HUMBERTO COTA

2/7/79; NDFA '95 (Atlanta); Mexico
R/R; 6-0, 175

Level	BA	OBP	SA	AB	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	SB	CS
1997 A- (TB)	.222	.222	.222	9	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
1997 R (TB)	.241	.333	.346	133	6	1	2	17	27	3	1
1998 R (TB)	.310	.399	.580	245	13	4	15	32	59	4	4
1999 A (TB)	.280	.320	.429	336	21	1	9	20	51	1	1
1999 A	.271	.355	.429	133	11	2	2	21	20	3	1
2000 AA	.261	.297	.368	429	20	1	8	21	80	6	4
2001 NL	.222	.222	.222	9	0	0	0	0	5	0	0
2001 AAA	.297	.351	.477	377	22	2	14	25	74	7	2
2002 NL	.294	.333	.353	17	1	0	0	1	4	0	0
2002 AAA	.267	.321	.406	404	27	1	9	31	106	5	8
2003 NL	.250	.294	.313	16	1	0	0	1	5	0	0
2003 AAA	.205	.284	.370	200	9	0	8	20	59	2	0
2004 NL	.227	.271	.500	66	1	1	5	3	20	0	0
2004 AAA	.259	.333	.370	27	0	0	1	3	7	0	0

Cota's career in the Pirates' organization has been very uneven. They traded for him shortly after Jason Kendall's ankle injury in obvious desperation to develop an alternative in case Kendall didn't recover. He appeared to be a very solid prospect at the time and was in the middle of a strong year in low A. The team rushed him to AA the next year and he struggled there. He was promoted to AAA the next year anyway and had a strong second half. Back in AAA in 2002, he tried to play through a shoulder injury and suffered through a terrible first half. In 2003, he broke his hand in January, then ended up at Nashville. He was not happy about being sent down and his hand apparently continued to bother him, contributing to another bad season. Late in the season he decided to stop playing, saying his hand hurt too much, and the Pirates suspended him. The team doctors said there was nothing wrong with his hand, but the Pirates under Dave Littlefield already have an extensive history of insisting that players were healthy when they were not, so there's no way to be sure where the truth lies. Cota came to camp out of options in 2004 and made the team as the backup C. As is typical for a guy playing behind Kendall, he seldom got off the bench. He also missed over two months with a muscle strain. In the limited action he saw, he showed very good power. Cota is very difficult to evaluate at this stage because, for the last three years, he's either played hurt much of the time or seen little action. His pattern generally has been to hit for moderate power and average, with weak plate discipline. The Pirates consider him very solid defensively, except that he does not throw very well. He has roughly average speed for a C. With Kendall gone, the Pirates acquired Benito Santiago to serve as their starting catcher. He was expected to catch 80-100 games, with Cota catching the rest. Despite an extensive spin campaign in the local media about the great value of Santiago's "veteran presence," however, the Pirates quickly lost interest in him after acquiring David Ross. With Santiago released, Cota should split the catching duties with Ross, possibly more or less equally.

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