Lugo and the Lefties

I’ll be very upset. He can’t hit much but his defense is the best we’ve had at SS in a very long time. Lugo makes perfect sense at 2B right now if Skip can go back to LF.

Lugo’s bat plays pretty well relative to his position. His defense is rightfully in question, but the pricetag makes this worthwhile.

Duncan’s bat is a disaster for his position. There have been 14 players that have 300+ plate appearances and have made 75% of their starts in leftfield. Duncan is dead last in OPS+ at 84. But we all know Duncan has struggled and I guess that is beating a dead horse.

If Lugo works out, you can start putting Schumaker out there. If you like what he shows at 3rd, you could put DeRosa out there. It all depends on how his defense is and then how he is used, but I think it’s a little better return than people would suspect at first glance. By no means is Lugo a sure thing to help, but I think Mozeliak did a good job here given the toxic situation blowing up around Duncan.

Will be like at 2b. I’d like to try him out as a platoon partner w/ skip.(I realize there’s something wrong with saying that I trust skippy’s d more, but here it’s the devil I do know.) But yeah this could go a long way towards fixing a couple of issues – 2b, LF – if lugo sticks.

I also wonder whether tony would be ready to end the schumaker experiment, though with descalso knocking on Þhe door next year, something’s gotta happen.

I remarked the other day that with ryan’s wrist it might be wise to keep barden or tyler greene on the 2010 roster to have an okay backup to SS, even if it meant tolerating a weakish bat. Lugo is a much better option there as well. I’m liking this trade more than I’d thought. Hope springs eternal.

It’s tough to call this straight up addition by subtraction because the OF depth is so slim that it’s pretty tough to find a replacement level OFer to replace Duncan. But I’m glad we’ve got the 800 lb elephant out of the room. I’m glad that there will be no more suspicions of nepotism (and based on Papa Dunc’s PD comment I believe there was a little there).

On top of that Lugo should fit in nicely, although I’m weary of who he is going to take playing time away from. It should be mainly to allow Skip to play LF and to keep Joe Thurston from ever seeing the light of day. Skip is slowly improving at 2nd, and I’m not saying he has to move at all costs, but I’m willing to give it up because I like Descalso and I am hoping we are about to retain DeRosa for another couple of seasons so there isn’t much of a need to keep him at second for the long term in my eyes. Also, It’s hard to imagine us having OF depth any time soon that means Skip won’t be of use as an OFer.

…but I started jumping up and down when I heard. I was at work and when my phone told, I immediately yelled to my friend; “THEY TRADED DUNCAN!!!”. Although I do really like the trade especially since Lugo is basically free.

I was not bothered by the thought of Lugo. Let’s face it, after what was said and how Duncan has been playing, a blind, three legged water buffalo would look good. I am not about to jump on the “beat up Chrissy” bandwagon because I have good memories of him too, but I subscribe to the “He needed a change of scenery.” idea. And the same could be said of Lugo. Getting out of Boston may be the best thing for him. Don’t torch him yet, the poor dude hasn’t even hit town yet.

 I think we are still a bat light and not even sure where to look for one, here’s to hoping that one is on the way in Glaus or that maybe KGreene has his head on straight now. That’s not much light to work with, but in pitch black a lighter will do.

 I think that BigD and TLR may be more pissed at the getting backdoored than anything. Even BigD had to see that Chris was struggling for air here. Kudos to Mo for growing a set and doing what needed to be done.

with Duncan (sr) and TLR’s response to this (Duncan in particular). It smacks of pathetic sour grapes and is deeply, deeply unprofessional. Despite his successes, I’m not too unhappy to see Big Dunc gone with TLR at the end of the year if he’s going to behave like this.

Duncan (jr) is/was a bad player who has in no way been worth his place on this team for the last 2 years. This isn’t just my opinion, it’s pretty clear fact. The so-called “vendetta” that the fans/media had against him is merely the dismay of people who follow the team who see us trotting a replacement-level left fielder out night after night after night (even accepting that our hands have been tied by injuries/Ank’s form this year). If Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina or Colby Rasmus had played that badly (whilst injured) and kept getting put on the team sheet by TLR for that long, we’d all have been on their backs too.

