Hatteberg Extended
By
KC2HMZ
Posted at 9:43 pm
Promoted from the Diaries. Love ya, HMZ.
TIME OUT!
The Reds signed Scott Hatteberg to a one-year, $1.65 million contract extension with a club option for 2008.
The official site says the terms of the contract were not disclosed; the terms that I've posted came from an article posted to rotoworld.com an hour ago:
Reds sign 1B Hatteberg for 2007
According to the linked article, Hatteberg will earn $1.5 million next year; the option for 2008 is worth $1.85 million and includes a $150,000 buyout; and the 2008 club option iincreases to a $2 million base salary with a $175,000 buyout if he has 500 plate appearances next season. It also says that he will earn an additional fifty grand 500, 550 and 600 plate appearances each season.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled coverage of the Reds' quest for a 2006 playoff berth, already in progress.
PLAY BALL!
I like this signing. Hatteberg works the count better than any reds player I can remember. Could be why he’s hitting .326
Of course now they’ll probably trade him for a fourth catcher.
Hatteberg [i]is[/i] a fourth catcher.
He came up as a catcher and played the position for parts of seven years.
That’s true, Zeldink, but the Reds are in really deep trouble if Hatteberg has to go behind the plate. His defensive skills as a catcher weren’t what got him to the major leagues, and he was moved to 1B for good reason.
FWIW, I do believe he earned every penny. According to this morning’s paper he’s in the top ten in the NL in BA and OBP. He’s also played better than average defense over there. He’s committed only three errors all season, fewer than ten other NL first sackers (including four who’ve handled fewer total chances than he has). All this and he’s costing the club a fraction of what the Reds were paying Sean Casey to lead the league in grounding into double plays – IMHO, an inexcusable breach of fundamental baseball for a lefthanded hitter to not be able to hit behind the runner!
HMZ