Of the many stories that came out of the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up fan festival just two months ago, one focused on two Cardinals outfielders who hit the weight room over the winter and appeared noticeably bulked up.
One was top prospect Colby Rasmus. In an AP article in January, this was said about Colby:
“The 22-year-old Rasmus has been doing eight bench-press repetitions at 275 pounds all winter while working out at home with his brother and dad. He’s also done a lot of sprint work and said his speed has not been compromised by the injury.”
The outfielder has been given plenty of opportunities to impress this spring, but so far, has fallen short of the lofty expectations placed upon him. Rasmus’ current line is .244/.326/.366. His 13 strikeouts in 41 at-bats lead the team.
The other prominent lifter is fellow outfielder Ryan Ludwick. The same January 22 AP article mentioned this:
“His bench press routine of eight repetitions at 285 pounds, a 30-pound improvement over last season, helps him set the bar for 50 homers in 2009 with a straight face.”
At the time, Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch also commented. He seemed unsure if the comments were made in jest.
“Ludwick ought to get stronger and was able to increase, for example, his bench-press reps by 30 pounds. He then semi-joked that he’d ‘like to hit 50’ home runs.”
Manager Tony La Russa was not amused at the time. “That’s a dumb thing for Lud to say,” he was quoted as saying to the Belleville News-Democrat. The manager wisely wanted the outfielder to let the power come to him.
Struggling so far this spring with a .147/.275/.206 line after 12 games and 34 at-bats, Ludwick is now waving off the 50 home run talk.
From a Sunday AP article, “Ludwick emphasizes that he never predicted 50 homers.”
“I said ‘I dreamed about playing in the big leagues so why can’t you dream about hitting 50 home runs in the big leagues?”‘ Ludwick said. “Do I think I’m going to hit 50 home runs? No. I’m just trying to play to my capabilities.”
With that, I have decided to offer my mid-spring view of how the remaining players in big league camp have performed to date. All players are placed into one of three groups – rising, flat or falling.
These are my personal views and several weeks remain for these to change. Here’s hoping all the fallers rise during the second half of camp.
| Pitchers | Mitchell Boggs | Late start, but four shutout innings. |
| Rising | Chris Carpenter | So far, so good. |
| Ryan Franklin | Save the bullets for the season! | |
| Blake Hawksworth | A 4.22 ERA is an improvement. | |
| Josh Kinney | 4 walks in 5 scoreless IP only minor blemish. | |
| Charlie Manning | Too many walks, but hasn’t been bad (1.69 ERA). | |
| Jason Motte | Hasn’t walked anyone in 5 IP. | |
| Joel Pineiro | No ER in 10 IP! | |
| Adam Wainwright | Not yet at an ace level, but improving each time. | |
| P.J. Walters | Quietly entering sixth starter race. | |
| Pitchers | Kyle Lohse | Sorry, but 3.60 ERA is expected for $41 M. |
| Flat | Trever Miller | No surprises is a good thing for veteran. |
| Adam Ottavino | WBC game was nice, but Cards results less so. | |
| Fernando Salas | 3 ER and 3 BB in 5 IP. Expectations low in 1st camp. | |
| Matt Scherer | Slowed by injury, but 1st IP good. Could rise. | |
| Jess Todd | 3 BB, 3 ER in 6 1/3 IP. He’ll be back, though! | |
| Dennys Reyes | Yet to appear, but not dominating in WBC. | |
| Pitchers | Kyle McClellan | 7.56 ERA concerning, but should end up in pen. |
| Falling | Chris Perez | How bad is the heel bothering him? |
| Royce Ring | 2 HR in 5 1/3 IP. | |
| Brad Thompson | 5.19 ERA not impressive for veteran swingman. | |
| Todd Wellemeyer | Only 7 IP, so time to improve on 5.14 ERA. | |
| Catchers | Jason LaRue | Seeing a lot of time, but only batting .208 |
| Flat | Yadier Molina | Away at WBC. He will be fine. |
| Matt Pagnozzi | Hitting .200, but stayed longer than expected. | |
| Catchers | Bryan Anderson | Not hitting (.154) and runners are stealing on him. |
| Falling | ||
| Infielders | Brian Barden | Hitting a quiet .350. |
| Rising | Allen Craig | Batting .476! Should be slugging 1B at Memphis. |
| Khalil Greene | May be dark horse surprise of 2009 team. | |
| Joe Mather | Leads in RBI, but average remains a concern. | |
| Joe Thurston | Versatile and contributing. | |
| Infielders | Albert Pujols | .333/.489/.455 line is expected. |
| Flat | Skip Schumaker | Bat is just fine. Position change still open issue. |
| Infielders | Troy Glaus | When will he really be back at 100%? |
| Falling | Tyler Greene | Glove good, but 8 Ks in 35 ABs and .229 average. |
| Brendan Ryan | Needs to get healthy and hot. 3-for-10 not enough. | |
| Outfielders | Rick Ankiel | Batting .333, drawing BBs, but Ks still a bit high. |
| Rising | Chris Duncan | Power seems back. |
| Jon Jay | One of camp surprises. Can he hit enough for COF? | |
| Outfielders | Brian Barton | .192 with 9 Ks in 26 ABs. |
| Falling | Ryan Ludwick | Still has plenty of time to get ready for season. |
| Colby Rasmus | Uneven play to date isn’t forcing his way onto team. |
P.S. A Sunday MLB.com article stated that Brendan Ryan is out of options. That is incorrect.
