that Ankiel's arm is better than Colby's. They are both just about as good as it gets. I'm totally on the fence on defense, as i wasn't impressed by Colby's defense this spring and have seen little of ankiel, but there's no question about Colby's arm (or bat). And if Ankiel is for real offensively, we really could be good again, and soon. Maybe as soon as right now.

You know, with Duncan, Ankiel, Pujols and glaus in the same lineup we might have 4 40 HR potential bats, LRLR. With Ludwick and Barton on the bench, that would be a hell of a team. "Ankiel may be the single most important player to the Card's near future" might be a very true statement.

I'm still going to disagree, though. I've seen Colby play center, and he's the real deal. He should win at least a couple of Gold Gloves at the major league level. I think Rick has played a very nice CF so far, but I don't think he has quite the range that Rasmus does. His arm and better than average range would make him an amazing right fielder, though.

I think it's really a question of getting the absolute best return on the talent. Ankiel's skills make him an ideal, well above average right fielder, and an above average center fielder. Colby could be an ideal, GG calibre center fielder, or the same in right, with slightly less arm. (and to the poster above who said there's no comparison, yes, Ank does have a hell of an arm, but Colby hit 93mph off the mound in high school; he's no slouch himself)

I also take a bit of issue with your characterization of our best outfield. Skip is probably the best defensive option, yes, but I think Barton is very nearly as good, and a cut or two better than Ludwick. Barton covers the most ground of any of the three, but his arm isn't on par with Skip's. The arm isn't enough to make it a huge advantage in Skip's favour, though, in my opinion. Barton took a beating early on in spring over a couple of bad throws, but I think that had more to do with rushing and poor positioning than it did raw arm strength. I think he has plenty of arm to play center, and more than enough for left.

You put Rasmus in center, Ankiel in right, and Barton in left, that's the best defensive outfield in baseball, I think. I can't think of another that could put three legitimate center fielders in the outfield, all at the same time. I know Cleveland has two, in Sizemore and Franklin Gutierrez, but I can't think of who their left fielder is at the moment. Regardless, that outfield above would track down more balls than Paris Hilton on an Ecstasy binge. Nothing would get into the gaps there, and runners would almost never take an extra base. It would be beautiful.

Chris Duncan needs to be moved for MI or pitching help. Great bat and all, but he just doesn't measure up to the overall games of some of the other outfielders the Cards have floating around.

Chris Duncan IS the odd man out. There is no time like the present to get him healthy and move him out. I love the big guy, but we need to cash in on whatever he can bring right soon.

Ankiel, Barton or Rasmus to make a good opinion, so I'll just list my observations up to this point.

Barton has not shown me yet that he has the natural instincts to be considered in the class of Rasmus or Ankiel, but I have only seen him in windy spring training games where at times he looked lost and let several balls jut pop out of his glove after looking confused tracking to the ball. Also he either had a sore arm in ST or he has a weak arm. I saw at least four throws from the outfield that were weak and faded badly to the right. A sure sign of a sore arm which I hope is the case. I, my self could never throw in cold spring weather; never tried till warm weather came.
Rasmus, also did not look great to me in ST. (not bad, just not great). I also saw a few balls that I wondered why he didn't get to. But there again it was windy Jupiter Fla. so who knows

Meanwhile, Ankiel looks better every time I see him..seems to improve every day since the season has started, seems to be on track to be Edmunds ll, so for the present, I'll have to go with "Tricky Ricky."

is just unending.

Rick's arm, if better, is only marginally so. Neither of them are great on their routes to balls although they both cover enough ground to get there. Rasmus, however, is the faster of the two. The mental argument might be the biggest bit of hooey I've ever read. If TLR asks Ankiel to play right, he's not going to go apeshit and forget how to hit a ball again. I'm sure Ankiel is well aware of Rasmus' position in the minors.

