I would have liked us to sign a vet amenable to playing some in AAA (or just use Mark Johnson for this). Then rotate Anderson up and down every 15 days or so. It gives Anderson MLB exposure (upping his value), allows him to get playing time while in AAA, and still gives the nervous duo of LaDunc their veteran catcher presence there on the bench. Why bother doing that? Because if Anderson is still on the team and Yaddi goes down, I want to see Anderson take over for however long Yaddi is on the DL. That won’t happen with TLR unless the kid gets some big league exposure prior to the emergency. Chances are Yaddi goes down for some period in 2009. One has to admit that.

… one other thing, LaRue has horrible mechanics behind the plate.

LaRue seems like a good guy to have around. It looks like he gives 100% all the time and the pitchers seem to like him. The team was able to put him in the line up without having to worry about not getting max effort. I believe that this helped Yadi have the year that he had.

and became a FA. stlcardinals.com

since the org has the larue type resigning continuously filling a roster spot, they could reinforce the utility corner infield (3b/1b/c) with a j. diamaco (ari/lhb) type trade, and quit carrying 2 utility middle infielders. the backup catcher would have a pinch hitter (3b type bat) in place as the third catcher, and the bench has a backup 3b for the season. adding pop over a ryan/barden type middle infielder.

srry guy, botched your name. my bad. jamie d’ antona.

I like the fact that he’s a quiet foundation that is drama free for the pitchers.

I like the fact that we have a catcher who’s behind the plate for a second season with the pitchers we have, giving them some consistency.

I like the fact that the backup catcher we have (and I’ll disagree on the above) is solid defensively, has a cannon of an arm (which makes up for his reaction time) and still carries a solid CS percentage.

I like the fact that it’ll (pending staying with the Cards) give Anderson more development time. He is very young, it’s not going to crush his value, and it’s going to protect his arb clock should he have a boom year. I also like the fact that he’ll get regular playing time instead of a bench role.

I like the fact that both times Yadi went down he posted up solid numbers (when Yadi’s head was in question, he had around a .900 OPS), is it small sample size? Sure.

I like the fact he’s cheap and the fact he doesn’t take shit off of anyone – as he shown this year.

Can’t complain about the price, length of contract or the player involved. Personally.

for backup catchers who don’t hit. It’s all part of having Tony around. Actually, he doesn’t like starting catchers that hit much, either.

Compared to previous years, I kind of like it. Normally, I worry about what happens if our catcher goes out for a few months and we have a weak backup. But now, I’d hope that if Molina is lost for a few months late in the year, they’d try Anderson out, who could use the PT. A better veteran might keep that from happening, causing Anderson to come up and sit while the backup started every day.

Larue was really pretty marginal (OK, he is good at stopping the running game, which would be handy if we played in a SB-heavy era, and we don’t). But he seems to get along with everyone, which is handy in a backup catcher.

compared to Rich Gedman, Hector Villaneuva, Scott Hemond, et al, in the good old days before LaRussa showed up. If the Cardinals weren’t bringing back Gedman and his 0.100 batting average for a second year (in the immortal words of Dal Maxvill, “Gedman may have only hit 0.100, but he works hard and runs out every ground ball.”), they were keeping two of those guys on the roster so they could start one of them at first base and still have one on the bench.

I never thought I would see such intelligent analysis regarding a back-up catcher. Thank You. My 2 cents to follow but first a few caveats.

1) I thought, in general, that Lash did a decent job in 08
2) I expected Lash to be re-signed and didn’t think twice about the news release

With that said, you – DanUp – make some excellent points, as one needs to when writing in early Nov. The fact that you could do so on the subject of back-up catcher is testimony to your analytical and writing skills. Thank you. I was wondering who would step up in lboros departure.

Here’s one – from the gut – to add to your thoughts. In considering roster construction each off season (nearly as fun as action on the field), I have noticed that great consideration should be given to TLR “favorites”. Now we know the Pujols of the world will all make this list but observing over the course of the season we all notice many other TLR favorites.

Lash tops the list so his re-signing could be predicted. We can probably also throw in Miles. Looper, F Lopez, Izzy, Ankiel and a few others. Others, on the other end of the TLR scale, like Ryan and A Reyes can check their ticket to Siberia.

Certainly a HOF mgr merits power and respect of opinion but your analysis of LaRue makes a great sub-point.

And………….makes me wonder of the unspoken power of TLR

And……….makes we think it may be time for another Conversation With Mo

thanks for a great post

i have to agree that is a ton of cash for larue, but i would prefer to see anderson hone his skills in Memphis. if he is truly the prospect everyone is saying he is, then he can get even better down there which will give us the flexibility to trade him or possibly trade yadi. good news is that we could still keep larue, maybe at a $1.5m as he mentors anderson