Logjammed

Written by: Aaron Hooks on 2nd March 2009

Logjammed | read this item

Ed Note: Over the course of building out the Cardinals section of Baseball Digest, we’ll be taking contributions from people. Bill Ivie is a person.

The one positive going into the 2009 camp was this great “logjam” of talent the Cardinals posses in the outfield. The problem is, this great benefit has me a bit nervous. Let me explain…

The Cardinals will definitely look to the outfield to solidify this lineup this year. The outfield will more than likely account for the numbers 2, 4, and 5 spots in the lineup. That doesn’t include the fact that the surplus of outfielders has an opportunity of providing two infield spots as well.

The Schumaker experiment is intriguing and can pay off huge dividends. I love the idea and Skip will make a great leadoff hitter and a good quality 2nd baseman if his glove work comes along like they hope it will. But the rest of this is kind of shaky to me. In another experiment, due to a vehicle accident that has left prospect David Freese less than 100% coming into the spring, Joe Mather is being looked at to patrol the hot corner. I love Mr. Mather and his style of play, but putting his bat in the rocking chair and accepting that drop off from Troy Glaus to him is tremendous. Brett Wallace is barely getting a look, I suspect because they don’t want to “start his clock” yet.

In center we have an outfielder that can flat out rake in Rick Ankiel, not to mention the girls he will take home with him nightly (lock your daughters up, fathers of STL). But, at the same time, he’s injury prone and only played 120 games last year. Sure, he hit 25 out of the yard, which puts him on pace for 30-32 dingers, but he has to stay healthy or it does this team no good.

In right field comes last year’s co-leader in home runs and surprise All Star Ryan Ludwick. However, and I hope I’m wrong, something is screaming “flash in the pan” to me. Can he catch lightning in a bottle twice?

Left field looks like it will be up in the air between Colby Rasmus and Chris Duncan. The former is the “heir apparent to the throne”, but is he really major league ready? The latter is recovering from a surgery that is completely unprecedented in major league baseball. Can he regain his form? What production do we anticipate, honestly from this position?

Sure, we have a surplus of major league talent. But at the end of the day, talent won’t win the ball game. “Major League” talent doesn’t mean the best outfield in baseball. A team can have eight Skip Schumaker’s on the roster, but if that’s your lineup, I don’t think you’re going home with some hardware at the end of the year. Depth is great, but it doesn’t always suggest greatness.

Can the stars align for the Cardinals this year? If this is the strong point of this team, we may be in for a bumpy ride.

Bill Ivie

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Topics: Cardinals Outfield, Ryan Ludwick, Skip Shumaker, St. Louis Cardinals

gibson45 says:

March 2, 2009 at 8:39 pm

1st off,I don’t think Ludwick is a flash in the pan.Last year was his first full season playing without injuries.If you look at his numbers coming up in the minors they are pretty impressive.2nd,calling Ankiel injury prone is jumping to conclusions pretty quickly for a guy that has 1 1/2 years under his belt as a full time player.As far as Rasmus or Duncan,,why couldn’t Mather or Barton take over that position once Glaus gets back in a few weeks,,he won’t miss that much time.The strong point for St.Louis is and will be Albert Pujols and I also will add our starting pitching with Wainwright,Carpenter and Lohse anchoring the rotation,,Wellemeyer and Piniero will also add a good number of innings.The Cardinals finished 10 games over .500 last year with an imjury riddled team.This year only looks better and I don’t think it will be a matter of the stars being aligned or catching lightening in bottle to win this division.All we have to do is stay healthy,,just like any other team.
Bill Ivie says:

March 2, 2009 at 9:18 pm

Thanks for the response gibson….

I hope you are right about Ludwick. But the fact is, he’s been hurt. One good season of not being hurt does not make you something to depend on. Call me crazy, and I hope I’m wrong, but this guy screams “Fernando Tatis part II” to me.

Calling Ankiel injury prone can cover his entire professional career, not just his outfield days. The man has yet to spend a season, minor or major league, without a stop or two on the DL. I loved Scott Rolen when he was here, too, but if you can’t put up 150+ games on a regular basis, it’s hard to depend on you.

As far as Troy Glaus goes, as far as I have heard there is still no set timetable for his return. The initially were hoping for May 1, but that was pending some more tests that won’t take place for another week or so, if I remember correctly.

Left field, if that is indeed where this wonderful experiment will play out, under your approach has four candidates: Rasmus/Duncan/Mather/Barton. In all honesty, I hope and believe that Rasmus is one of our three starting outfielders on opening day and I actually think he will do ok. However, of these four outfielders only Chris Duncan has significant experience. The guys over at the MLB network were having a good time watching him taking standard fly ball drills and looking pretty horrible, by the way. Mather has some pop in his bat, but he’s a 5th outfielder at best on most Major League teams. Barton is interesting, thought I would prefer him as a #4 outfielder, providing speed and giving the regular three a rest.

I agree to an extent on your observations of the pitching staff, but that is a subject to be covered in a later post….
Bill Ivie says:

March 2, 2009 at 9:29 pm

Our good friend Matthew Leach, in an article on February 17th for MLB.com covered the Glaus injury and lack of timetable for return here:

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090217&content_id=3840922&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl
If is a big word : Baseball Digest says:

March 10, 2009 at 1:23 pm

[...] discussed the outfield recently in “Logjammed”, but this whole thing relies on IF. IF Ankiel stays healthy, IF this is the year Rasmus arrives, [...]