Craig Gets Crack at Hot Corner for Cards

Allen Craig will get the start at third base for the St. Louis Cardinals in tonight's game against the Florida Marlins.  Craig will replace the injured David Freese who broke his hand Sunday when he was hit by a pitch.

Craig began his minor league career with the Redbirds as a third baseman, but was switched to the outfield.  Though always a successful hitter, Craig did not show the same capabilities in the field at the hot corner.  St. Louis manager Tony La Russa had intentions to give Craig some time at third base during spring training, but many of his innings were devoted to getting a longer look at prospect Matt Carpenter.

Freese has been a valuable part of the potency of the Cardinals lineup thus far in 2011.  He goes on the DL with a season batting average of .356 and 14 RBI.  He has exhibited a knack for delivering in the clutch,  hitting .500/.563/.500 with 2 outs and runners in scoring position, knocking in 6 runs in 14 such at bats this season.

Craig's Bat is Best Replacement
Though anticipated to be a hack in the field, Craig's powerful hitting stroke is really the best option the ball club has to replace Freese in the lineup.  Daniel Descalso has shown he can pick it at third base in his brief big league career, and Nick Punto is a proven veteran gloveman at third.  But neither has the power to back up Lance Berkman in the 6-hole in the lineup. 

The loss of Freese gives frightening reminders of the problems at third base last season.
Felipe Lopez and Pedro Feliz proved frustratingly inept at the plate, and that black hole coupled with the lack of offense from shortstop meant Cardinal rallies ended when the bottom of the lineup came up to bat.  Skip Schumaker has the ability to shore up the end of the lineup, but he's at least three weeks away from returning from injury.

Craig has an impact bat.  In 33 AB this season, he is hitting .303 with 1 HR and 7 RBI, though he's been limited to only 12 games played due to his own stint on the DL.  And while his MLB career has been spotty, he has hit when given regular at bats.  He was an absolute rake at Triple-A Memphis.

The Bat Must Make Up for the Glove
The hope in this corner is that Craig can play third just well enough to earn 3-4 AB's in 4-5 games per week until Freese can finally come back.  Craig must improve on his horrible fielding stats at third with the big league team - one chance, one error.  It would be good for Craig to get a second chance in the first inning tonight - a simple play made flawlessly.  It would be good for his confidence.

The Cardinals need that, because they need his bat.

Should Cardinals Let The Grass Grow?

The St. Louis Cardinals are a ground-ball machine.  And no, I am not referring to the pitching staff.  I mean the hitters.  The Cards are currently leading the entire Major Leagues with 28 Grounded Into Double Plays (GIDP's), with a healthy lead in the NL (the Pittsburgh Pirates come up short yet again with only 20 GIDP's).

The Redbirds have an astounding 18 GIDP's at home in Busch Stadium in only 11 games.  Compare that to a (still) healthy ten in the team's ten road games.  Granted, in the first home-stand of the season many GIDP's were caused by a scuffling lineup rolling over on pitches and managing only weak grounders to the opposing middle infielders, while in the last five games at home it's been sharply hit balls that account for many of the double plays the team has endured.

Perhaps it's time to let the grass grow at Busch III.

That may seem like a joke, but maybe we should take a moment to consider it.  In the last five games at Busch, Colby Rasmus has three GIDP's.  Tyler Greene and Nick Punto have one each.  On the current home-stand, the entire team has a total of eight.  The three players listed represent a large portion of the team's speed.

If the infield grass was let to grow a tad higher, perhaps those grounders turn into productive outs - moving the runner up.  At worst, they may have only been force outs.  And this is important, as 11 of this season's home GIDP's  came with at least one runner on base with no outs with no runs scored in the inning - true rally killers.  Additionally, four GIDP's at home have been super rally killers, transforming two on, no out opportunities into wasted innings.  Missing that many wonderful chances to post runs has left the team vulnerable to the bullpen implosions suffered in 2011.

Of course this all supposition.  If the grass was longer, and the ground balls slower, the Redbirds could have even more  GIDP's (perish the thought).  Or well struck grounders for hits instead could become standard ground outs for Cardinal batsmen.  I know of no way to quantify this, not being a stat freak (gimme some help?)

But here's something to keep in mind.  Pitching coach Dave Duncan has pruned and preened his staff to be worm-murders - preaching the sinker and his pitch-to-contact philosophy.  With an infield defense focused on offense, would higher grass and slower ground balls mollify the middle infield's lack of range?  I know only one way to prove my theory - practice it.  Have the grass mown long.  There are proven eye-ball analysts sitting (or standing) in the Cardinals dugout every day their in Busch III.  It wouldn't take long for them to get a feel for the way it's working.  And if the experiment raises the hackles of TLR, Dunc, and the Ol' Redhead it's an easy fix to return to the way it was.

I'll admit, this all sounds like a joke.  But with the double-play hindering St. Louis' run differential, raising the issue for debate isn't really such a ridiculous a thought.

Cardinals Showcase Mark Hamilton

Mark Hamilton

With the poorly timed Designated Listings of valuable contributors Skip Schumaker and Allen Craig, the St. Louis Cardinals made a surprising call-up from Triple-A Memphis, first baseman Mark Hamilton.  Additionally, the forgotten Nick Punto was actived from the DL.

Hamilton's recall was surprising.  He is a power bat who plays a position that he will not be filling - first base.  He is most likely to be used as a pinch hitter and a couple of on-the-job training starts in the outfield.

We expected Adron Chambers to get his cup of coffee for the next fortnight, but the organization is suddenly short on available outfielders after a frightful collision that robs us of reading Shane Robinson's last name arching over his smallish shoulders.  It's also in the best interest of team and player for the still developing Chambers to get regular playing time in the minors than rot away on big league pine.  Hamilton, on the other hand, really doesn't have much left to prove in the minors.

What Mark Hamilton needs to prove is value to another team as a Major League player.  It is unlikely that if Albert Pujols finds a different franchise to pony up the paychecks for his demands in free agency, a career minor league player will replace the future Hall of Famer on a perennial contender.  Hamilton's true worth to the Cardinals organization is as a trade chip.  Without playing time with the parent club, he isn't much of one.

This is what I believe the reasoning was behind his being the butt in the seat on the plane to St. Louis.  Hamilton needs to show that his long, looping swing can fulfill his minor league home run totals against top calibre pitching.  A couple of dingers in a couple of weeks would make a non-contending team take some notice of him - especially in the DH League.  It's a little something something St. Louis GM John Mozeliak could find handy to have in his back pocket around the end of July.

Our First Look At Nick Punto

I am excited to finally see Nick Punto sporting the Birds on the Bat across his chest.  The very definition of a super-utility guy, Punto is a weak bat-strong glove infielder who gets in base despite a low BA.  He was a valuable member of many successful Minnesota Twins teams the past few years.

An off-season signing of the Cardinals, Punto arrived in Jupiter belly-aching with an aching belly.  He was diagnosed and supposedly fixed with a surgeons blade.  The sports hernia maybe the very reason Punto was deemed expendable by the Twins.

When the Redbirds signed him, I heard from many Twins fans - either on twitter or via email - that Cardinal Nation was gonna love this guy.  Many in Minnesota thought that letting Punto escape was a bad move.  He's a gritty-gutty gamer, who often was in the middle of good things - cut from the Jose Oquendo sparkplug mold.

Dirt on the uniform and thinking between the ears is Punto's hallmarks. And those qualities will always endear a Cardinals player to this life-long fan.