FanPost

No! Yargh! Pirates! -- Jason Jaramillo

Last year, he was the #10 prospect in the Phillies farm system. This year, while Ryan Doumit is injured, he's the starting catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He's from Racine, Wisconsin. From what I can tell on their Website, the biggest attraction in Racine is the Laurel Clark Memorial Fountain. Other notables from Racine include suffragist Olympia Brown and adult film star Max Hardcore, who is currently in prison for distributing obscene materials.

According to Baseball Prospectus' seven-year forecast, he'll hit six home runs per year until he hits age 30 in 2013 and he starts to slow down. Right now, in his rookie season, he ranks 23rd among all major league catchers, better than 28th place Ronny Paulino, for whom he was traded last December. Ronny Paulino has been traded twice since then, from the Phillies to the Giants, and then to the Marlins. Consider that Jaramillo costs, $0.40 million this year and Paulino costs $0.44 million. In that trade, the Pirates seem to have gotten a better player for less money.

He has an OPS+ of 94, three home runs, eleven doubles, and one stolen base in forty-five games.
"He’s filling in great," left-handed pitcher Donald Veal said. "We haven’t missed a beat with the pitchers. He’s getting hits, driving in runs, helping the staff and just doing a tremendous job behind the plate. We have no complaints." -- The Journal Times, Jason's hometown paper

By the end of July, Ryan Doumit should be back from rehabilitation. What happens to Jason then? Rob Neyer says it might make sense for the Pirates to trade Doumit now and let Jaramillo have the job for a while until Tony Sanchez is ready.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editors or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.