The St. Louis Cardinals’ already-short bench has reached a critical stage.
Infielder Brendan Ryan, in the midst of an impressive defensive series in Atlanta, had to leave Wednesday evening’s rubber match against the Atlanta Braves with what was characterized as left hamstring tightness.
The 27-year-old was injured in the fifth inning when running down the first base line after what turned out to be a foul ball. Brian Barden finished the at-bat for Ryan and took over defensively at shortstop. More information about the severity of Ryan’s injury should be made available on Thursday.
Part of the reason for Ryan’s opportunity was that regular starting shortstop Khalil Greene was out of the lineup with a sore right forearm. The veteran, in his first season with St. Louis, is expected to miss a few days.
With the club carrying 13 pitchers, the available bench of position players shrinks from an already-short four down to an unworkable two because of the pair of wounded infielders. The ready reserves are catcher Jason LaRue, always saved for emergency purposes, and the fourth outfielder, who on Wednesday evening was Ryan Ludwick.
If either injury is expected to linger more than one or two days, the club may need to call on Triple-A Memphis for help. Even if neither player is hurt enough to hit the disabled list, a pitcher could be sent down to make room for a position player.
If they go this route, the most likely hurler to be sent out is rookie P.J. Walters, who was given just one start before yielding the turn to Mitchell Boggs. Boggs was impressive in his first start against Chicago and is the scheduled starter in Washington on Thursday.
Another possibility would be to wait until Boggs completes his outing and option him out, despite how well or poorly he performs. Without an injury elsewhere, any player sent down would be required to remain there for at least ten days.
The 2009 Memphis club is off to a very poor start offensively. Their team batting average of .222 is tied for worst in the 16-team Pacific Coast League, while their OBP (.310) and slugging (.315) are dead last. They are last in runs scored with ten fewer than the 15th-best club and a whopping 50 behind league-leader Omaha (72 to 122, each in 19 games).
Still, there are a few offensive standouts on the Redbirds who could be considered candidates for a call up.
Shortstop Tyler Greene has been an underachiever in past years, but received positive reviews in spring training. He is already on the club’s 40-man roster and can play all over the infield. Greene’s current slash stats are .296/.412/.423 with Memphis. The right-handed hitter leads the Redbirds in both strikeouts with 17 and walks with 12.
A longer shot would be corner infielder Allen Craig, who blistered the ball in Florida. He is second on the club in batting (.313), slugging (.453) and OPS (.842). Craig also can play some outfield but is not on the 40-man.
Then there is banished David Freese, who made the big league team out of spring training, but didn’t produce offensively. The third baseman has been struggling through his first 27 Triple-A at-bats this season with a line of .148/.179/.185.
Another option could be to return to a more traditional roster make up with a fifth outfielder. While Joe Mather has a place on the 40-man, he is not hitting well with a .123 average.
Shane Robinson is the Redbirds’ leading hitter across the board this season to date with a .375/.434/.479 line but had not even been invited to major league spring camp. Based on the last three weeks of play, he seems deserving of a chance, but would have to be added to the 40-man first.
Jon Jay may have been the most impressive non-roster outfielder in spring camp other than Colby Rasmus, but he hasn’t carried it over to the regular season. His stat line is .208/.275/.222 and he has fanned 12 times with just five walks in 72 at-bats.
The path of least resistance in the outfield may be Nick Stavinoha. With MLB experience last season, the right-handed hitter’s current line is .246/.359/.385. Stavinoha is the primary run-producer as the only player on the Memphis club to have reached double digits in RBI at 15.
Brian I think Robinson has been out with a calf injury at Memphis. We probably can rule him out as a call up option.
Thanks for the reminder. Though Robinson hasn’t played since Friday, he wasn’t placed on the DL despite it being just seven days instead of 15 like in the majors. I do agree it would be unlikely for him to return to action directly with St. Louis though.
It depends on whether they want Barden playing SS. He did so last year at Memphis, so he could probably handle the job, but I suspect if they call up a position player, it’s gonna by Tyler Greene – any idea when they’re going to get a better idea of whether Ryan will have to be DL’d?
Not knowing, I like your suggestion – just go ahead and send Walters down now and call up Greene or whoever; we were going to have to go back to 12 pitchers anyway, although we still have 11 games to go before our next off-day.
I also wonder about Motte – is *his* ankle going to be OK, or do we have to DL *him* as well?
TLR said during the post-game that he is talking to Mo tonight and they’ll “probably have to do something”. With so many infielders on the roster coming into the season, who would have thought another would need to be added?
From a runners standpoint. It would be unlikely that Ryan didn’t pull something. He was in full stride. The cramp usual creates the tear. Ryan has never been that lucky. If it bled they will know soon enough.
T Greene is commonly given the label of underachiever by fans. In fact, he sustained a knee injury in mid-2007 and did not begin to feel confident about his knee until mid-2008, whereupon he hit very well at Springfield. In 2009, he has been one of the early bright spots at Memphis. If K Greene and the injury prone Ryan are out of action, it will not be a tough decision for the Cards to bring up T Greene.
Not to be overly redundant, but it seems like T Greene is the obvious choice, not just because of hitting, but mainly because of his positioning. If K Greene is out a few more days, we need to make sure that we have a true shortstop playing the position. Plus, we don’t have to add him to the 40 man. I like the idea of optioning Boggs after his start tonight as it puts the least amount of pressure on roster, although there is no contingency should another injury happen to a position player tonight.
I have my nose to the wind on the timing of KG’s arm strain Brian. Lets hope it isn’t more mysterious than that. Also the 15 day for Ryan is very real. His game is speed and range. He has to rest that thing, least he return with diminished skills. If Boggs continues to pitch well, he isn’t going anywhere. A couple more hot starts coupled with bad showings by Welly could well produce a new long man.
Cards’ approach could yield a huge payoff
Jeff Gordon
Columnist Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
04/30/2009
This article reminds me of the French character in the Matrix who says, “swearing in French is like wiping your a– with silk. Everything looks so easy when your in first place. That would not read as well from 5th place. Just think, if you take all the cheap options, which look as good as any right now, you could sign Albert who would be happy to play with these dynastic combinations. From 4th place however, Albert might not recognize this obvious dynasty, and I bet, you could get a shovel into that Cardinal Village with all that extra doe if he walked. Yes, new and stimulating (obvious)ideas from the Cards propaganda master.
Too many faces looking at the fences yesterday. Thank heaven Albert sobered up and started the singles parade. Colby was showboating for his homies. Lets hope he comes to earth on his two run error, casual side pick up scenarios.