Haselman solid replacement for Rodriguez in Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Bill Haselman is an insurance policy paying off for the Texas Rangers.
While no player could provide complete replacement coverage for AL MVP Ivan Rodriguez, Haselman has been more than adequate since the nine-time All-Star catcher was lost for the season with a broken right hand.
“There’s no way you can totally protect yourself against losing Pudge, but if you’ve got to have a guy sitting behind Pudge, Bill Haselman is as good a guy as there is in the game,” Texas manager Johnny Oates said.
Going into the series opener at Toronto on Thursday night, Haselman had made eight straight starts — his longest stretch since seven straight in April 1997 with Boston — and hit .414 (12-for-29) in that span. He had his second three-hit game in three nights Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox.
More important is how Haselman handles the pitching staff.
“We knew he would step in with no complications because we knew he was prepared. Even before when he knew he wasn’t going to catch, he was already prepared just in case,” Kenny Rogers said.
Rogers and Rick Helling, the Rangers’ other top starter, noted that Haselman would spend hours as a backup watching tape of opposing hitters.
“Obviously with Pudge back there, you love it,” Helling said. “But with Has back there, I have just as much confidence in him as I did in Pudge.
“It’s not like he’s a guy that sits here and knows he’s backing up Pudge Rodriguez and isn’t going to play, and just shows up at the park. He comes ready to play.”
Haselman, 34, returned to Texas last November as part of the nine-player trade that sent two-time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez to Detroit.
When finalizing the Gonzalez deal, Rangers general manager Doug Melvin had Haselman added. Melvin wanted a quality backup that could give Rodriguez an occasional day off.
Haselman served as Rodriguez’s backup in 1998, hitting .314 in 40 games. He then signed as a free agent with Detroit and hit .273 in 48 games last season while backing up another All-Star, Brad Ausmus.
Melvin also needed some insurance in case of an injury, such as the broken hand Rodriguez suffered July 24 when he hit Mo Vaughn’s bat while making a throw to second.
“A lot of people forget Bill Haselman being a part of that deal. If he wasn’t, I don’t know where we’d be right now with Pudge being hurt,” Melvin said. “It’s a real key. A backup catcher of his caliber would have been difficult to get.”
Rodriguez had started more games behind the plate than any AL catcher each of the past six seasons. Haselman, who played a season-high 77 games for Boston in 1996, likely would have been the league’s least-played backup catcher had Rodriguez (.347, 27 home runs, 83 RBIs) not gotten hurt.
“Of course, that’s not the way I want to get to see the opportunity,” Haselman said. “I don’t like to see anybody get hurt, especially somebody like Pudge who offers so much to our team.
“But the fact is since he is hurt, I’m just trying to go in there and play my game and try to first and foremost catch a good game and call a good game, and go from there.”