We both noted the pattern of busting him inside. For his career prior to this season we’re talking about a guy who posted a .952 in 314 ABs in 2006, a .834 OPS in 435 ABs in 2006. Most, if not all, of the 2007 dropoff was attributed to the hernia. But what if we’re also missing the league adjusting to him as well maked by the injury.

Remember that this is a guy who posted over a .850 OPS in the minors just once in 6 years (some partial). We we’re all shocked when he overperformed his minor league numbers (remember the cries of nepotism)—maybe this is the realization that his minor league numbers were more representative than his 850 MLB at bats (where he’s been protected from righties and put in situations to succeed).

I was one of the people who wanted him playing full-time in 2006 to see if he was capable of hitting lefties and if his true talent level was really that good. Something’s off now—whether it’s a simple slump or something more troubling remains to be seen, imo.

you make a great point about glaus escaping the fan abuse, i think one of the reasons duncan receives so much heat is in how he looks at he plate. his last few at bats have been very ugly, it appears he is guessing (and guessing wrong) everytime at the plate.

if the cardinals were to promote reyes because of an injury, is that his last option or would we be able to send him back down?

... about Glaus.

I like him phisically, he’s playing pretty steady good defense, but damn he seems to melt once at the plate, and expecially with RBI opportunities. To what I can judge, he seems to be over-trying, expecially he’s not capitalizing on pitcher’s mistakes (but this is, in my opinion, an illness that the whole lineup has). I really would like to see him more relaxed.

GO CARDS!!!

There are several things that Duncan does that may irritate the most loyal Card fan:

—He ALWAYS swings at the first pitch. If I were in a big slump offensively I would maybe get a few good looks out there. Make the pitcher work a little before popping out to third base.

—He is an adventure in the field. Even though his stats may be average, he just doesn’t look comfortable.

—He is taking time from other more deserving outfielders. I hate seeing Ludwick on the bench in place of Dunc.

I don’t want to bash Duncan – I wish him the best and hope he can get things back together. He may be a better fit in the AL, though.

I don’t care how well Berkman or Pujols is hitting. It’s a recipe for disaster. It’s interesting to note that both teams who offered up the walks gave up big first innings and lost the game. It’s not the only reason but you’re staring straight in the face of a crooked number and both teams obliged.

As for Mather/Duncan, I, too, see no point in bringing up Mather to have him get 10 PA’s per week. He may as well stay at AAA and play every day. There’s no reason to get impatient w/ him and he’s not a 3B and he’s not a 2B. 1B—yes. Corner OF, I think so but nowhere else.

I think Duncan’s problem, as much as anything, has been the lack of consistent PA’s. The other OF’s have been playing so well, and he’s limited in that he can’t really play vs. lefties, that his PA’s have been very sporadic. I’ll go back to what I offered up a few weeks ago re: the current OF. I think the regular OF should be Duncan, Ankiel, and Ludwick. Skip and Barton should be the 4th and 5th OF’s, respectively. Skip’s done well so far but the other 3 offer more offensively than Skip. Additionally, many have suggested trading Duncan but there’s no way the team can trade him the way he’s playing right now. A demotion to AAA won’t increase his value and it won’t help the team—at least not in the short run. If it takes playing everyday at Memphis to get his rhythm and confidence back, then so be it but I think he should be playing pretty much every day w/ the big club.

Now we’re seeing the downside.

outfield matter is too confusing for my feeble mind to conjure up a solution for. (hope ending the sentence in a preposition doesn’t upset the English geeks here)

Two things that do bother me though that might evolve into a problem :One is Ankiel’s love for a high fastball, which he can’t hit. If you get 2 strikes on him’ you don’t have to throw another strike, just feed him a fastball about sholder high and he will go for it. The other: Glaus throws everything from third base side armed, often with a fade toward the first base line. I am afraid he is going to get Pujols hurt. Nobody else has commented on this, but I just don’t like Glaus’ arm.

I’m more concerned about the starting pitching holding up…Larry is right when he says that SP is the number one reason this team is in contention, and almost none of us saw this (better starting pitching) coming. If Pineiro is out for awhile, I don’t know if there is any help on the way anytime soon, unless you want to dance with Reyes again. If we don’t have to throw somebody like Boggs into the fire right now, I’d rather not…let’s give him and the others just a little bit more time at AAA.

I had thought that one advantage of a Duncan-for-Mather swap is that the team is too heavy with lefties in the outfield. Bringing up Mather would give TLR more punch when the team faces a southpaw. And while I still think that’s the case, check out Mather’s Ludwick-like splits this year, per minorleaguesplits.com:

vs. LH .303/.425/.545 (33 AB)
vs. RH .324/.425/.716 (74 AB)

Duncan’s. When Duncan is on, he makes up for his oaf-ish qualities on the bases and in the OF because he is driving in runs. Mather is a much better athlete, ignoring his hot hitting right now. Mather can bunt for a hit. He can steal a base. He takes much better routes in the OF and has a better arm.

As far as the Best Fans bit, you could tell that FSN Midwest got the memo on Monday. They were told to tell the fans not to want to call up Mather (Al did his traditional “young players suck” routing), they were told to feel bad about Russ Springer being taken out of his 7th inning role (even though Mac and Parisi have been better), to think that the only reason Kennedy is struggling is because he is hitting into ‘bad luck’, and that they should get really excited because TLR has already proclaimed Izzy the closer once he comes off the DL.

I know on the open threads during the game I left the heat of the moment get to me and for that I apologize. At the same time I also will critisize consistant bad play. Whether he’s coming off an injury or not Duncan is not getting the job done. This is magnified by the play and ability of the other fielders. His mistakes are not errors that are easily hidden and thier are times where he flat out cost us games in the field. He is a huge liabilty in the field. When your dealing with a pitching staff that is average and some could argue over achieving you can’t put them in a situation where there pitching out of trouble caused by errors or trouble that a faster more athletic outfielder could contain.

Part of Duncans problem are not created by him. This is a different conversation if this team is 8 games under .500 and not 8 games over. Also, the fact of having talent knocking at the door doesn’t help the fact that fans are more likely to want to change horses in mid-stream. He is also saddled with the wieght of being the coaches son and crys of nepatism. I feel he goes out and gives an honest effort everytime he plays. Sometime this isn’t enough.

Alot of people like to point to the sports hernia Duncan had operated on last season. If this is the case he should be sent to AAA to get his swing back. His power is not there and now he’s in a slump. TLR has said since spring training nobodys job is safe everyone has to fight for a spot. Well this season I haven’t seen much that shows me that Duncan has earned the right to be run out there on a consistant basis.

As far as Santa and AK they may not be hitting very well but they are contributing in the field. I still think Glaus is going to shorten his swing and get into form. AK I see no chance of that happening.

you be a buyer and a seller at the same time and at the same position? Because according to MLBTR that’s our left field situation. If all those guys are on the market Lil Dunc isn’t going to fetch much.

And on another note, don’t forget that Pineiro already took a ride on the DL train once this year. My question is why hasn’t Thompson been a possible solution to take over his role? He did a solid job for us as a starter in the beginning of the year. Is he hurt? I haven’t been following his AAA progress.

I wonder if there will be any repercussions on Kennedy’s pout about playing time in the P-D today? He was quoted as saying, “(TLR) is not going to play me everyday. I was hitting good and he didn’t. It’s not going to happen.” I am probably making too much of this, but anybody who sucks as bad as he does should keep his mouth shut.