«  
  »

Doesn’t that make Butera utterly useless?

Catching up on reading the beat writers, I saw this:

Heard that there are some concerns about Drew Butera's catching skills. That's why some people want Wilson Ramos up if Jose Morales isn't ready.

With a bat in his hands, Drew Butera makes Nick Punto look like Barry Bonds. If Butera's catching skills are being questioned, he should never have been put on the 40-man roster. I mean, for crying out loud, he's hit .214/.296/.317 in the minors and it's not like he's going to be a better hitter in the majors than he was in the minors. He needs to be at least as good as Henry Blanco behind the plate to be considered even a backup for a major league team. The fact that someone is questioning his glove is extremely concerning since everyone knows he's not going to hit.

I'm mildly intrigued by the idea of Delmon Young losing 29 pounds. If that could help his mobility in the field a little bit, I might be able to tolerate him. Somewhat. Still, most of these "Joe Smith reports to camp in the best shape of his life!" reports turn out to be a load of crap, so I will believe it when I see it.

This entry was posted by ubelmann on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Featured Articles categories and , , , tags. It is one of 821 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

13 LTEs in response to Doesn’t that make Butera utterly useless?

  • Rhubarb_Runner
    February 1, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    100%

    Except for "concerning"; it's "disconcerting". His glove isn't concerning, it's causing everyone to be concerned.

    • ubelmann
      February 1, 2010 at 5:35 pm

      I didn't say that his glove was concerning, I find the fact that his glove is being questioned concerning. It's an awkward sentence, but I am expressing the idea that I am concerned at the fact that his glove is being questioned.

      • brianS
        February 1, 2010 at 8:28 pm

        I'm with ubes; I think this usage passes muster. The OED traces this usage back to at least 1741.

        So here's some spiritual and aesthetic advice. Why not just give up, get over it, and look on the bright side? Concerning has plenty of standard precedents ("This is troubling/annoying/terrifying/grating") where a prepositional-phrase version would be odd (?"This is of trouble/annoyance/terror/gratingness"). In fact, of concern is a bit of an outlier, so you could see the change to concerning as a move in the direction of linguistic consistency.

        :-)

    • E-6
      February 1, 2010 at 8:02 pm

      Me thinks the librarian doth protest too much.

  • twayn
    February 1, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    We saw Delmon signing autographs at TwinsFest yesterday and can confirm that he's definitely lost weight. I would have guessed around 20-25 lbs, but more than that seems possible.