Brook Fordyce started the 2003 season as the team's backup catcher, but Geronimo Gil was so bad in every phase of the game that Fordyce ended up as the club's primary catcher as the season wore on.  By June, Fordyce had reclaimed the number one job.

The catching position--in offensive terms is...well, offensive around the major leagues these days, and Fordyce still didn't reach the positional mean.  In effect, Fordyce had one good month (August:  .313/.341/.566) in 2003.  The rest of the season Fordyce was .260/.302/.343, not all that different than Fordyce's dreadful 2002 season totals (.231/.301/.315).

It's pretty obvious--if it wasn't some time ago--that Fordyce's 2000 season (which led to his three-year contract with the Orioles) was a fluke that won't be reproduced.

The biggest problem with Fordyce is that the Orioles brain trust of the time badly overrated him.  They looked at a backup catcher who'd had a strong but aberrant few months with the bat, despite the lack of a meaningful pedigree, and took a flyer on him by offering a relatively lucrative, guaranteed multi-year contract.  The team regretted the deal almost as soon as it was consummated.

Pitchers have often described how much they like throwing to Fordyce and he's usually regarded as being a good handler of young pitchers, but those intangibles has rarely emerged in any objective measure.  In 2003, Fordyce threw out 18% of the runners who tried to steal when he was behind the plate (20 of 110 in 884.2 innings).  Basically, teams ran wild when Fordyce was behind the plate.  Orioles pitchers compiled a 4.79 ERA when Fordyce was behind the dish; the team's overall mark was 4.76.

In a sense, Fordyce epitomized everything that was wrong with the Orioles in the Syd Thrift era--a player, well below the league average at his position, expected to do more than he'd ever really demonstrated he was capable of doing.  In the end, Fordyce retained his starting position with the Orioles because the club couldn't find anyone better through the duration of his contract.

That contract has now expired and the Orioles have set their sites much higher in a search for a catcher for the 2004 season and beyond.  Whether Fordyce manages to secure a major league contract with another club remains to be seen.

TO SUCCESSFULLY CONTRIBUTE NEXT SEASON HE MUST:

1. Find an employer.
2. Pick up his game across the board.  Backup catchers--a role Fordyce figures to be shooting for in 2004 since, as a declining 34-year-old his days as a starter figure to be pretty much over--usually have a strong defensive presence.  The fact that most pitchers do like throwing to him does work in his favor.

NOTES: A huge platoon differential:  against LHP was .345/.371/.524 in 84 ABs; vs. RHP in 264 ABs:  .250/.292/.322...hit half of his six home runs in 49 ABs in which he put the first pitch in play...hit .192 with no homers in 78 ABs with runners in scoring position...managed a .103 average (.103/.186/.179) in 39 ABs with runners in scoring position and two outs...299 of his 348 ABs came in the eighth or ninth spot in the batting order.

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