Catch as Catch Can, the Baltimore Orioles don't have a catcher on their 40 man roster.

Gerry Fraley of Sporting News has astutely noted that the Baltimore Orioles don't have a catcher on their 40 man roster. Wow. I've never heard of that before.

It is interesting to see just how varied some teams approach their catching situation. Texas still has a glut of catchers even after trading Laird to Detroit. Boston is sort of meandering in the catcher position, signing Josh Bard while still not having re-signed Jason Varitek.

The Cleveland Indians have an interesting situation with two potential All Star Catchers in Vic Martinez and Kelly Shoppach, one of whom can play first (Vic). Shoppach would be a natural fit back in Boston, (the team that traded Shoppach to the Indians to begin with).

Unrelated sequences could create a do over of the Coco Crisp / Andy Marte - Kelly Shoppach trade from a couple years back. Coco has already been traded by Boston, if Kelly is traded back to Boston, and Andy Marte probably doesn't make the Indians team out of spring training, it would an undoing of the original deal. The key is, should the Indians risk having Vic and Sal Fasano as their catchers for this year by trading Shoppach, and what would the Indians get back from Boston? Boston tends to hold on to their pitching prospects tightly and the Indians are short at least one starting pitcher.

At some point, it would seem that catching rich Texas and prospect pitching Baltimore come up with a trade. I look at the catching position as sort of the quarterback on the field. They play most of the games, catch most of the starting pitchers, and if the main catcher goes down, the back up really needs to have some polish to them.

If you want to know if your team believes they can contend this year, see how much they value their back up catcher. Teams that may feel they are in a rebuild mode may not see the need to carry two catchers that could both be considered as everyday players (lol, with the exception of Boston and the Josh Bard signing). Baltimore appears to be in a rebuild mode, and that may explain their wait and see attitude when it comes to the catching slot.