Grading the Cardinals II: The Outfield

Yesterday, we took a fairly lengthy (and hopefully informative) look at the management and infield of the Cardinals.  Today, we step onto the outfield grass and give the Redbird flycatchers their yearly grades.

Before we get there, be sure to check out the first of the UCB roundtables over at The Cardinal Virtue today!

Now, to the outfielders.........





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Rick Ankiel: B+.  He wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t bad, either.  Many of us didn’t know exactly what to expect out of the converted pitcher.  Sure, he’d had a good last couple of months to 2007, but he’d also slumped after some exposure to the league.  Would he be able to make adjustments?  Would he just be a HR or bust type slugger?  Could he play the outfield well on a consistent basis?

Ankiel answered all the questions in a positive manner.  He was a streaky hitter as well, though probably not to the extent of Glaus.  He had his weaknesses, especially an offspeed pitch with two strikes.  But he provided the power that we hoped he would and carried a decent average along the way.  The sports hernia that he was forced to play with for the last month+ of the season (a terrible decision by LaRussa and just another instance of the communication between medical and management being called into question) brought down his season numbers, but hopefully the surgery he had at the end of the season will have him ready to go for 2009.

Defensively, though, Ankiel really shined, looking the part of the heir apparent to Jim Edmonds.  Numerous quality catches, including one early in the season to rob a Cincinnati player of a HR.  What really brought attention, though, was his arm.  The same arm that had trouble hitting a target from 60 feet, six inches was seemingly able to put throws from the outfield on a dime at times.  The two throws to catch runners going to third in Colorado may be the defensive highlight of the year in baseball, not just the Cardinals.

Ryan Ludwick: A.  If anyone else on this team deserves the top letter grade besides Albert Pujols, it has to be Ludwick.  I’m fairly sure no one expected a 30/100 season out of him before the year started, not even Momma Ludwick.  If anyone was going to be a breakout player from the outfield, surely it was going to be Ankiel.  And yet Ludwick got the chance to show what he can do when he is healthy and made the most of it.

The question may be what he’ll do next year, but right now he appears to be one of those “impact bats” we heard so much about in the offseason.  He won’t surprise anyone next year, but if he hits after Pujols, he’ll hit with a runner on a lot of times and that’s never a bad thing.

Skip Schumaker: B.  Skip was another pleasant surprise in an outfield that was full of them.  Colby Rasmus didn’t necessarily play well enough to get a promotion, but the production from players like Schumaker and Ludwick would have kept him down on the farm anyway.  Who would have guessed that Schumaker would be among the league leaders in average?  Granted, the platoon LaRussa employed, keeping Skip on the bench against lefties, helped somewhat, but he still did the job he was supposed to do.  He even won a game or two with a home run, something that pushes the bounds of believability.  All three of these guys were solid offensively and defensively, so it’s no wonder things improved so much for the Cardinals in 2008.

Brian Barton: C.  For a Rule V player, he didn’t do half bad.  He obviously still had some rough edges and, in a perfect world, would have been playing more for Memphis than just the 20-day rehab stint that he had.  Still, he showed why the Cardinals thought highly enough of him to keep him on the roster all year long.  He didn’t burn out over the season, either, as he finished on a tear that had fans wondering just exactly what it took to get him into the lineup instead of some of the middle infielders playing next to the wall.  His defense needs some work and he’ll probably be AAA bound next year, but he’s an exciting player with some good potential.

Joe Mather: C.  Mather’s another player that showed flashes of being a productive player before having his season cut short with a hand injury.  The first time Mather came up, I really thought he was going to be one of those AAAA players, too good for Memphis, not good enough for St. Louis, and he’d spend time riding the shuttle.  After a short stint in Memphis, he came back and put together a more solid body of work before his injury.  Mather has power, there’s no doubt about that, but making consistent contact may be his trouble spot.  He should go into 2009 as the leading backup outfielder, which can make for a lot of at bats on a LaRussa-managed team.

Chris Duncan: C-.  Going into the season, Duncan was expected to be a good, young, cheap source of power for the Cardinals.  He’d had a great first half of 2007, only to slump after the All-Star Break playing with a sports hernia.  (You’d think the experience would have made an impression on the coaching staff.  Ankiel proved that it didn’t.)  Supposedly healthy, he was going to be a 30 HR guy to protect Pujols and inject some life into the club.

None of that happened, however.  It got so bad for Duncan that he wound up being demoted to Memphis (and not hitting there either) for about a week.  I’ve always argued that Duncan was going to have a small window of success in the majors, but I didn’t think it’d be that small. 

Finding out that there was a physical cause to his problems was good news and bad news.  The good news was that there was a reason and that, if it was treatable, he might still return to being that source of power.  The bad news, besides the fact that it was potentially career threatening, is that the injury, coupled with his low production, meant that he was basically untradeable instead of being that intriguing chip to bring in a young pitcher.  Trading him to free up the outfield surplus won’t really be an option in the offseason either.

Outfield incompletes:  Nick Stavinoha.

We’ve taken a look at the offense, which was a real bright spot for the 2008 squad.  Whether it had anything to do with the pitcher hitting eighth, that’s up for debate.  Tomorrow, we start the work of going through the pitching staff.  We’ll take the relatively good starters first before wrapping up Thursday with the relief corp.