I think what hurts Chris Duncan is that right now, there are a lot of good outfielders on the team. All of them are better outfielders than Chris.

I guess it depends on your definition of catchable. Duncan is the worst outfielder we have and as far as I can tell has almost no range to “go and get it”. He also has an uncanny knack for taking a mundane fly ball and turning it into an Indiana Jones worthy adventure. Just my opinion, i could be wrong.

Bernie, sometime I think someone is paying you off to justify Duncan in the OF.

All kidding aside, how does his fielding really rate when compared to other LF’ers when you consider he missed a large part of April and has basically been platoon player with Barton, et al?

Duncan is young and cheap, I get that. But we have other young and cheap outfielders that just seem more intriguing than Duncan right now.

I agree that Duncan has been a great pinch hitter, but he is still not hammering the ball the way he needs to to justify his place on the team.

Everytime a ball is hit towards Duncan, he turns it into an adventure. Either he has to dive to make the catch, crash into the wall, or leap to make the catch because he took the wrong angle or misjudged how far the ball was hit. Plain-and-simple, he is not cut out to be an outfielder. Duncan doesn’t have the arm strength and speed to play the outfield like Ankiel, Schumaker, or Ludwick. IMHO he would be best served to be traded to the American League and be a DH. The Cardinals made a mistake by not resigning So Taguchi.

“The Cardinals made a mistake by not resigning So Taguchi.”

I don’t think so. Where, exactly, would So Taguchi play? I think it’s easy to see that the Cardinals have an outfield surplus of talent right now, and Duncan fits into that outfield nicely. Duncan is a player who is at risk for getting overexposed in a lineup (note how he hits so much better in the 2 slot than the 6). So Taguchi, while a great player for us when he was here, is 38 years old. Our new right handed outfielder Brian Barton, he’s 26. I’ll take the young guy with legs and hustle over the aging, diminishing range popular with the home crowd veteran any day.

L’il Dunc does deserve credit for his RZR this season. He runs pretty well for a guy his size. The question is: Has he legitimately improved or will he regress to his prior performance? After all, his RZR for a much larger sample size in 2007 was a pretty abysmal .781. That means there were 37 balls in his zone that he didn’t catch.

For all those who think he should play first base, his (small sample size) RZRs for 2008 is .333 and for 2007 was .800, for a career rating of .692

I can see running down balls to the side to side, but I would expect better outfielders to play shallower and be able to run down balls behind them and to take away more bloop singles.

I don’t think Chris is the worst outfielder we have. I think it is Brian
Barton. Brian may have loads of raw talent, but it needs to be developed at Triple-A. Duncan is here to stay… get used to it! And does anyone
remember Richie Allen? Talk about a really bad outfielder!!

Oh Bernie. I think you post these articles just to see how much of the riff raff will crawl out of the woodwork. Anyone with a reasonable working knowledge of the game knows that Duncan is most likely a little below average with a desire to improve his ability to play his position. The real question with him is going to be when does he finally hit the ceiling with his ability.

I just don’t understand why they didn’t work him in LF in AA & AAA, when he was hitting in the minors. They knew he wasn’t going to move Pujols from 1st. Why didn’t they move, what appeared to be, a serviceable bat to a new position before he got to the Big leagues? Why?

With Albert on the Big League roster, 1st base at AAA should be for the old guys trying to get a gig to Pinch hit. At AA, the position should be manned by the “extra” guy who is losing AB’s to someone else at his position, i.e.- you have two 3Bman at AA this season? Put one at 1st to get his bat in the lineup or an extra Catcher, Shortstop, LFer, etc, etc. You don’t groom a guy for that position only to move him after he gets to the big leagues.

Much of this problem defensively could have been taken care of had he played LF in AA & AAA.

You know what they sat about statistics, Bernie:

“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

I like Duncan, I really do. He’s done what’s been asked of him, he played hurt and didn’t use it as an excuse, but he’s a DH or a 1B. I think he’s downright decent in the field at his natural position, the few times I’ve seen him play it. My beef with Duncan, and it really isn’t his fault, is that the bat he provides has been supplanted by Ryan Ludwick, and Ludwick has a WAY better glove, yet TLR hasn’t seemed to give Ludwick the everyday job. He’s played more recently, but he still uses Duncan when Ludwick should be playing, IMHO. But I don’t fault Duncan for his fielding ability, because it isn’t his natural position, and he’s probably shagged more flies than the rest of the outfielders combined trying to improve. That said, he has marginal range and a minus arm, at best. You can’t say that about Ludwick.

The main argument for Duncan getting playing time is because he’s a lefty and hits right handed pitching well. Ludwick’s crushing him against right handed hitters, in terms of avg/obp/slg (per bseball-reference.com):

Lud: .390/.457/.780
Dunc: .295/.414/.463

The best outfield combo that gives the Cardinals a better than even chance to win, night in and night out, is Ludwick-Ankiel-Schumaker, with Duncan as a top pinch hitter off the bench.

