Adopted: Drew Butera

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Andrew Butera, catcher taken in the 5th round of the '05 draft, will be my first adoptee. He's a U. of Central Florida product, a Johnny Bench Award (top college catcher) semifinalist. His dad is Sal Butera, a ML catcher for most of the 80s.

Drew has one season of low-A ball in Brooklyn under his belt. It was less than spectacular.

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI
55	175	.217	.305	.297	1	23

He spent his fall in an Instructional League working on the adjustment from college ball.

Scouts like his arm from home, with one saying, "his quick release on throws to second base is a sight to behold."

Oddly enough, just today Drew was reassigned from Mets spring camp to a minor leauge camp.

*EDIT*-I'm new to HTML tables. Any way to get rid of that huge gap from text to table? Thanks.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

What he looks like, in case he wanders down your street.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He looks like a Drew.

I fixed up the table. Just a matter of not putting returns between the lines of code.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

He looks like a Drew.

I fixed up the table. Just a matter of not putting returns between the lines of code.[/quote:2leiph3k]Aha. Thanks edgy.

[MFS62]

Does he have any witnesses?

Later

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Drew starts the '06 season as the starting catcher for Hagerstown.
In the two games the team already played, he has 7 ABs and 2 hits.

The other five ABs all resulted in strikeouts.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Tough times for Drew so far in Hagerstown. Less than less than spectacular.

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI
19	61	.164	.261	.213	0	7

As for his heralded defense, I can't seem to dig up much other than the fact that he has 3 errors. Hopefully Drew can right the ship before backup Rafael Arroyo turns up the heat on him.

EDIT: Damn, that picture is bigger than it was on the Suns website.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

As mentioned by FK in the Suns thread, Drew's bat finally awoke from it's pretty much pro-career-long slumber.
The 10-17, 2 HR week is hopefully a corner being turned and not just a fluke.

His numbers now:

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI
46	151	.230	.324	.351	3	19

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Maybe it was a fluke.

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	K
70	226	.208	.300	.327	5	34	25	56

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Drew's back into a big funk

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	K
84	267	.191	.293	.292	5	37	34	69

[Guest Edgy DC]

Don't give up on us baby; we can still come through.

Really, that .100+ isolated OBP is appealling, isn't it?

[Guest OlerudOwned]

With a wake-up call from the Prospect Thread on the Baseball Forum, here's the end-of-season update on Drew.

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	K
95	295	.186	.297	.281	5	38	42	72

Not exactly a leap foward. But, when you're a prospect, baseball season never ends. Right now, Drew is in the reincarnated Hawaii Winter Baseball league, playing for the North Shore Honu. (Other Mets playing for North Shore are Blake Eager, Bobby Parnell (JD), Mike Carp (MFS), and my other prospect, Dustin Martin).

Unfortunately, it's been more of the same in Hawai'i.

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	K
11	31	.194	.194	.290	0	4	0	11

That 0 BB/11 K thing is especially icky.
Maybe Drew could benefit from a trip to Michael Barrett Baseball Camp.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Looking at Drew's end-of-the-season line in Hawaii, I initially thought he made a bit of a forward leap when I saw .271/.321.

Unfortunately, I hadn't read the column headers, and instead of witnessing the beginning of Butera's Revival, I was looking at his OBP and SLG. Oh well.

The Hawaii 411

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	K
21	56	.232	.271	.321	0	5	2	22

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Butera Comes Alive!

2007 @ Single-A St. Lucie

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K
33	111	.252	.361	.387	9	0	2	9	18	15

The walk/strikeout ratio and extra-base hits are especially encouraging.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

His line in St. Lucie isn't great, but it definitely represents a step in the right direction. I hope he continues to improve as the year progresses.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Considering how this organization has been fumbling catching prospects in recent years, I'd say it's great news.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Drew's been impressing in St. Lucie, and he's gotten the call up to Bingo. Atta boy.

2007 @ Single-A St. Lucie

G	AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K
52	182	.258	.348	.418	14	0	5	22	24	28

Not too shabby.

He's only got two games played so far in Binghamton, so I won't update there yet.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

That's good news. I have no idea who next year's guy is gonna be.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

My nest has been emptied in one fell swoop.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080220&content_id=2382302&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=min

Butera has the inside track in Minnesota with the new ex-Mets arms.