The last point, and the one that just couldn't be wronger, is that Ankiel is the "single most important player in the Cardinal's near future." False for a few reasons:
1) They only control Ankiel's rights for three more years.
2) Ankiel still doesn't draw enough walks. He's always going to be limited by his on bas percentage.
3) Rasmus is the better all around player. The only area that Ankiel is substantially better than Rasmus is power. Even in that area it's not a tremendous difference.
4) Developing Rasmus and controlling his rights for the next 6 years, is critical to the Cardinal's returning to the postseason. He's the only blue chip prospect in the system and the stated goal of the team is get younger with homegrown players. Those cost-controlled years allow them to sign people like Ankiel long-term if they choose to or go and get someone like AJ Burnett. Ankiel is already in arbitration.

This whole discussion boils down to one thing. It's ingrained so deep into most people who watch baseball that they just can't get past it. Rasmus is a prospect and Ankiel isn't. Therefore, we can imagine some mythical impetus that will prevent Rasmus from acheiving his potential where Ankiel has "already proven that he can make adjustments at the MLB level." Has Ankiel really proven that? He has 1 unintentional walk in 17 PAs (and one intentional). Where's the adjustments?

I like Rick. He's had an amazing story. At 28, he's not the future of the franchise.

I would imagine if Rick keeps slugging, pitchers will tend to pitch around him more, thus creating more walks (as long as he's not batting 2nd). The only thing that concerns me about Ank is his injury history. If he's healthy, he'll be an outfielder with great speed, a strong arm, and 35 hr/100 rbi power potential. Sounds like a keeper to me.

Good post. It is an interesting idea. I don't agree with azruavatar that the mental aspect is "hooey." Until the kid proves he can play an entire season without mentally going to pieces it will be a concern. Sorry.

Personally, I think Rasmus is your CF. Ankiel is still learning the OF. Rasmus is a career OF. In the mid-80s a kid named VanSlyke came up. He clearly had more arm than McGee, he had the wheels to play GG CF, but McGee was the more polished fielder. VanSlyke played RF at an above average clip. I see a similar type of OF occuring with the guys under the Cards control. You are looking at the potential of Barton/Rasmus/Ankiel. I haven't seen enough of Rasmus, but I think the potential comparison could be made to Coleman/McGee/VanSlyke.
Coleman was a minor league CF with a below average arm (see Barton). McGee had outstanding range, and he took better lines to the ball than Edmonds (IMHO). VanSlyke had an unbelievable arm in RF, and went on to play CF for the two-time NL champion Pirates.

Another way to look at the decision is who is more of the defensive leader of the two. The CF has to take control of outfield and should be the leader from a defensive standpoint. I don't know either well enough to answer the question.

Ankiel's ability to bounce back from the HGH related mini-meltdown in Sept will be proven once the team hits the road. I doubt he has heard much abuse from the fans in ST or STL. IMHO, moving him from RF to CF won't cause any meltdown.

Ankiel is a potentially very good player. But the dude is still a hacker. A hacker's success is based completely on his ability to hit the ball hard. If he is going through one of those funks that every hitter goes through, where they simply can't buy contact, they'll struggle to be useful AT ALL. On the other hand, guys who work the count and base their approach off of forcing the pitcher to throw a hitter's pitch maintain their usefulness, even if they struggle to hit the ball.

Take a guy like Albert Pujols. Last year he went in to the first funk of his life as far as I can tell. In mid-May, the point in the season when I feel you can start being concerned about stats. His BA was in the .240's. However, he was still posting an 800+ OPS. So he still had value, b/c he was still drawing walks and was still centering up hitter's pitches. Guys like Ankiel don't have this luxury. They can't afford to go into funks, b/c then they get disastrously low slash lines, things like .205/.245/.370 or other abominations like that.

I love what Ankiel has done. I think it is already one of the most amazing sports stories I've witnessed. But the dude has been a major leaguer for, like, 50 games. Lets just calm down a bit. Rasmus is the real deal, and will likely be a better player than Ankiel. The red-hot start Ankiel has gotten off to has been in a whopping 5 games.

if you thought the Cards were best suited to contend with Ankiel in CF and Rasmus in RF. I don't really understand the Rasmus Good/Ankiel Bad discussion. Azruavatar made many good assertions in his post, and I agree with a majority of them. IMO, I think the original post makes several assumptions that are somewhat subjective.

