dump duncan?

LB, can Mather back up Glaus?or is there another option (Freese?) at Memphis?

I hope TLR will stay with the Ryan/Iz2 (RH) combo. Check out Bernie’s stats on the Cards’ record when Ryan gets 4ABs!

Finally give a shout out to Yadi’s improved offense this year. Maybe not much power but improved contact and some clutch RBIs.

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!!!

Seems like we’ve done well against him in the past, but I may be thinking of somebody else. Anybody know our record against him, or if anybody in the lineup really tears him up?

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.

but the idea skip shouldnt be here is nuts
DUNCANS only value to this team is power
thats it
schumakers glove, baserunning, arm, contact, average and this year, clutch hitting makes him a FAR more valuable player than an oaf with a cast iron skillet for a glove
if duncan doesnt pound the ball, he should only be here if theres no better substitute, which it looks like there might be
remember when last year everyone though Ludwicks’ showing at Memphis didnt mean that much
Mather is killing it in a pitchers park

time to let Duncan work it out in memphis
Chris was never even a great minor league player, i think people are overestimating his value

Being I have nothing new to add to the Duncan/Mather/Kennedy/whomever else debate, I’d figure I’d waste a minute to do a line-up.

Schumaker
Kennedy
Pujols
Ankiel
Ludwick
Glaus
LaRue
Loshe
Izturis

I agree with all points regarding Duncan, lboros. I attempted to make a similar argument in a fan post.

Duncan is definitely in a slump right now, but a look at his season totals shows its not as bad as some people seem to think, including the fans that are booing him. I think 3 things work against Duncan, in terms of fan perception of his latest slump.

1. When he looks bad, he looks really, really bad. Both in the field and at the plate.
2. Ludwick and even Ankiel are playing at a very high level that make Schumaker and Duncan, by comparison, look worse than they are.
3. Mather is destroying AAA

But in the greater context, the outfield and Pujols is the engine that is driving this team offensively. The middle infield is the 2 tons of coal slowing the train down. All our outfielders are cheap. Ludwick is the best hitting outfielder in the game right now. Ankiels season puts him around the top quarter of outfielders offensively. But even Schumaker and Duncan are well within the top half in on base %. Neither are hitting for power so overall you would probably place them right around the average for starting outfielders.

So our 3rd and 4th options in the outfield are overall playing at a level resembling the average for all starters in the NL. And this with Duncan going through a slump. Overall, I think we are dealing with a very positive situation there. Doesn’t deserve the amount of despair and angst that it’s been getting.

We do need to try to turn something in the outfield into a middle infielder if we can. But hold that fact against Kennedy, not Duncan and Schumaker. And now that Kennedy seems to be whining about his usage, hopefully we can get him out of the mix completely even faster than was possible before. Keep chirping Adam!!!

I think this is a question that Tony & Mo need to discuss over the next week or so.

We are getting ready to play a real tough schedule in June that will probably answer this question and will probably decide our fate for the rest of the season. But I think if we are serious contenders then Tony needs to field the best team every game for the coming month and if that means benching Duncan and getting someone else to play 2nd then that’s what needs to be done. We can’t afford to have Duncan and Kennedy trying to get out of a slump when we have to face teams like the Red Sox, Phillies and Tigers on the road in June.

He has such monster power he doesn’t need to swing full bore…

At times like this, I really long for the days of having a “super sub” type player. If Mather could be that player, replacing Duncan of Shumaker would be a far easier call. However, I don’t think that this is a promising/realistic solution. Right now, the Cardinals have a bench of a back-up catcher, outfielders and infielders. Having a “wherever” player would make a crowded outfield bench look more appropriate and a guy like Duncan could sit on the bench to pinch-hit when you were praying for a homerun (a la John Rodriguez). As it stands, the Cardinal line-up is a Jenga tower of talent the TLR continues to play with daily. It’s all working thus far, and you just have to hope that no one bumps into the table…

its kind of sad that larue’s .308 lifetime average against oswalt is something worth talking about on the cards homepage. i’d bet oswalt owns him tonight.

I’m not sure if anyone posted this story yet, but it is interesting (not that we all don’t already know about pitch f/x).

It also includes this blurb on Wainwright’s curve:

Pitch f/x starts baseball down the path of learning how players do things — which batter hits the ball the hardest, which shortstop has the quickest reflexes, what pitcher has the nastiest slider. It showed, for instance, that St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright had one of baseball’s most violent curve balls in 2007, with up to nine inches of vertical drop and more than seven inches of horizontal movement. Perhaps consequently, Mr. Wainwright had an unusually high rate of swings-and-misses against his curve (38% versus a league average of a little more than 25%), according to a sampling of data by Harry Pavlidis, a baseball analyst who writes a prominent blog about the Chicago Cubs.

Basically you are saying, because the Cardinals outfield is hitting, Duncan should stay. But the only real the Cardinals outfield is hitting well, is because of Ludwick. Take him out of the factor, and you only have an OPS of .770 or so. (Ankiel 850, Duncan/Skip .750 and under)

Ludwick is the guy that Duncan takes PA from. Sure, in a perfect world, Skip would ride the bench more and be the 4th OF that he should be, but Tony is going to play Skip a lot.

I like Duncan, but it makes no sense to bench Ludwick for him. Even if Duncan is healthy with his power stroke (which is pretty clear he’s not), I don’t see he gives you anything more than what Ludwick would.

For those of you who haven’t heard, there is an amusing piece of non-news coming out of Chicago. Apparently security personnel in the bleachers have told fans that superiors instructed security to enforce a booing ban as it relates to Soriano. Naturally, the Cubs deny this, but what’s funny about the denial is this tidbit at the end of the story:

Kenney said that recently acquired Jim Edmonds was booed much louder this week than Soriano.

Wow, a team touted as a World Series contender has its chairman comparing the teams’ fans’ booing levels for two of its outfielders. Only in Wrigleyville.

that Tony took offense to some of his stuff in the article about Duncan, so I think it is safe to say Chris will not be going to Memphis anytime soon. Tony didn’t like the line about Chris staying up because he’s Dave’s son. Wouldn’t suprise me if Duncan is in the line-up tonight as a way of “sticking it to the media”.