The Bennett Bomb

Apparently last week's rush on the backup catcher market have forced Jim Bowden's hand again--Gary Bennett (I can tell what you're thinking: WHO?) is our backup catcher, having been signed to one-year deal for $750K.

There really was a mini-run on catchers over the last few days, but this is pretty close to inexcusable. Bennett has floundered around the league as the last man off the bench for the last 9 years. He turns 33 next year, after having bombed out of Milwaukee last year. Even the Brewers knew to run, and they even signed a 35-year old catcher to a three-year contract to get away from him!

All you need to know about Bennett's offensive abilities is this: If you look at his career highs, he's still a (paging Bill Walton) Horrible hitter -- .265/ .314/ .354.

There are any number of waiver-wire scrubs who can put up similar numbers for LITERALLY less than half the money. No, the 300K that we'd save in that case isn't going to make a damn bit of difference, but Bowden has shown a consistent ability to piss away a few hundred here and a few hundred thousand there.

As the GM of the Washington Team, he should take a lesson from a Great Senator of the Past, Everett Dirksen. "A few million here, a few million there, and pretty soon we're talking about real money."

For the money he's pissed away, we could've had a real third baseman.