It appears as though St. Louis is more than just a stop over for migrating internally displaced, yet fully functional, gang members.
Feel free to let “Ross Kemp On Gangs“ verse you on the subject. He’ll brief you on how to tell if PCP is real, and what an ounce in St. Louis will run you. Rather than reading this article, I highly suggest spending 45 minutes watching that documentary solely for the laughs.
So Tony LaRussa has this crazy idea whereby your ninth hitter is your second lead off hitter. Tony’s kind of nutty, but his “snitches get stitches” frame of mind has saved many careers.
Remember Tony’s interview with the Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post – Dispatch?
Q: You have more than your fair share of Mitchell Report guys on this team.
Does it bother you that there’s a perception that you give safe harbor to steroid guys?LaRussa: “No, and I’ll tell you why not. One way I was taught to survive is my No. 1 accountability factor is myself. This is my 30th year doing this at the major league level. There isn’t anybody – the commissioner, our owner, the fans, you – there isn’t any person, man or woman, who can make me any more accountable than I am now right now because of myself. And I know there isn’t anything we’ve done in all those years that was – with one small exception where we stole signs, a little hiccup – there isn’t anything else that has happened on our ballclubs in Oakland or St. Louis that there’s a hint of illegality. There isn’t anything that we didn’t actively and proactively attempt to do it right.”
Anyways, Tony generally brings the awesome and with his recent move to turn Skip Schumaker into a second basemen — he brings it hard. Now I recall reading something about Schumaker playing second at some point during his career, but all I can find is 6! games at third base during his 2004 season in AA with Tennessee.
With Schumaker presumably moving to second, Brendan Ryan gets left out in the cold. While this may be a heart-breaking loss to Brendan’s family — I think the fantasy world will survive. What this does do is open up the RF spot for none other than CHRIS DUNCAN!
Wait, I mean: COLBY RASMUS! Remember him? Top-10 Prospect Colby Rasmus?
Rasmus has the perfect range and arm combination to play any of the outfield spots. Tony LaRussa digs this, and has hinted that Rasmus may just fit the role of SECOND-LEAD-OFF-MAN.
Now, I’m not sure who gets the bigger bump due to these circumstances. Schumaker will make one hell of a late round draft pick, and his value only increases if he plays second base but isn’t eligible out of the gate. If you’re in a league where you can’t spare a roster-spot for 10 Games…You need a reality check, or OCD meds.
Schumaker has a great deal of value as a MI and while his offensive stats may take a dip, he should be just fine. Schumakers a legit .300 hitter, and that oughta do something for his run scoring / producing numbers.
Rasmus on the other hand had a few injury issues in 2008, just a few. Rasmus’ batting average has been free-falling over the past few seasons, and it’s at the point now where the ROBOTS predict him to hit .250 in the Show. If Rasmus suits up for the Red Birds, I’d expect closer to a .275 average with a month or two of .300+ smash-kill-ball type hitting. This obviously means that he’s going to have more than a couple of months where he battles the Mendoza line (and wins! victory, at last!)
So long as Rasmus can keep his BB% above 10, there’s no reason to fret. If he stops taking the free pass, his 20+ percent strike-out rate will haunt him though. Even if Rasmus ends up splitting time with Duncan, he’ll get AB against lefties as Duncan’s OPS splits are stupid-silly: .893 OPS against righties vs. .602 OPS vs. lefties. Mather could also factor into the equation with a good camp, and a hot start.
Conclusion:
Watch Ross Kemp. Rasmus is still young and although he was mentioned in the same breath as Jay Bruce last year, things have changed. Rasmus is worth a risk in just about any format if he breaks camp with a starting job. If you have to pencil him into a starting position though, you’re playing with fire.
Photos: Skyline of St. Louis Courtesy of Express Monorail (Hiatus) - Flickr, Arch: hz536n - flickr
