Pirates Looking For Catching Help

Paulino is supposedly a very good game caller. I believe the Pirates had a winning record with him behind the plate, but he caught more of the better pitchers. Fans are frustrated with him for his inability to block a throw to the plate. Russell is rumored to want no part of Paulino. e hasn't even manged a game yet and he is ready to toss him aside. Paulino will probably be a good receiver in the majors, but it will probably be somewhere else. I hope they acquire an Ianetta, Clement, or another promising catcher who is blocked instead of a veteran. This will only delay the problem another year. There aren't any catchers in the minors who are 2-3 years away. If they get Estrada or Barrett, I think it would be a mistake. Play and work with Paulino unless they can acqurie a legit catching prospect who is blocked at the ML level.

Gerald Laird is still available as well.

They should platoon him. Paulino owned LHP this year

If you follow the Pirates you would get extremely frustrated by Ronny Paulino. He tends to be very lazy and unmotivated to play the game, especially when the Pirates aren't winning, which tends to be the majority of the time.
Yes he has ability and yes he does call a solid game but he didn't show that much of a positive development last year.
I don't believe the reports of Russell not wanting anything to do with Paulino but I do know that they want a veteran backup. Look for them to get either Damian Miller, Rod Barajas or Mike Matheny.

As this board's resident bitter Pirates fan (seriously, there's no such thing as just a Pirate fan at this point), here's my take on Paulino:

He's a head case. The Pirates have pretty much said he's one of those players who easily becomes lazy, distracted, and un-motivated. He does have some talent (see his '06 stats), but last season Jim Tracy, who I'm actually convinced was managing while in a waking coma, couldn't light a fire under him. The Pirates' fuzzy thinking is that if they bring in an Estrada/Olivo/Barrett, that will motivate Paulino to fight for his job.

Russell and his new bullpen coach, both former catchers, have stated that getting Paulino on track is a big priority. They're not looking to get rid of him (yet), since after all he barely makes over the minimum (Bob Nutting's favorite kind of player).

This is also brought on by the fact that they don't have ANY catching prospects in the minors, and then they can play Ryan Doumit in the OF and give further cause to trading Nady and/or Bay.

Personally, I'd love to see them get a youngster like Nick Hundley or Jeff Clement, but I'm not gonna' hold my breath on the Buccos being that smart. The GM and a few folks are new, but most of the talent evaluators are the same (I think I just threw up in my mouth writing that).

*sigh*

Im a new guy here at mlbtr but i have been a diehard pirates fan for 26 yrs, I wish they can start winning. As for this post Ronnie Paulino seems to be lazy at times under a new strict coach maybe he can turn his career around. But for now maybe the pirates need to get a Michael Barrett or Miguel Olivo someone who can mentor him and get his head back on straight and stay focused throughout the year even if it be yet another losing season. If the pirates truly dont believe he is their catcher they should go to seattle and trade for Jeff Clement, maybe we trade them Josh Sharpless and Xavier Nady?

What about a guy like Jerrod Saltalammachia?

I follow TX pretty closely and we have a logjam with Salty and Laird in the bigs, followed by Teagarden in the high minors (and management prefers Tea's defense). I've read the Pirates are entertaining the idea of trading an Ian Snell or a Jason Bay, and TX needs OF and SP help.

Anybody see a possible trade with Salty and Snell as the centerpieces? Salty and Bay?