The line we were sold on Drew Butera when he was chosen as the Twins' backup catcher went something like this: good defensive catcher; nice throwing arm; handles pitchers well; doesn't hit much, but those other three make up for it. In his first 15 starts this season, however, the Twins allowed 69 runs -- an average of 4.6 per game. That's not completely awful, but it is worse than their overall season average of 4.19 runs allowed per game (a number Butera has helped lower recently, but more on that later). Obviously a catcher can't be held completely responsible for what a pitcher does, but those numbers didn't bode well for a catcher here for his defense and pitcher-handling. Not surprisingly, with an easy out at the bottom of the lineup in Butera and a pitching staff that was allowing more runs than usual, the Twins went 4-11 in Butera's first 15 starts. And the grumbling whenever Joe Mauer wasn't catching became two-fold because it meant Butera was in there.

But check this out: the Twins are 5-0 in Butera's past five starts at catcher (three of them in tandem with Carl Pavano). In that time, the team has allowed just nine runs (lowering his overall mark to 3.9 runs/game in his 20 starts for the season, better than the team's overall average). For the season, he has thrown out 50 percent of would-be base stealers (7 steals, 7 caught), committed just one passed ball and allowed only four wild pitches in 179. 2 innings behind the dish (the rough equivalent of 20 9-inning games). He's even hit a little bit lately, going 4-for-13 with a double, triple and two RBI in his last three starts.

While it would be absolutely ridiculous to say the Twins are better when Butera is behind the plate and Mauer is at DH -- Mauer himself has a reputation for being a good handler of pitchers, blocks balls pretty well and, even if he has only thrown out 12 of 46 would-be base stealers (26 percent) this season, he's still a threat with his arm ... aside from being the best offensive catcher in baseball and allowing the likes of Jim Thome or Jason Kubel to DH -- let's just take a moment to recognize that Butera, despite all the grumbling, brings a little something to the ballpark during his starts.