Now we trade a terrible player (Duncan) for a bad player with a horrible contract (Lugo) who fills more of a need for us (Dunc is redundant as we already have a bad-hitting LH OF who fields much better in Ank, whereas Lugo gives us another guy who can hit against lefties and play 2B, 3B, SS or even LF if needed). How the hell Dunc Sr and TLR can call the club out over that is beyond me. Chris Duncan needed to leave. He’d worn out his welcome with the fans, and his head has clearly been about as ready to play major league baseball this year as his body was in 2008. It’s basically a nothing trade, really, but for TLR and Dunc Sr to be up in arms about it confirms what a few of us have voiced in the past – Chris Duncan’s treatment here was nothing more than simple nepotism, and blatant unprofessionalism, on the part of those two.

I really hope they’re gone next year too. No-one is bigger than the St Louis Cardinals, and by calling the organisation out (as TLR has done multiple times and Duncan has now on this situation) should’ve burnt their bridges as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want either of them back.

That was really fucking easy, I could have made that.

just checked over at baseball reference, and I’m sad to report that he basically has no platoon split.

He’s a career .337 OBP vs LHP and .335 vs RHP (he actually slugs a bit more vs RHP too). So, although he’s a better hitter of LHP than Ank/Schu/Thurston, most likely, he’s probably not going to help quite as much as a platoon guy as we might’ve thought.

… he was just DFA’d by a team that has been looking for a SS for like 3 straight years. it’s possible that playing Lugo at 2B and Schu at LF would have a touch more value than Schu at 2B and Ank in LF, but that’s not even assured. apparently Lugo has no legs anymore after several years of hamstring/knee problems and he’s 34, so his defense and speed have dropped off a cliff and probably won’t recover. he’s probably a .700 OPS player at best these days, and if he’s a negative defender then his overall value isn’t any better than Ank’s.

he can pinch-hit from the right side, and he’s probably better than Thurston, but that ain’t saying much. if he was worth a shit, Boston wouldn’t’ve DFA’d him.

not saying it isn’t worth the gamble. maybe we hit lightening in a bottle again. but this could be Junior Spivey as easily as it could be Felipe Lopez.

from Goold

Hilarious

so there is at least one roster move coming when Lugo joins the team today, since Barden replaced Duncan on the roster, right? Who might that be?

I probably don’t have the complete list, but JP, Ankiel, DeRosa, Wellemeyer, and LaRue.

I’m going to be pretty upset if we don’t bring DeRosa back. He won’t be “free”, but offer him 2 years, $5M per or so, and get it done. Make him your starting LF, 3B, or 2B next year.

I’d let Wellemeyer walk for sure, and probably Ankiel and LaRue as well. If we don’t like any other backup C options, LaRue is a cheap option to come back. I also wouldn’t mind getting Ankiel back at a super cheap price.

Tough to say on JP. Not sure if he’ll be able to duplicate this season again, though I’m sure he’ll use it as leverage in any salary discussions. This probably depends on what other moves the team might make this offseason, including other FA’s, and Garcia/Boggs.

To me, DeRosa is the guy we need to lock up. Dude is a quality ball player that can be plugged in at a couple of positions.

I can’t decide if this is a good move for the Cardinals. Clearly removing Duncan from the roster will keep Tony from giving into his temptation to play Duncan, thereby making the outfield offensively and defensively worse. I agree that Duncan caught a lot of crap from the fanbase that was likely not necessary, fair or should have been directed at him (if there was blame to go around, if falls largely on TLR for pushing Duncan into the lineup when he was clearly struggling).

Taking the above into account, it is good to have Duncan off the 25 man roster. But whether this is a good move will only be clear once we know how LaRussa will use Lugo.

 If Lugo will be the across the board backup middle infielder, then this could be a simple bench bolstering move.

