“I Don’t Know” is on Third Base
by Michael Riehn
Whiteyball Staff
I Don't Know!
Troy, Troy, where art thou Troy? This offense has missed its erstwhile third basemen and slugger more than it could have imagined. The old Abbot and Costello routine, “Who’s on First?”, seems to be talking about the 2009 Cardinals, as “I don’t know” really is on third base. Something that was seen as depth (3B) has turned into a nightmare in May. Just like the outfield, which has seen depletion due to injury, third base has seen its worst case scenerio come to fruition. Our two biggest strengths going into the season, (OF and 3B) have turned out to be our biggest weaknesses due to injury and ineffectiveness.
When Troy Glaus announced his hidden injury to the world (and Cardinals), we were still looking pretty good. We had David Freese ready to make the jump, Brian Barden and Allen Craig were good backup options, and Joe Mather was coming off an impressive season in 2008. That didn’t even include our first round draft pick last year, Brett Wallace, who some see as the best hitting prospect in the 2008 draft.
Spring Training changed all of that. Allen Craig was deemed a defensive liability at third base and was moved to 1B (where players go to die in the Cardinal system). Joe Mather started out hot and then inexplicably forgot how to hit and is now injured. He’s yet to take an at bat in the major leagues in 2009. David Freese was found to have a freak injury from a car accident, which he is still battling and is on the minor league disabled list. Brian Barden hit well and Joe Thurston didn’t, but made the team as a backup for many different positions.
What happened and what should we do?
Top prospect, Brett Wallace is probably close to being ready to be in a major league lineup, but he is not quite tearing the cover off of the ball like last year. He needs more seasoning at 3rd base to see if he can be adequate, and there is an important issue at hand with calling him up. If the Cardinals call him up this year, they will be forced to add him to the 40 man roster. No big deal right? We have the space to add the left handed hitting slugger.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals have to be cognizant of the long term. Calling Wallace up before June 1st would mean that he will make a lot more money in arbitration in year 3-6 before free agency. Is he even ready for the jump? Enough to light 1-2 million dollars on fire each year in 2011, 2012 and 2013?
The Cardinals also have an issue with their prospects. The have a lot of minor league prospects that were high schoolers and college kids in the 2005/2006 drafts. That is the trade off for having 2 very good drafts. What is the significance of this? Many of these players must be added to the 40 man roster this offseason or we could lose them to other teams in the Rule 5 draft. Brian Walton from The Cardinal Nation, The Birdhouse at Scout.com has outlined the Cardinals that will need to be added to the 40 man roster in a superb recent article.
Top prospects like Darryl Jones, Jon Jay, Brian Anderson, Adam Ottovino, Jaime Garcia and P.J. Walters will all need to be protected. This doesn’t even include our mid level prospects, 2010 free agents, major league players or players that make a big push this year in the minors. If we call up Wallace, he will need to be protected too and we will lose one of these precious spots.
Wallace was just promoted to AAA after a slightly disappointing round of AA. The man was still hitting well for a prospect at his age, .281/.391/.438 (Batting Average, On Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage), but his batting average and slugging percentage were below expectations. When you translate that to the majors, he projects to struggle a bit, and it shows that he needs a little more seasoning.
Is all of this worth it for a player that probably isn’t quite ready to hit in the majors, and definitely not ready to play third base?
The best thing to do right now, in my opinion is to give the 2009 NL rookie of the month more playing time. While Brian Barden has not been hitting well in May, he is barely getting playing time over Joe Thurston. The worst thing that happened to the Cardinals is that Thurston had a good April and the team thought he could play everyday at third base. While I think he has some value as a backup middle infielder and occasional starter at third base, he shouldn’t be anywhere near a regular lineup (especially when he is this cold).
You can’t blame the Cardinals for not having enough depth at third base. As I have outlined above, the worst case scenerio has occured that nobody could have predicted. Things are bound to turn around and the organization and fans are going to have to be patient. I know the Cardinals are in a terrible skid, but we need to ride out the storm with what we have.
Filed Under: Baseball • Featured • Uncategorized
About the Author: I am a Cardinal fan, from a small town in Missouri and grew up listening to the Whiteyball teams of the 1980s (but still love the Tony LaRussa version). Currently living outside of St. Louis, I am a partial season ticket holder with a great group of friends.
I hold the position of Director of Sales and Marketing for a hydraulic press manufacturer and serve on a local youth baseball board of directors. Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/mriehn
I agree, for the most part. With this caveat:
If Glaus is out for the rest of the season and Wallace continues to hit at AAA, where he just got called up, I think it’s much more reasonable to see him in St. Louis around the All-Star Break.
Look, odds are he’s going to be the third baseman for next season anyway, right? So he’ll have to be added to the 40-man then. Adding him this year won’t change the calculus any.
All that said, I wish that Craig hadn’t been deemed as such a defensive liability, because he could help the team out now.
Unfortunately, like Craig, Wallace is not ready to play third base on a big league level. The defense is just not their yet.
Cardinal70,
You definitely have a point with him probably on the roster for next year. If he is up at the All-Star break you would be getting around the arbitration problem of possible super 2 status.
He’s definitely had a great start to AAA in his first 14 at bats (small sample size alert! .429/ .429/ .500), but I’d still like to see more power from him before he is brought up. Without his power he is a more patient Brian Barden with less defensive ability (albeit with a higher batting average).
His power will come, but I don’t think he’s shown quite enough polish to be called up yet. The minors can only help him gain experience in the field. I don’t want to sacrifice him possibly playing 3rd base in order to rush him to the majors this season.
[...] moves. The most glaring need right now is at third. Mike wrote an excellent post last week, “I Don’t Know” is on Third Base, with the rationale for playing Brian Barden on a daily basis to see what he can do. He also [...]
[...] "I Dont Know" is on Third Base | Whiteyball reddit_url='http://www.baby-parenting.com/baby/babyname/Barden/13989' reddit_title='Baby name meaning and origin for Barden – baby boy name Barden' [...]