numbers right in line with his numbers the last two years.

Kind of. Pudge is another year older, Pro Player Stadium is not nearly as conducive to offense as The Ballpark at Arlington, and the Marlins’ line-up is not nearly as powerful as the Rangers has been. Oh, and throughout his career Pudge has been better on turf than grass.

All of which suggests a year like 2002 is more likely than than either of the two previous years of injury. Not bad, but not great the way he once was.

Also of interest, the stores of AL catching are very thin now. The flagging Jorge Posada is far and away the top guy, with AJ Pierzynski a distant second. I’m not a big fan of position scarcity, not in leagues drawing deeply from only one major league, but suddenly guys like Toby Hall and Mitch Meluskey (if he qualifies at catcher in your league) seem very strong.

Heck, all of a sudden I’m trying to remember how to spell Nilsson.