1) Talent. I agree that Ankiel has tremendous pure athletic ability. I do not disagree that it is more than Rasmus' pure ability. I don't care if the kid hit 94 MPH in high school, Ankiel dominated in the bigs as a pitcher. Now he has made an extremely difficult transition to being a viable major league OF/offensive threat with at least 4 tools (we'll see about the average). Point to Hinkster.

2) Potential. This is where the original post starts to get subjective without substantiation. Ankiel will probably hit for more power than Rasmus, but average and OBP will probably go to Rasmus. The accounts I've heard are that Rasmus is extremely smooth in the OF. I have watched Ankiel play, and he is still figuring it out. That doesn't make him a bad OF, but he's not a GG caliber OF yet, either. Past baseball experience says put the power at the corners, and put the defense up the middle. Ankiel has not had significant enough time in the bigs to say "he has proven he can make adjustments." Point to azruavatar.

3) Mental State. This is difficult to gauge. The reports were that Ankiel is playing CF because "he was more comfortable there." (DG P-D) To me, that is a poor reasone; and I'm not sure I believe it entirely. I think Ankiel is in CF because he is the only OF that is not in a platoon rotation, and I don't think LaRussa is excited about platooning his CF. I would agree with this decision. I'm willing to give a little at 2B, but I want the defense up the middle to be set. I think the outstanding spring numbers of all 5 (7 if you count Mather and Rasmus) OFs put the Cards in a strange position. They couldn't guarantee Rasmus a starting job, and he needs to play everyday for development and confidence. I don't think Ankiel would forget how to play if he moved to RF, but I also feel anxious about him until he plays an entire professional season without either an injury or a mental collapse. Point split.

4) Defense. This is the most important factor, IMO, on making this decision. I want the strongest defensive OF in CF. I want the guy that takes charge of the OF, and is an on-field captain. I haven't seen enough of either guy to know which that is, but the reports I've heard on Rasmus would seem to indicate he is the guy. Even in the reasons, Hinkster does not make the assertion that Ankiel is the better fielder. Instead, he says that it is best for Ankiel if he stays there because Rasmus can play anywhere. I can't agree with this logic. If Rasmus is so talented defensively that you can put him anywhere, then he needs to be your CF. Ankiel will learn RF, and the Cards will have an extremely good defensive OF because of it (assuming Duncan doesn't become a long-term solution in LF). I give this point to azruavatar.

In general, I don't think Hinkster made a stong enough case to justify moving Rasmus to RF. That said, it is still an extremely interesting discussion topic; and the board was getting a little stale with the Reyes discussion. Thanks for a great topic.

my thoughts exactly. Good no none sense reasoning in your post, but how did Hinkster get into the act? I don't see any comment by Hinkster.

I hardly think so; an interesting arguement from Indakind. Cowever, I moost point out that a young player such as Rasmus is clearly the centerpiece of the Redbirds' future, and his continued development is very important to our future. Allowing him to develop in center field, where he has as much talent as anyone, including Rick Ankiel, is the safest, smartest way to go. I think Ankiel is developing into a classic corner outfielder who can also play center if need be. By the way, Brian Barton isn't too shabby in CF either. This is why, although I like Chris Duncan as a person, he is moore valuable to us as trade bait, moost likely to an AL team where he can play 1st, of, and DH.

But back to the point: when Rasmus is ready to take over CF, he is ready, and we should not hold back his development. If we did not have Rasmus in our system, I would agree with keeping Ankiel in center. Heck, even if we had Adam Jones in our system, an udder great young talent, I might be tempted to push him towards a corner slot for Ankiel. But not with Rasmus.

BTW, if Edmonds pans out with SD, I for his sake I hope he doesn't, but if he does and ends up retiring - anyone interested in the idea of bringing him back as an outfield coach, especially to help Rasmus one-on-one? Just a thought...

:=8)

He is only new to the position.

Also he understands pitching and that he needs to adjust.

He is making adjustments quicker than ever or so that is what Schumaker says.

Rick will hold his own against Raz. Time will tell.