Water Water Everywhere!

As the Tiger in front of Comerica Park wears his Carhartt coat during a Michigan winter, and Wrigley Field is converted into an ice rink for the first time in its history

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though seemingly appropriate because the Chicago Whales played there before the Cubs assumed it as a home – the Tigers went out and signed a former fish in Matt Treanor.

Continuing along with the water theme, Treanor is married to Misty May-Treanor, the defensive prototype of beach volleyball. They met in therapy when both were rehabbing from injuries, and were married in November 2005. There have been several reports that with the 2008 season over, May-Treanor and her longtime volleyball partner, Kerri Walsh, are taking sabbaticals from the tour to start families. In fact, Treanor and May-Treanor were supposed to move to Florida for the upcoming spring training – not sure whether or not those plans are still in place; plenty of good volleyball in Michigan By the way, Walsh has a baseball connection. Her father, Tim, pitched in the minor leagues for the Oakland A’s.

Matt Treanor also pitched, back in high school, though he was primarily at his current position of catcher, and was drafted in the fourth round of 1994 as a catcher by the Kansas City Royals. Treanor played high school ball at Mater Dei high school (one of a couple high schools to produce multiple Heisman Trophy winners), located in Orange County, California. The Tigers also drafted players out of Orange County in 1994, 1st rounder Cade Gaspar out of Pepperdine and late rounder Daryle Ward from Rancho Santiago College.

After Treanor toiled in the minors for ten seasons, he finally debuted in 2004 for the Marlins, perhaps in an opening created by the exodus of 2003 Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The question is how good is Treanor defensively? Is he a Pudge? Is he a May-Treanor? Does he march to his own defensive style?

The 2008 season represented the most innings played for Treanor in any season. He made 8 errors which tied for 8th in the majors, and probably is more than you would like from a backup catcher. Then again, he was hurt during the season.

To provide a comparison for Treanor, Brandon Inge caught a similar amount of innings and made 0 errors. However, Inge had 11 passed balls and Treanor had just 2 passed balls. Inge had 26 stolen bases against and caught 11 runners. Treanor had 44 stolen bases against and caught 15 attempted base stealers.

Treanor’s other connection to the Tigers is that he was the strikeout victim of Michigan native (and future Hall-of-Famer) John Smoltz in 2005 when Smoltz passed former Tiger (and should be Hall-of-Famer) Jack Morris on the career strikeout list.