SB Nation User Blog: gossard56

Pujols is healthy...Duncan back to minors!

gossard56 — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:59:00 -0000

Could this be anymore cut and dry? Duncan was sent to the minors to work on his swing. While in the minors he was terrible. Pujols goes on the DL so the team brings Duncan back up to play 1stbase. Duncan continues to stink! Pujols gets healthy enough to man 1stbase again. Duncan stays on the team???? Mather is healthy and crushing in the minors!!!

Why the hell hasn't Duncan been sent back to the minors for god sake?? He was only brought up to fill in for Pujols. It wasn't that he found his batting stroke. Lets hope the team is just waiting to make sure Pujols has a few more games under his feet before they make the move.

Duncan's OPS is .749 and TLR is a genius!

gossard56 — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:23:00 -0000

Brilliant. TLR is brilliant. He must be. He some how has been able to justify to himself for over a month now that Ludwick has to sit regularly against righties so that Duncan can play. Ludwick is hitting the ball like one of the 5 best hitters in baseball but he has now sat out 2 of the last 3 games while the team also had 2 off days in the same week of games.

Maybe TLR can justify a reason to bench him tomorrow. Like.....the 2 Ks he had in 4 ABs that Ludwick has ever had on a Wednesday game after a Tuesday dinner of medium well steak and a backed potato. Better play those odds, they dont look good for Luddy!

Maybe then if TLR is lucky he can sit Ludwick just enough that he fucking losses his timing a little and his OPS will drop to Matt Holliday levels instead of Pujols levels. Surely at that point playing Duncan (or really any of our other OFs) in place of Luddy will actually make sense.

Maybe Schu can have another game winning hit sometime in June so that we might be able to overlook the fact that he has a .740 OPS but gets to start everyday because he's the only player in the Cards organization capable of "leading off."

Maybe all other managers and all other baseball fans are just idiots. I personnally would think there would be a way to play Ludwick everyday and just rotate which of the other OFs sits. But I am not a genius like TLR so I am not capable of understanding his brilliant logic.

TLR you are brilliant. You are the sole manager in baseball with the ability to dig deep in to those splits, especially the tiny little ones made up of 4 or 5 ABs, and realize that the bench is the best place for Ludwick to be to help our Cards win games. For a moment tonight i almost thought Luddy might hit his 14 HR of the season but his bat couldnt quit reach the outside corner while SITTING ON THE BENCH! Must be Luddy's fault not yours, next time he just needs to use a longer bat.

Ludwick as a full-time starter

gossard56 — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:22:16 -0000

I've been beating the "start Ludwick drum" most nights in the game threads but decided to throw this up as a fanpost. It might seem convenient that I'm posting this the day after Ludwick goes 4-4 but it is mostly coincidence (i happen to have some free time this morning).

Ok, the current situation has Duncan starting against righties and Ludwick starting against lefties. This makes some sense since Duncan struggles against lefties so give the right handed Ludwick the start against them. So far this has worked well with Ludwick hitting .250/.368/.594 with 3hrs against lefties. The only problem is that Ludwick hits righties even better then he does lefties! Through out his whole career he has hit righties better than lefties and this season he is hitting a Pujolsian .362/.412/.660 against righties.

I know Duncan supporters say that Ludwick can't sustain this type of hitting, that he is a journeyman that is on a hot streak. Well, you must remember that he was a top hitting prospect coming up through the minors who had a couple of hard luck injuries hit just as he was getting his chance. Sure his numbers will settle back down somewhat, but there is no reason to think this isn't true ability finally being displayed now that he is healthy and been givin a chance.

I won't go into discussing how Duncan's power has all but dissapeared for a fairly long streach now. Bernie covered that with an article this morning.

I also don't need to discuss the defensive side of the comparison between the two. No contest there with Ludwick winning that in a landslide.

Based on Ludwick's play last year and this year he has earned the chance to play everyday in the outfield. In fact, it seems pretty clear cut that Ludwick, Shu and Ankiel have solidified themselves as our starting OF. They can all 3 hit righties and lefties well enough to not bother with platoons and they give us our best possible OF defense. In fact i'd say that group is as good as anyones OF defensively. I'd also have Barton as the 4th OF with the ability to start for all 3 of these guys giving them days off.

I'd like to know what others thoughts are on Ludwick and Duncan. I feel like its a fairly even split around here on this topic. I know I have a few people with my back on this one.