BRADENTON

Ryan Doumit walked out of the Pirates' clubhouse the other day already having answered the one cogent question of the week: Was that his first home run in full view of former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani?

"Well, now that I think of it, yeah," said the guy who should make the Pirates' catching job all but his own in the three weeks that remain on this club's Florida itinerary.

In front of Guiliani, George Steinbrenner, and more than 10,000 travelling and displaced Yankee fans at Legends Field in Tampa Wednesday night, Doumit turned on a pitch from Darrell Rasner and launched it into the Hillsborough County night. Pirates on that traveling split squad were still talking about its bombastic qualities at the weekend, comparing it to the one Doumit sent to kiss the top of a palm tree last weekend in Fort Myers against the Red Sox.

But, when the talk about Doumit turns analytical and meaningful -- as 400-foot spring homers tend not to be -- the topic is primarily defense.

"He's come a long way -- his mechanics are better and he has a great arm," said Jim Lett, who was sitting next to new Pirates manager Jim Tracy in the Los Angeles Dodgers' dugout last Sept. 24, when Doumit lashed a career high four hits. "I know he kind of got overwhelmed a bit at the plate last summer, but that happens, especially when you've had success as a hitter in the minor leagues and you come up and struggle, that can really get to you.

"Plus, he was trying to help that guy 60 feet, six inches away."

Those are the rough parameters of Doumit's little predicament. He's trying to become a productive major-league hitter while establishing an effective rapport with a pitching staff that's by turns awfully precocious or precociously awful.

And still, the Pirates are stronger with Doumit than they were this time a year ago, when they were hobbling toward Opening Day with Benito Santiago and David Ross behind the plate. Santiago's failing body made it to the home opener, when he launched the longest triple in PNC Park history, but not by distance. In time elapsed. He was released a month later. Ross, whom Pirates GM David Littlefield had purchased from a Dodgers' garage sale for I believe $75 hung around until July, when he was optioned to Indianapolis and ultimately traded to the San Diego Padres for J.J. Furmaniak.

Doumit arrived the first week of June to split the catching load with Humberto Cota, who made 29 more starts than Doumit, but hit .242 and moved into the exclusive more-strikeouts-than-hits club. Doumit hit .364 in his first 10 days in the majors, but then got a good look at what he was up against.

"It wasn't easy, there's no doubt about that," he said. "As long as I was in the minor leagues, I considered myself a hitter first, but once I got here I realized it was exactly the opposite. Defense is the top priority. I tried to do everything right and just remain confident that I'd always hit."

That's when your 2005 Pirates, right at their most severe brush with competence at 30-32, anointed Doumit their designated hitter for a trip to Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. He hit .174 in those eight games, and though he managed to drive in four runs on the trip, he would endure ruts of 0 for 10, 3 for 32, and hit .122 in July before he got his hitting straightened out again.

"Nobody wants to be in a slump," Doumit said. "The key is to minimize the number of at-bats it takes to get out of it. If I'm 0 for 10, I'm not panicking. You hit extra, look at some film, you have to stay confident you're going to hit."

Which, to the considerable credit of such an inexperienced player, is essentially why Doumit led all major-league rookies with a .364 average in August. His first two homers came in the same game, one bouncing into the Allegheny, and his first major-league season ended with a perfectly decent .255 average. He stroked 13 doubles, a triple, and six homers, drove in 35 runs. He hit .333 with runners in scoring position, .375 with the bases loaded, and became the first Pirate in four years to steal home.

More urgently though, he threw out a highly acceptable 10 of 29 runners trying to steal (Cota nailed 12 of 40), and attained at least some understanding of what it takes to handle a pitching staff, such as it is.

"It wasn't all that hard because guys like [Zach] Duke and [Paul] Maholm were with me in the minors," Doumit said. "The Wells, the Foggs, the guys I'd never caught before, we weren't on the same page right away, but it got better. I want the pitchers to want to throw to me. I want to be able to handle it all."

The Pirates don't expect Doumit to do it all, but they'd love him to do most of it.