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12/08/2005: "Mele Kalikimaka"


(We're snowed in here at Up, Baby! Enterprises, so it's all I can do to listen to Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters and pretend I don't have to know how to drive in the snow.)

Anyway, the news out of the Rule 5 draft is that the Cardinals selected a pitcher from the Cubs, Juan Mateo. Last year the Cubs gave up Andy Sisco, a giant of a southpaw starting pitcher, to the Royals in the Rule 5; he responded by striking out a batter an inning and putting up a 3.11 ERA in a relief role in KC.

As for Mateo, he's a 23-year-old righty without the tools or prospect clout of Sisco, who was a 40-man roster gaffe on the level of Chris Shelton. Last year he put up very nice numbers--10.13 K/9, 2.22 BB/9, and a very good home run rate--but it was as a 22-year-old swingman (32 appearances, 16 starts) in the pitcher's heaven known as the Florida State League, so any numbers put up there are to be taken with a grain of salt. The strikeout rate was a big increase on his previous marks, but the results were similar. A pitcher is the easiest player to sneak through the Rule 5, generally--just ask Johan Santana, who got knocked around for 86 innings as a 21-year-old mopup pitcher after being plucked in 2000.

John Sickels had this to say:{{customtwo}}
I like this guy but he is a long way from the majors. Well, now he's not I suppose. If the Cards want to keep him, they can stash him away in the back end of the bullpen. Dominican, 23 years old, throws strikes.


Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but he lists him among the three most interesting players of the bunch. If it comes down to stashing him in the back of the bullpen or signing a guy off the scrap heap who'll probably be a half-run better, why not keep him? They made the bet that the difference between Hector Luna and a Neifi-class backup infielder wasn't big enough to offset his potential, and now they have someone who, at the very least, will outhit Aaron Miles. But so would Neifi, and--I digress.

As for Luna, actually, I would be stunned if Aaron Miles beats him in an actual competition for the second base role; Luna, for one, just looks more impressive; he swings through a lot of pitches, and he's erratic sometimes afield, but he's got a big, powerful-looking swing and a strong arm. Miles has the David Eckstein starter kit, and he isn't sure why some of the pieces were still in the bag when he was finished assembling his career.

Luna's career totals, over these 300+ at-bats, are actually not that bad for a second baseman: .265/.322/.384 out of a guy who'll be 26 next year. It could be that, if Jock even considers Miles The Answer to any question that isn't "Who was the worst player in the deal?" at all, we end up with another Marlon Anderson situation where the anointed starter gets smoked out during spring training.

Replies: 31 Comments

on Thursday, December 8th, Rob said

You're just comparing Miles to Marlon to see if my head will explode.



on Thursday, December 8th, Dan's Secret Evil Plan said

I'll get on the Deadspin blogger's best list... by any means necessary!



on Thursday, December 8th, Joe said

First off, love the title of the blog.

Secondly, I'm just kinda looking around to see what kinds of blogs other people have in the form of the St Louis Cardinals, and it seems that every blog has a link to this one.

Thirdly, I just want to state that I think the key to salvaging this offseason is the re-signing of Matt Morris. If we can do that, we can dangle Marquis as trade bait and get a corner outfielder, possibly Kevin Mench? I think you're pretty much dead on with Bigbie and Miles, let's get real here, do we REALLY expect them to produce a lot this year?

Anyway, great blog, you're on my roll now, so your traffic on this site is going to skyrocket... or increase by like 1 or 2.

-Joe

http://crimsonfowl.blogspot.com



on Thursday, December 8th, Dan said

Consider yourself blogrolled in return. (Press refresh a bunch of times if you don't see it, frames aren't fun.) But be warned: I'll be watching the logs for those two hits...



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