Aftershocks: Barton’s arm, Rasmus’ start
TOWER GROVE — While we check around the house to see if anything has been shaken loose, shaken up or shaken down, here are some riffs from the ballpark:
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When David Eckstein became a Cardinal, the team discussed with him a way to increase his arm strength. The shortstop who had a “playable” arm — manager Tony La Russa’s word — and a max-effort motion improved his arm during his three seasons as a Cardinal by going on a pitcher’s program. He used the same exercises the Cardinals use to help pitchers maintain their arm strength to increase his.
Watching outfielder Brian Barton throw out a San Francisco Giant at home plate last weekend got me thinking that the rookie might be doing the same thing.
Not quite, he said.
“It’s more of a mental thing than a physical thing,” Barton said about his arm. “I’m thinking about getting it to (the cutoff man), instead of getting it through him. I don’t question my arm strength. I just haven’t been consistent with it, so I can see why people do question it.”
Barton’s arm has been a question since spring training; even watching him and the other outfielders take infield one day the reporters asked La Russa whether Barton’s arm would limit his ability to play anywhere besides left field. The manager shrugged it off, saying that it could improve. And he didn’t necessarily mean improve its strength. Barton could improve it with his choices, his accuracy. As discussed in this morning’s Cardinals’ notebook, Barton has been working with coach Dave McKay to make the throws more consistent, right down to the release point.
That means long-tossing. Lost of long-tossing, with an attention to mechanics.
“Me not getting the ball to where it needs to be,” Barton said, “is the same as not having a good arm. I realize that.”
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Together they combined for a 4-3 record and a 2.45 ERA in the Cardinals’ unexpected title run of October 2006, and soon they could be reunited as Brewers.
Jeff Suppan, who signed as a free agent a few months after pitching the Cardinals into the ‘06 World Series, said he welcomes the potential addition of Jeff Weaver to Milwaukee’s staff. Weaver was signed to a minor-league deal Tuesday by the club. If Weaver pitches his way into the big-league rotation, the Brewers would have the Cardinals’ National League Championship Series MVP (Suppan) and the pitcher who started the World Series clincher (Weaver).
“I think that’s what you try to bring to a team that already has a good nucleus is more experience, more time in the trenches,” Suppan said. “That’s what Jeff brings. In ‘06, he really came on strong, he threw some incredible games. But it’s really what he gained from that experience that he brings to our table.”
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The Brewers had an intriguing scouting report posted on the door into their clubhouse this past week: A look at the umpires. On your standard 8 1/2-by-11 white sheets of copy paper, the Brewers had a picture of the umpire, a look at some of their tendencies and a list of their hobbies. You know, just to make conversation.
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One of the reasons the Cardinals considered Colby Rasmus as a candidate to bypass Triple-A completely and begin this in the majors is how he’s responded to slow starts. Rasmus is gifted enough in the field that his glove can keep him in a lineup when his bat is slumping. Sure. But there’s more to it. The Cardinals figured Rasmus would struggled in his first swing at the majors, but they relied on a track record of recovering quickly and surging after early scuffles at every level.
So there won’t be much alarm than on April 18th the organization’s top prospect wakes up with a .183 batting average and almost as many strikeouts (13) as total bases (15) in his first 60 at-bats at the Triple-A level.
He’s had this kind of start before … and the bounceback tends to be just as extreme:
2006: At Low-A Quad Cities, Rasmus began his first full season as a pro in a 1-for-26 spiral. … Starting on April 13, with a four-hit performance, Rasmus began a jag that included a 16-for-37 run. … He hit .351 over his next 171 at-bats, and finished the season before a promotion.
2007: Hit .256 in his first 82 at-bats at Double-A Springfield, reaching base with a .322 percentage and striking out 13 times. … In May of that season, he cracked eight home runs, hit .340, slugged .699 and had a .439 on-base percentage that month. … He ended the year with a .275 average, a .932 OPS and a Double-A best 29 homers.
2008: He has that .183 batting average, and only two of his 11 hits in 60 at-bats have been for extra bases. He’s hitting .105 over the previous 10 games, with four singles and nine strikeouts in his past 38 at-bats. … And then …
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P-D firm critic Joe Williams has a rundown of the great cinematic smackdowns in today’s paper. (Hello, Rick Vaughn vs. Clu Haywood? Anyone? Granted, it’s not Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker, but it’s got the Evil Empire element.) That list comes out a day after Viva el Birdos tracked with tremendous research the great single at-bat showdowns in the last 20 years of Cardinal baseball.
The list of the longest at-bats – ranked by total pitches — reveals that Rick Ankiel’s 17-pitch grind against Carlos Villanueva on Wednesday is the lenghtiest. One Ankiel noted would have felt a lot longer if he hadn’t worked a walk out of it.
Ankiel-Villanueva doesn’t quite rate with Williams’ Sandler-Barker throwdown.
But, according to Viva’s research and some additional poking around, some that do (all of which, interestingly, happened in St. Louis):
SCOTT ROLEN vs. JAKE PEAVY … 8/7/2007 … 14 pitches … F4.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Cardinals put two runners on — Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds – with two outs and brought Rolen to the plate to face the eventual Cy Young winner. Fourteen pitches later, Rolen flew out to the second baseman in the outfield grass. Peavy retired the next seven batters he faced and did not allow a run in a 4-0 win.
BRIAN JORDAN vs. RANDY JOHNSON … 9/23/1998 … 14 pitches. … BB.
In his final start as a Houston Astro, Johnson riddled the Cardinals with eight strikeouts and offered them six walks. Jordan earned his in the bottom of the seventh inning. Jordan, however, was eventually caught trying to steal third base to end the inning. Houston won, 7-1, for the 100th victory in the franchise’s only 100-win season.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Why is Ankiel playing center? Why put Ankiel — for whom versatility is not so much of an asset, given his short time in the outfield and ticking free-agent clock — at that position if Rasmus is bound for center field for years to come? Versatility, of course, is not the same as athleticism. Why make it harder for Ankiel by asking him to learn center from March until August, and then ask him to learn a corner outfield position (right?) for the last 2-3 months of the season? I hope Schumaker has a future in St. Louis or elsewhere as a speedy, .300-hitting Gold Glover, but he’s not the blue chip that Ankiel is, and he’s already mastered all three outfield positions. Let Skip, the versatile guy, play center until Rasmus arrives, and then see which guy(s) continue to fill the third position, presumably left field.
The only rationale I can come up with is that Ankiel entered the season as the only clear, full-time outfielder. If Skip failed as a leadoff hitter, wound up platooning or was pushed to the bench completely by his own struggles or somebody else’s success, then you’d be leaving center for one or many games to Ludwig (six games last season at center), Barton (short arm) or Duncan (horrors!). But if Skip, now hitting .306 with a stellar .404 OBP and on pace to score 130 runs, can cement himself into the starting lineup, probably continuing to hit leadoff, would you move him to center, so Ankiel can start settling into right field sooner? … Unless the team still has something else in mind for Rasmus.