Baseball College

Welcome to St. Louis Junior - your arrival and performance have upset more than a few people in Cardinal Nation. Whether it bet kicking the ball around the infield or sending a little extra wind through the palm trees beyond the wall in the outfield, you’ve found a way to sneak your way into our minds.

Even though you’ve been a real ass to us this spring, I feel like you can still be an asset to this team. Here’s why:

1. You’ve been good in the past - Remember 2002? You hit over .300 (ok, barely, .301), and you even showed a little pop at the dish, hitting 16 big flys and knocking in 78 runs. You crossed the dish 101 times and even reached double digits in stolen bases - 11 to be exact.

2. Defense - While your defense has never been anything to write home about (you fielded at a .977 clip in your big 2002 campaign), you really have only had 3 full years of major league experience (457 games over a 5 year span). I think your defense will only get better, I mean, it has to, because you were really bad in spring training.

3. You’re now playing for a winner - You’ve got a fantastic set of coaches that will work with you and make you a better ballplayer. As long as you don’t give up, Mitchell Page, Jose Oquendo et al will make you as good as you can be at this point in your career.
***EDIT***
After a comment I received from a friend of mine, I felt I needed to include another point that falls into this category. If you know what’s coming Junior, shouldn’t you be ready to hit it? You’re going to see a ton of fastballs in this lineup, because A) you’ll be batting second, and who wants to put a runner on in front of Mr. Pujols, or B) you’ll be batting at the bottom of the order, and pitchers really like to go after the so-called “weaker” part of the order.

4. You’re motivated - at least I hope you are. You played bad enough this spring to lose a starting job to a triple A player in Aaron Miles. If that isn’t a kick in the ass, I don’t know what you need to get yourself motivated.

5. Spring means sh*& - The only reason Albert Pujols hit over .300 this spring is because he got nasty against the Mets and hit 3 HR’s. Your atrocious batting average in spring doesn’t mean anything now, it’s thrown out the window. Everyone has the same average on opening day, so don’t worry about it.

*****

Jake mentioned something about the 2B position this year being like the C position in the past, specifically, Mike Matheny. LaRussa could’ve cared less if Matheny hit under .200, because he knew he was invaluable behind the plate. This year, we have a C that can hit (and play a mean backstop), so we have a position we can kind of afford to sandbag at. As long as our 2b’s make the plays they are supposed to, offensively, they aren’t vital to the team’s success. I think Spivey does have the potential to be a good hitter AND a good enough defensive player to get the job done. Are you ready to prove me right Junior?

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 12:49 am and is filed under Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.