If Lugo proves to be an average or above average defender at 2nd base, Lugo could become the regular second baseman, allowing Skip to play in the outfield (with a right-handed caddy for tough lefties). In such a move, the defense in the outfield and at 2nd base would be improved along with improved offense in the outfield (Skip is an upgrade right now over Ankiel and/or Duncan). This situation represents the highest upside for the trade.

If Lugo becomes the Cardinals newest regular outfielder, splitting time with Ankiel, Ludwick and Rasmus, (with a sprinkling of time in the infield to spell others) then the Cards will have an offensive upgrade over Duncan, but I shudder to think about the defensive waste with Lugo in the outfield rather than filling a hole in the infield.

Of the above, I think the first option (with a sprinkling of time in the outfield) is the most likely outcome, but I sure hope the Cards strongly consider Lugo as a full time second baseman if he can hack it deffensivley.

Regarding UZR, I asked MGL how much expected variance there is in a sample of ability. I used Brendan Ryan. Here was his reply:

Nick, first you have to regress in order to get the mean of your estimate. So, if a player was 14.5/150 games in one season, that might be +7 after regressing. A WAG on the standard error might be 4 runs.

It’s good for us to see how he MIGHT not be as crap-tastic as popular sentiment suggests.

And speaking of not coloring the guy before he gets here, did anyone else hear TLR on last night’s pregame make some crack about “Well, we’ll see how he is as a teammate?” That’s sort of always been the rep with Lugo (i.e., that sort of cocky, flashy, me-first guy who thinks he’s way better than he is), so it’s probably a valid concern.

Still, it just looks really unprofessional that the guy tasked with managing this new addition within the context of a pennant race throws him under the bus before he even gets to the bus stop, so to speak.

Also, I think the “Big Dunc not to happy about it” story linked above is the wrong one, or at least not the most detailed version of the events. You can read more about Big Dunc’s comments at this link.

…seems a wash to me; I don’t see Lugo being very useful, unless he returns to younger form – just getting out of Boston might do it. In CDunc’s case, I think he simply needed more time to return form his surgery, and more time to find his swing. I would have preferred for him to have gone to Memphis, even if it was for the rest of the year, and give him a chance to find himself – we gave Ankiel all kinds of chances, you can see why the elder Dunc (and TLR) would expect the same for an-udder home-grown kid, this one with Cards blood in his veins. I also see the FO’s pov to leverage CDunc for whatever they cud to improve the club, but I have doubt this improvement, if it comes at all, will amount to much – I hope Lugo proves me wrong.

But I, for one, would not eb surprised to see Dunc regain his swing and become a useful player again in Boston – maybe not what he was in ’06, but moore like he was in ’07. I see no such potential for Lugo, unless he becomes a super pinch-hitter and irons out his D. I just think we cud have exercised a bit of patience, and that Dunc earned some patience from the club.

Well, let’s hope Julio adjusts to STL and brings his A game – and good luck to CDunc.

:=8)

Zimmerman will not make his start tonight against us, so that could be a good thing….the Houston series was really devestating methinks…we need to win tonight and take 2 of 3 this weekend to make up for it

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/07/cards-still-have-interest-in-matt-holliday.html

I no longer have that fear when i see a south paw come in from the bull pen, i really think they have been more important than any other 2 relievers this year. It was really a great coup by mo to get both of them for little and such an improvement over last year.

with as good as the Red Sox are, if CDunc can crack their post season roster, we could be treated to round 2 of the WS Trophy being dry humped.

Granted, I haven’t been to a game at Busch this year but I catch every game on TV. I never hear BOOO’s rain down on Duncan when he comes up to the plate, which suggests that if it happens at all, there aren’t many.

Want an example of players being treated harshly by the hometown fans? Take a trip to Wrigley where Soriano and Bradley are hated so much they get booed even for making plays! I’m not going to say Cub fans are unjust in their actions… these players must be damn frustrating to have on your team.