Frank Catalanotto played outfield for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2009. He currently looks for work as a free agent. Catalanotto was seen as a left-handed platoon player throughout his career, getting about 10 times more at bats against righties than lefties. He performed well in this role, producing a career slash line of .297/.361/.458 against right-handed pitching. In the last two years his power faded, however, with only three home runs. His extra base hits are limited to doubles now. He also no longer provides defensive value, so I would not be surprised to see him out of baseball soon.

A few years ago I attended a talk by J.P. Ricciardi. He was very proud of his acquisition of Catalanotto, getting $20 million worth of production for about $10 million. J.P. also felt he let Frank go at the right time, which he did. Too bad the Vernon Wells contract didn’t work out that well.