Brian, thanks for posting your thoughts about the players. I mostly agree but I thought Ottavino looked great yesterday against the Phillies, recording all three outs via the strikeout. The hit he gave up was a shot but he looked like a young Andy Benes to me.
The stolen base yesterday when Anderson was catching was not his fault. Yadi couldn’t have nailed that runner with a rifle. Todd simply ignored the runner. I’m not sure if there were bases stolen on him earlier in the spring, though.
Duncan really ripped one yesterday that Howard flagged down and nearly caught Albert off second. I think Dunc is back!
Colby is such a natural, he’s not used to trying. He is grinding mentally which is what is slowing him down. He will get better, but there is a fear of failure here that seems at the base of this problem. That can be a life long challenge………. Lohse seems ok. He was clearly working on pitches yesterday, forcing some fastballs, not getting much life out of the two seamer, shy with the slider. His redundant change ups dominated the 5th. He is mentally in good shape. I thought Octo man had good natural movement on his fastball. Miller and Reyes are both going to have me wiggling in my chair all season. They get results though. Duncan looks strong but as predicted, choked when put in the 4th slot. Ludwick has a potentially fatal swing flaw. If he just looked at Werth’s stance and attitude, always on balance, he would be fine. Greene created the most concern for Philly pitching. He will be good. I would give Thurston a chance. Text book swing. Shu should be playing outfield and he will. He is a liability at second.
Jay hit well for average at AA and during his brief AAA debut. He seems more ML ready as a hitter than Rasmus. Colby is not doing bad in spring training, if one considers he hit just .251 at Memphis in 2008. The Cards have talked him up this spring, maybe to illustrate how valued he is, for the possible benefit of both fans and Rasmus. But if Rasmus can benefit from a second season at AAA, he will be in very good company, with people like Ludwick, Schumacker, and Chris Duncan. The Cards have the luxury of enough OFs that they can afford to give Colby more AAA education. This will serve him well in the future.
If K. Greene has a “good glove”, he is a potentially valuable asset in future. He has spent little time at AAA so far, and should spend at least one full season there.
DD, Ottavino pitched one inning on Sunday and looked good in fanning three, but also gave up a ground rule double. His only other time out, he gave up three runs, two earned in one inning. I guess if a trend could be one game long…
I haven’t been keeping a log of Anderson’s games, but it definitely caught my eye when the Orioles also stole three against him on Friday. Brian Roberts and Adam Jones are legitimate threats, but…
I had forgotten about Ottavino’s earlier outing.
WC seems to have made up his mind that Ludwick is a bum. I usually tend to give a guy the benefit of the doubt when he is coming off the type season Luddy enjoed in 2008.
This would be a good place for me to vent about the ESPN announcers. During the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen them call A-Rod the best player in baseball, Hanley Ramirez the best player in the National League and Ichiro the best hitter in the world.
If ARod still played shortstop at a Gold Glove level he might have an argument but as a third baseman his defense doesn’t add anything to his value. Ramirez is an outfielder playing shortstop and Albert has a higher batting average, on base pct. and slugging pct. than Ichiro. What the heck does Albert have to do to get a little respect?
