Who Are You, And What Have You Done With Miguel Montero?

Throughout his career, Miguel Montero has always been one of my favorite players for the Diamondbacks. He is a solid catcher and an all around good guy. Naturally, I have a lot of respect for major league catchers because, obviously. I met Miggy a couple of years ago at spring training and I thought he was such a cool dude. He was very fan friendly and personable. While being a fan is important, sometimes it needs to take a backseat to reality. The reality is that Miggy hasn’t been very Miggy-ish lately.

The dreaded “Miggy Face” image: Jennifer Hilderbrand-USA TODAY Sports

I’m trying to think of a word to describe the offensive output from Montero, but all I can think of is “disappointingly strange”(I know that’s two words, and I’m not even sure if disappointingly is a word). There was a stretch of games about two weeks ago during the Giants through Cubs series where Montero was stinging the ball all over the park, but it was just stung right at people. I can remember three times in that Giants series where Miggy hit balls to the warning track. Now, when I see him coming to bat, I lose the excitement that I always used to have. Over the years–and even to start this year, good things were going to happen when Miguel was batting. Now the tide has changed a bit. I know this is not permanent, but something’s got to give.

Part of me says to give Miggy a couple of days off, but the other part of me knows that we will sacrifice a good amount defensively by starting Wil Nieves everyday. Hmmmm. Montero is one of the most durable catchers in the league. If Montero could catch all 162 games, you better believe he would. There is a fire in Miggy for the game of baseball and the only way he can break out of his “slump” is to keep doping what he is doing. I know that sounds weird. Something is going to click for Montero. I don’t know when that will be, but it will. Maybe Miggy should cut down on the violent home run hacks, but I don’t think Montero knows what an easy swing is. The defense is there and it always will be. The offense is just trying to catch up. During the second game in Chicago, Montero hit a liner to Soriano that was caught and I sarcastically yelled at the TV, “Well, at least Miggy made contact.” This was a joke, kind of. The good news: Miguel Montero is now at the Mendoza Line with a .200 average. Yay? Strikeouts are high again this year for the catcher but hey, it’s the D’backs, K’s are always high (thanks, Mark Reynolds). Something that strikes me is that Montero has only hit three home runs this season. I know Miggy is 29 years old this year, but it just doesn’t make sense.

I think I’m going to go take a nap because I was up late watching the D’backs win in 14 innings last night/this morning. Game three of the series is tonight from St. Louis. Enjoy it!

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