Pirates to Go With Ronny Paulino and Ryan Doumit at Catcher

Tucked away in this article is a bit of news that's actually pretty significant. The Pirates cut catchers Michel Hernandez and Raul Chavez, which by my count means there are only two catchers left in camp: Ronny Paulino and Ryan Doumit. This means that the Pirates won't be carrying a no-hit backup catcher, and can use their bench spots to carry guys who can hit a bit. It also suggests that they're relatively comfortable with Doumit behind the plate, which could mean that Doumit has the inside track on the starting job. In any case, the starting catching job and the backup catcher job will be occupied by those two, which is great news since, barring injury, we won't have to see another 150 plate appearances by the equivalent of Keith Osik or Humberto Cota.