Movie Scouting Report 2

Crash Davis, Durham Bulls.

Strengths: Switch hitter with power, especially from the left side. ... Generates good bat speed ... Has hit 227 home runs in the minor leagues. ... Outstanding mistake hitter. Feasts on hanging breaking balls and fastballs out and over the plate ... ... Aggressive hitter ... Hard worker who constantly tinkers with his swing ... Outstanding feel for the game. Will probably go into coaching when his career is over ... Works well with young pitchers ... Above average receiving skills. Blocks the plate. ... Calls a solid game.

Weaknesses: Cannot catch up to a good fastball, especially from right side ... Swings and misses a lot. Has never hit for a good average ... Below average arm ... Will go into prolonged slumps and then he starts to think too much. ... Has become a guess hitter in his later years. ... Won't take a walk. ... Well below average runner ... Gets down on himself.

Overall: Davis has bounced all over the place in his 12-year career ... Shows his age but he can hit the occasional home run, and he works well with young pitchers ... Still wants to play every day, and he's in good shape for a 35-year-old catcher. ... Can no longer hit upper level fastballs or good breaking pitches. ... Looks just like the guy from "The Untouchables." Eerie ... This will probably be his last year as a player. Could manage in the big leagues someday.

Movie question: Seriously, how many switch-hittting catchers with power and a sense of the game get stuck in the minor leagues for 12 years? This is just unrealistic. According to the movie, he only got 21 days in the big leagues. Heck, A.J. Hinch got almost 1,000 at-bats in the big leagues. So did Bobby Estalella.

I tried to find the Major League player who was the closest fit to Crash Davis. He had to be a switch-hitting catcher, of course, some power, a very low batting average and a reputation for loving the game. My first inclination was Buck Rodgers, who came up with some fanfare (he finished second in the 1962 Rookie of the Year race to Tom Tresh) and then hit .224 the rest of his career. He, of course, became a nondescript manager for three different Major League clubs. The only thing is, Buck Rodgers never seemed to me like the kind of guy who read Thomas Pynchon.

Matt Walbeck is a very promising Crash Davis prospect. Switch-hitting catcher, low average, from California (Crash had that California sound, didn't he?) always had a reputation as a guy who was a student of the game -- he has since released a series of instructional videos. He will be manager of the Erie SeaWolves, and he's been named manager of the year in the Midwest League twice. Matt's big drawback is that he didn't go to college. I always envisioned Crash as a guy who played in college.

So I'm going to settle on a third candidate -- and a personal hero of mine when I was young -- Chris Bando. I believe Chris was the Indians top prospect every year from, like 1953 to 1985 -- I could have the dates wrong there. Man, I loved Chris Bando. He was a switch-hitting catcher from Cleveland, he had some power, had a reputation as tough-as-nails player, was brother of Sal Bando, was a college superstar, and he killed the ball in Chattanooga one year. Trouble is, he just couldn't hit in the big leagues. He hit .213 his first year in limited at-bats, .212 his second, and never could quite make the jump to every day catcher (though to be fair, the Indians had Ron Hassey, Jerry Willard and Andy Allanson in those years).

My understanding is that Chris will be managing in Aiken this year -- and that's good. I feel like that's exactly what Crash would be doing too. ... Also his son Ben is now a catcher for Arizona State, where Chris won the College World Series. The only thing I don't get is that it says in the profile that Ben's last college was "The Master's." What is that? Do they allow women there?