… although you wouldn’t know it by the foot of snow we have on the ground here.
Thursday is the momentous day during which pitchers and catchers are to officially report to Spring Training, although if you’re an everyday player just wanting to make the team, you would have reported yesterday.
Jayson Stark at The Worldwide Leader has run through his list of what he finds intriguing this spring, and he gives the Cardinals the Led Zeppelin treatment, not showing a whole lotta love for the local sports team.
In his second most intriguing “story line” (I loathe that expression) for this spring, Stark asks, “Who stole the champs’ rotation?” Good question, Jay. Stark also ranks the Cardinals first in his list of “most unimproved NL teams,” ahead of the Mets and the Nationals. He again trots out the churn in the rotation as the main culprit.
While I actually enjoy Stark’s ravings (when I don’t have to pay for them), it’s not the rotation that will be the sorest spot this spring. In fact, I look at the rotation, unsettled as it is, as no worse than at this point last year. Potentially better, even, a topic I’d like to address later when time permits.
It’s the bullpen, though, that I’m most worried about. At the top of the chart is Jason Isringhausen. By all accounts, Izzy is expected to make his spring debut on time and be ready to close games come April. If that’s the case, then Adam Wainwright will slide into the rotation, which creates Bullpen Hole No. 1.
And all this talk about converting Braden Looper into the No. 5 starter still hasn’t quieted down. You’ve read the numbers (his 572 career major-league appearances without a start; his not-so-hot line vs. lefties) ad infinitum. Let’s just say I’m not down with the idea. But if he does prove the haters wrong (or if Brad Thompson beats him out), that creates Bullpen Hole No. 2.
But “Have no fear,” you say. “Ryan Franklin is here to save the day!” That might be a bit dramatic, but the one-time steroid cheat can step in to either fill that No. 5 spot in the rotation or fill Looper or Thompson’s role in the pen, a role he didn’t entirely suck at last year.
Fine, but that still leaves a Wainwright-sized hole in the pen. Maybe Tony La Russa will stick with his Bullpen Brats plan and move Josh Kinney into the right-handed set-up role. Or maybe he’ll revert to his veteran-loving ways and give the ball to 38-year-old Russ Springer, who can get a strikeout but who’s also been inconsistent the past few seasons.
Will TLR carry three lefties? Even if he does, there are still six guys battling for those three spots: Tyler Johnson, whose trial by fire in the playoffs proved his viability as a major-league reliever; Randy Flores, who recently re-upped for two years; Ricardo Rincon (remember him?), in the second year of his two-year deal; Chris Narveson, who is out of options and must pitch his way onto the roster; Randy Keisler, who tossed 10 league-average innings for Oakland last season; and Troy Cate, who hasn’t been above Double-A since 2003 but dominated the Mexican Winter League this season.
It likely not tenable to carry three lefties, even with a seven-man bullpen unless there’s some sort of swingman-timeshare going on with Looper, Thompson and/or Franklin. But that would leave one of those three out, to say nothing of where Josh Hancock would fit in.
So scratch the three-lefty idea. That means Cate is probably headed to Memphis if it’s thought he has major-league potential, otherwise it’s back to Springfield. Keisler’s likely ticketed for Triple-A as well. There is money tied up in Rincon and Flores (to a lesser extent), but it would be foolish to send T.J. back to Memphis. It seems unlikely that ownership will be willing to swallow $1.45 million if Rincon were DFA’d, so maybe there’s a trade in the works. But whoever would want an aging and injury-rehabbed Rincon is anyone’s guess.
Let’s subtract Rincon from the mix and look at a possible seven-man bullpen:
- Isringhausen
- Kinney
- Johnson
- Flores
- Springer
- Hancock
- Looper/Thompson/Franklin
That still leaves one guy out of the ‘pen if the rotating-swingman option is used (which is a ridiculous construct anyway), and as far as I can tell, Hancock is not under contract for 2007 nor is he arbitration-eligible. Absent any information regarding their options, Hancock and Thompson could be competing to see who doesn’t go to Memphis. A seven-man pen could look like this then:
- Isringhausen
- Kinney
- Johnson
- Flores
- Springer
- Looper/Franklin
- Hancock/Thompson
In this scenario, the winner of the Looper/Franklin battle would move to the rotation, while the loser of the Hancock/Thompson battle would go to Memphis. Am I dumb or just stupid?
Remember a couple of weeks ago when it was reported that a St. Louis professional athlete was the target of an extortion attempt?
