Is Ray Vinson ever the RIGHT answer?
Every once in a while the intertubez become so abuzz with ridiculous disinformation that I take it upon myself to wipe clean the slate of human ignorance. I then replace the ignorance with absolutely nothing but my own opinion via pontification of the blogging sort. It’s a sordid approach, but it works.
I will start with Ivan Rodriguez. He’s probably played a few years into irrelevance, and that’s a shame. The ridiculous numbers associated with his career cannot possibly do the man justice. He played in over 2400 games and caught more than 20,000 innings while managing to hit 311 home runs and collect 2844 hits. He posted a career slash line of .296/.334/.464/.798 with an oWAR of 50.4 and a dWAR of 16.9. Mind you that his dWAR of 16.9 is good for the 11th best all-time. That’s all-time for everybody who has ever played Major League Baseball, folks. How significant is that? Yadier Molina is considered a great defensive catcher, and he has 8.0 dWAR in 8 seasons.
Jaime Garcia looks just about normal at home, but he’s absolutely horrid on the road. His batting average against on this young season is .364 away from Busch Stadium, and that is accompanied by a .421 BAbip. Regardless of where he pitches, his WHIP remains highly unsustainable, so the Cardinals have reasons to be concerned. Naturally as I write this, Jonah Keri at ESPN has just authored something that includes a mention of Garcia as one of the most underrated players in the game. Maybe he is underrated, but he’s also carrying a 1.642 WHIP right now.
Chris Carpenter needs to do something or get off the throne. Actually, the Cardinals need to do something with Carp or get him off of the throne. Dropping him on the 60 day DL seems like a good start. Making it retroactive would give me a nice fuzzy feeling. If they don’t feel like it needs to be retroactive, then that warm and fuzzy feeling is neither warm nor fuzzy.
Cardinal Nation consists of the “best fans in baseball”. Check that. Actually, check with @DallasLatos on Twitter. Cincinnati pitcher Mat Latos is her husband, and she wasn’t exactly warmly welcomed by St. Louis fans on Twitter this week. I’m not sure why some fans feel it is okay to be rude to the opposing team’s family members, but that obviously crossed the line. She no more deserves the jerk store service treatment than you or I do. Well, she at least is no more deserving than you people are. I’m a different story. The point is that she’s no Jose Canseco, and she’s not holding up a sign that reads “Harass Me For Fun”. Cardinal Nation polices itself on such matters, and I was highly disappointed to read that some fans had gone all epic fail on us. Step up your game, Cardinal fans.
My timeline was definitely full of much ado about nothing yesterday before the Cardinals made the moves they were expected to make. Something something about Berkman and his calf, and some guy named Skip who likes to do headfirst slides into bases was activated. All that is well and good, but the real kerfluffel was about Matt Adams. No, it sure does not make sense to add him to the 40-man roster just for a few weeks, because that would “start the clock” on Adams.
Guess what….?
I don’t care. If Adams is the man who will one day supplant Berkman at 1B, then let’s get this party started now. If the Cardinals need to replace Berkman for even as much as 10 games at a time for a few DL stints, then I’d rather see Adams get some hacks in at the big league level now than leave it to Matt Carpenter. M Carp has performed admirably, but he is not a long term solution.
I’d rather have him getting ready now than waiting until the end of the season, because you never know when he might just be needed for a playoff run. Think over the numbers carefully. What are the odds that the Cardinals don’t need at least 50 games this year in replacement of a combination of Berkman, Freese, Beltran, and Holliday. Sure, a patchwork set of Matt Carpenter, Daniel Descalso, Tyler Greene, and Skip Schumaker can do it, but then the team is just a Rafael Furcal twisted ankle away from a full on cluster of fun.
With little depth at SS, 3B and almost no left-handed power off the bench, Adams could get some quality time here and there. The Cardinals have benefited from a deep, flexible bench so far this year. With Adams in the fold, multi-position players like Matt Carpenter wouldn’t be tied to a single spot, and that flexibility could be maintained.
Follow gr33nazn on Twitter for more kerfluffles or whatever those things are!
{ 2 comments }
Good thoughts all around. If Carp goes on the DL, does the anticipated Shelby Miller call-up happen? But, then, that would start his “clock running,” if it’s before late May. Meanwhile, what’s wrong with Waino?
I can’t imagine Miller being called up that early, unless it’s an emergency, and Carp to the 60-day doesn’t quite qualify to me. The starting staff can hold together that long.
As for Waino, he just isn’t where he would like to be, but he is close to where he should be. Part of his issue is learning to pitch without everything available, and part is getting the “downward plane” on his fastball going again. Pitch data shows his velocity is only slightly down, but his movement is off. Getting back away from relying on the cutter will help, but expectations have been awfully high and need to be tempered.
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