I respect what you say about Dunc, Bernie, but I think he isn’t one of the best three, and therefore shouldn’t be on the field.

Yeah Duncan is okay in the same way Cal Ripken was an okay shotstop. He had good fielding stats because he had limited range seldom tried to make spectacular stops or throws.

Bernie,

Gotta love the comments. You run the numbers, and most of the posters still ignore them. Yes, he looks awkward–but as the two systems show, the balls he should have caught he’s caught. But some people focus on Game 5 of the WS or the game in Colorado where he allowed two extra bases (not hits, just two extra bases) that cost the Cards ONE run in a game they won.

At the Hardball Times, he’s got the best RZR of any of the 5 Cards that have played LF this season.

As to the best OF being Schu/Ankiel/Ludwick, no the best OF is Duncan/Ankiel/Ludwick (as long as Ludwick is killing the ball as he has). Duncan has a better OBP that Schu, has a better SLG (with a lot more upside). If you are going to use stats, then why should Schu play ahead of Duncan? (all of this assumes a RHP starting; Duncan has been dismal against LHP during his career).

Keep up the stats work, Bernie.

Dave

Duncan doesn’t fit into the Cardinals plans for the next few years. We have a bunch of talented outfielders already in the bigs and Rasmus and Mather in the minors.Duncan may be succesfull somewhere where he can play his natural position..first base.The outfield that gives the Birds the best shot at wining is Lud/Ank/Schu/. I agree with an earlier comment.Why was Dunc not in the outfield in AAA and AA?No one was moving Albert and Duncan appeared to have a good enough bat to make it in the majors.Part of his power outage may have to do with him receiving a limited number of at bats. Trade Dunc and clear roster space for “Mighty Joe” Mather.

Albert is such an absoulute professional. I love the way he handled the Chris Young situation.Albert is the best hitter in the game,yet he respects everyone around him. I hope Young has a quick recovery and that Albert can somehow shake off this terrible situation.

These are the facts. Chris Duncan will be a premier home run hitter. But, he is at the wrong position to showcase his talents. He really should be playing as a first baseman. But,that will never happen with Albert Pujols at first base. I am not saying that he needs to replace Albert. That would be a extremely bad move. The bottom line is Chris Duncan needs to traded to another ballclub where he will be able to develop his talents and become a team leader.

Sydney,

Maybe we tend to focus on the negatives of Chris Duncan’s defense more than the positives, but the simple fact that his RZR shows him as the best of the five outfielders who have played leftfield for the Cardinals should be a shining example of why these defensive metrics are still very questionable.

I don’t think he’s nearly as bad as some in the outfield, but if you watch the games each night, there is simply no way that you can conclude that he is a better fielder than Ludwick, Schumaker or Ankiel. Barton, I’ll grant you.

Bernie, I’ll agree with the fact that Duncan has improved in the outfield this year. However, it’s pretty hard not to do so, considering the 2006 playoffs and his outfield beginnings.

There is something those statistics you used neglect to indicate. HOW does Duncan get to those fly balls? He does not get to them smoothly and in position to make good throws to the infield. There is no way teams are as worried about running on Duncan as they are Schumaker, Ankiel, or even Ludwig. Duncan is still a minus in the outfield.

And for a guy that’s a minus in the outfield, Duncan is more often than not a liability at the plate. He hasn’t adapted to big league pitching over the last year like they have adapted to him. If he isn’t putting up big offensive numbers, there’s no reason to bench Ankiel, Schumaker, Ludwig, or even Barton to start Duncan.

Bernie, I dont get it. I understand the dad thing, but this is the worse outfielder in baseball. If not for him and Izzy we could have almost put this division away, dispite what the cubs are doing. Dunc has got to go. The experiment is over. GET HIM OUTTA HERE!!!!! He’s totally useless.

I don’t care what the sabermetric stats say, Bernie. This is a clear case where he really is as bad as he looks. How many times will his errors or misplays come at critical times in the ballgame?

His bat simply doesn’t justify his defensive liability. I’m with most other fans - either send him down to the farm or sell him to the first bidder.

Lastly Bernie, can you actually tell us, without stats, that you believe he should start ahead of any of our other qualified outfielders on any given day? I’d like to hear some journalistic expression of exactly why you think he should, minus the bs stats.

There are three leagues in which Duncan’s defense qualifies him to play: American, International and Pacific Coast.

The manager that would place him in the field in a tie game is no genius.

In baseball, in a late-game pressure situation, the ball always manages to find a team’s weakest fielder. It’s found (almost, not enough for him to catch it) Duncan at least twice, and it has cost the Cardinals two games.

Remember those days during the stretch drive in September.

As I stated before, Duncan always seems to take the wrong approach when it comes to fielding a ball. He was one the of the reasons the Cards lost to LA on Sunday, by misplaying a simple flyball, it led to the winning run. He kind of reminds me of Pete Rose as a fielder, at best an average arm, no range or speed to cover his position, whther Rose was in the infield or outfield. STL please rid yourself of this cancer.

If is name were smith he would not be playing, not my quote but i agree with it