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But I don't have to be thrilled about it. I expect Zunino to have a long pro career, and I hope that Jack is right about him. I mean, here's how much Tom and Jack gushed about Zunino and his game-changing potential:
Tom: "He's steady. He doesn't jump out and wow you like other players. What you get at the end of the day is a steady, hard-nosed tough kid who has power and can really catch."
Jack: "He's a nice looking player. He's a tough kid. You think about that position. It's very difficult to fill it as we know and everyone in baseball knows. When you have a kid with the pedigree and leadership skills, as well as the chance to hit the ball out of the ballpark, I thought it was a real nice package."
Oh wait, I agree with that.  He doesn't wow you, he's steady and hard-nosed, it's a tough position to fill and he's a "real nice" package.  He'll be a big-leaguer and get in a number of years.  At what level is debatable, and I guess I don't feel like he's Brian McCann, he doesn't walk enough to be Carlos Santana, he doesn't hit enough to be Buster Posey...
"Pretty good catcher who's a bad fit for the park" is a tough thing for me to swallow with the 3rd pick.
Add that in with Jack basically saying, "Zunino is a good receiver, and we like Montero (nothing about him as a catcher) and luckily we have a DH in this league" it sure shapes up like Montero is not long for the main catching job.  We can hope that we can get a V-Mart / Avila thing going on, but I don't think Zunino is that good a hitter.
And if Jack felt he was he'd probably have said it.  I know I under-rate the non-stat intangibles that a catcher adds, and that getting another shot at a Varitek-type of leader behind the plate would be good, especially if he can hit balls out of this park.
Let's hope for that. If Zunino is McCann or Matt Wieters, then hey! Great call, Jack. He always could be.  Jack and Tom usually know what they're doing and have a great ability to pick out the right guy from a pool of similar talents.  We need that skill to work out for us in this case.  
And I'll need to get over my top-3 catcher dislike.  Be great, Mike - don't settle for "pretty good."  All things considered, I'd prefer to be wowed.
~G

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