Ludwick’s wicked case of deja vu
JUPITER, Fla. — Back in 2005, Ryan Ludwick had his best shot yet at the big-league club. He was on the team coming out of spring training, had survived the surge of a young turk named Grady Sizemore and was going to get a chance to hit into more playing time and see where more playing time took him.
And then, after 41 at-bats with Cleveland, the following transactions took place on May 31:
CLE – Activated OF JUAN GONZALEZ from the 15-day disabled list; designated OF RYAN LUDWICK for assignment.
Things were never the same for Ludwick.
“He blew out his hamstring in his first at-bat, but I didn’t get to be the guy that came back,” Ludwick said earlier this spring. “I cleared waivers and I stayed down. That’s how it goes. Then I had the worst three months of my career. I was so flustered that I probably just let that get to me mentally. It was awful.”
Ludwick spun into a couple years slowed by injury and happenstance before finally surfacing with the Cardinals in 2007. He came into spring training this year having established himself as a viable bench player in the National League with a chance to force a platoon at one of the corner outfield positions. In the first week of camp he told me that he finally felt like he was “finally getting over that label of injury-prone.” But don’t think he didn’t look across the clubhouse and notice who was back in his life:
Gonzalez.
What had the chance at being a tricky clash for the Cardinals this spring fizzled quickly. Gonzalez couldn’t get healthy. Ludwick, though slow at the start, couldn’t be denied a spot. The Cardinals made their move with Gonzalez (abdominal strain) official Wednesday, placing the two-time MVP — who entranced some members of the organization with his swing and his history — on the temporarily inactive list. Ludwick will, as expected, be going north with the club and could be eyeing a opening day against Colorado lefty Jeff Francis.
Ludwick elevated his spring average to .313 on Thursday with a couple hits and a couple RBIs in the Cardinals 8-2 victory against Baltimore. He did what he can do: Smoke the ball for extra bases (his hits were both doubles) and handle deftly all three outfield positions (after entering the game as a pinch runner he played left, right, left again and center field).
The righthanded-hitting, lefthanded-throwing Ludwick came to spring training with a tighter, more compact swing. He rejected the characterization that he “changed his swing”, but his description of how he “improved” his swing seemed more than a minor tweak. He altered his hands and shortened how he cocks the bat back before he swing — all to get a swing that could better handle inside pitches, better connect with what those lefties were offering him.
“It’s not a drastic change, though,” he said. ”It’s very, very minor adjustment. So fastballs in you can drive. I felt like lefthanders with good cutters, like a guy like Ted Lilly, when he threw fastballs in, I’d get long around it instead of staying inside it. It’s not the same swing.”
That was the conundrum of Ludwick last season.
He had reverse splits. Righthanders — particularly ones who threw hard — he hammered. He struggled against lefties. It did not make him a natural platoon for any of the many lefthanded hitters the Cardinals had last summer, nor any of the lefties they had competing for jobs this spring. Hard to pair Ludwick with, say, Skip Schumaker if both had troubles with lefties. Even today, manager Tony La Russa did not know what to make of Ludwick’s swings against lefties this spring.
Better, yes. But not yet enough to say he’s prime for a platoon.
And that is where this spring could have been dicey, but wasn’t. Gonzalez comes in with a tremendous history against lefthanded pitchers. He has a career .602 slugging percentage and a .977 OPS against lefties, and that would have been the role La Russa eyed for him. He could come of the bench as a power threat or he could see controlled time as a starter when a lefty was on the mound. Had Gonzalez been healthy — and hitting like he was early in the came when one official said “he excited us all” — and Brian Barton put on the game display he did, there would have been a squeeze.
“We would have had to confront some decisions,” La Russa said.
Those decisions could have been a serious case of deja vu for Ludwick.
His play made sure it wasn’t. No abdominal strain necessary.
“I was telling my wife this offseason that I feel like I’m 7-years old-again,” Ludwick said. “I haven’t been this excited about being here in a along time. There’s an extra excitement.”
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Barton was fine after being clocked in the nose by a breaking pitch during Wednesday’s game. The outfielder took a pitch to the face and had to be helped off the field, but afterward he barely showed any welt whatsoever from the shot. Once the bleeding from his nose stopped, he said, it was clear that the ball didn’t connect with any bone.
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For the numerologists out there: Barton will wear No. 54 when he arrives at Busch Stadium as a big leaguer Monday. Kyle McClellan will wear No. 46.
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The Cardinals made their roster moves official this afternoon, sending out relievers Hugo Castellanos, Cliff Politte and Chris Perez. As mentioned before in the blog, Castellanos will continue to travel with the team as a backup.
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The Cardinals are in the market for a bona fide lefty specialist that could bump Ron Villone back to the innings role he was originally signed to provide. The availability of Steve Kline does not interest the club as they’d like find someone who has an option remaining or that would not be a brief rental. A core concern in this search is how long will take Tyler Johnson to recover from a strained rotator cuff.
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From the Job Security File. Here’s when you know a player has been around the team awhile, earned some cred with the coaches and quite possibly has won a World Series ring with the manager: Aaron Miles pops his head into La Russa’s office the other day and says, “Hey, Tone, what time do we report tomorrow.”
Once the infield leaves, a report asks La Russa: “Tone?”
La Russa looked befuddled.
“How many players get away with calling you ‘Tone’?” I asked.
“He’s a player-coach,” La Russa said.
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Regarding Miles.
LaRussa has a serious soft spot for the little fella.
Slappy McMiles should be very happy Tony didn’t call it quits. The best he could have gotten elsehwere was a minor league contract and a spring invite.