What should one make of Pagnozzi staying in camp longer then Knoedler? Could it be that Pags gets the nod as the backup AAA catcher and Knoedler gets the axe? Maybe they will sign someone who gets released by another team, in any case, it doesn’t look goods for Knoedler.
DD, I can’t defend anything that comes out of ESPN. I did want to comment that a friend of mine who lives in Jupiter says Hanley is bigger and worse on defense than before and he expects the Marlin to have to be moved to the outfield before the season is out.
CC, I have been wondering about the catching cuts for the past week. My guess is that Pags remained due to his glove as he certainly isn’t much of a hitter.
Duncan is 0fer 9 as the cleanup, in the last three games. Welly looks like he has the spring training bla’s. He is just tired.
I’m not a decision maker there (in St. Louis),” Oquendo said. “It would have been nice to have him. But I just work with what they give me.
“He’s a good athlete, a good player. I think in the right place … and I think St. Louis is a place for him … it would have been a good thing. But the decision has been made and we go from there. We’re going to do our best to make Schumaker work.”
How nice that my question was answered.
The bullpen is highly problematic right now. Can anyone seriously recommend sending down Motte, Kinney or Perez, just in order to keep Brad Thompson? Apparently the schedule only has one rest day for a quite a while during the early going. With Wellemeyer continuing to look shaky, I’m sure innings from the bullpen are a concern.
Brian astutely pointed out that LaRussa has never broken camp with the Cardinals with eight relievers on the team. However, this would be an elegant solution to two problems: (1) keeping WonderBrad on the team; and (2) finding a spot for Colby Rasmus. As it shapes up today, with Mather at third and Schumaker at second, there is plenty of substitute outfielding available. Throw Duncan into the mix and you’ve got a full outfield bench, even if it technically only counts one player as a reserve (Duncan).
By going with eight relievers, you can give the right side relief order time to sort itself out AND get to keep Thompson for the inevitable blow-ups. When Glaus returns, either Thompson or another RH reliever goes down to Memphis and Mather returns to riding the pine. The flip side is you need versatility in the two infield reserves, which probably means two of Thurston, Ryan and Barden make the squad.
My preferred long-term solution to this is to send both McClellan and Rasmus to Memphis for the first couple of months and figure things out. When they’re ready, Mather and Thompson can trade places with them.
This is interesting stuff Red. Welly has a little spring fatigue thats all. He will be fine. Thurston is going to make the Team. I have this suspicion that the Colby deal is already made. He will get opportunities in April and when Glaus returns they will make a decision. They will split Motte and Perez. That gives them a no-cost move if needed. They will keep Thompson to protect Carpenter. That unthinkable Ludwick move is looming. He has multiple problems at the plate. Watching him to days in a row, with a few small adjustments he made tells me he is in trouble. Duncan is taking on water when he is exposed in the cleanup spot. His swing is fine but hat soft spot between his ears, not so much.
Interesting ideas, RedC. I don’t think the Cards agree with your bottom line preference though, as McClellan’s spot on the team seems a virtual lock.
I agree with WC that they will probably send one of Perez, Kinney or Motte down to Memphis. At this moment, I think it will be Perez who goes down. I understand why McClellan is viewed as a “lock,” though I think he’s suffering somewhat right now and do question, with two good LOOGys, why we have to have him if he’s struggling.
Kinney is a lock too Red. Motte is my choice as closer, but he was a bit ruff today. It looks like the activity of griping a slider and a change-up in the glove has effected his motion a bit. He seems preoccupied with hiding the ball and grip in his early windup, at least from my memory of last year.
FWIW, Goold’s column today also has Motte, Perez and Kinney among those fighting for the last two spots with McClellan and Thompson among those he considers already on the team. If you are so inclined, you can even vote for your favorites to make the roster. If he really had guts, Derrick would show his fan voting results to TLR. Now that would be a sight to see!
RedC, here are at least two supporting reasons why I think TLR/DD think McClellan is a lock. First, he performed last year so has “veteran” points. Second, he worked this spring in a role that is not his normal one. He did that at the request of TLR/DD for the good of the team. Though he has not excelled in it, he also did not fail in his real assignment. Those two reasons and the one that is likely most prevalent and will be made public – that they simply believe he is one of their seven best relievers given all the roles that need to be filled. Again, this is not necessarily my personal view, but what I think they might be thinking…