TRANSACTION - Ivan Rodriguez to Disabled List AGAIN!

Not one week into the young season, and All-Star catcher Ivan Rodriguez has gone down with an injury that will require him to miss two months worth of action.  The injury took place in the bottom of the 1st inning in a game at Milwaukee, Baltimore's fourth game of the season.  No collision at the plate.  No running the bases.  Just a fluke injury following a pitch to the third batter of the game.  A costly victory as Baltimore went on to win the game 10-3 to improve their season record to three wins against one loss.

Rodriguez of course spent an injury marred season with the Stouts last year, one in which he made three trips to the Disabled List.  He managed to play in only 48 games in 2000, missing nearly three quarters of the season.  Pudge was stellar when he played, hitting .357 with 19 doubles, 16 homers and 51 RBI in those 48 games.  The team was hoping that 2001 would be a different story for the All-Star backstop, but if the early season is any indication, it's gonna be another long, tough year.


Robert Fick will be counted on to take over full-time duties behind the dish against right-handed pitchers, while Wiki Gonzalez will form the platoon and play against lefties.  Both are more than capable offensively at the plate.  It's behind the plate where Pudge will be missed the most.  Fick is one of the worst defensive catchers in the deck, with a D/40/+4 defensive rating.  He's also an "F" at handling pitchers.  Gonzalez is much better defensively, but nowhere near as good as I-Rod.

To help defensively and take some pressure off of Fick as an everyday catcher, Geronimo Gil has been brought in from the waiver wire to provide some depth.  Gil carries a C/35/0 defensive rating, and does show some ability to get on base with a .369 OBP.  He's very limited though as he only played in 17 games in 2001, with only 7 ABs against LHP and 51 against RHP.  He'll likely be looked upon as a defensive replacement for Fick late in games.

Geronimo Gil's career statistics:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gilge01.shtml