TOWER GROVE — The title of the blog doesn’t really scream baseball or blink flashing lights that this is a place for a take straight from the front office. But over at “It Might Be Dangerous … You Go First”, that’s exactly what Paul DePodesta does with the San Diego Padres.

This evening, DePodesta chimed in on the deal that sent shortstop Khalil Greene to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for the funky (and irked with exceptional timing) sidearmer Mark Worrell and a player to be named later (the famous PTBNL). Wrote DePodesta:

In addition to stellar defensive play at shortstop, Khalil’s five full seasons here resulted in 82 homers and more than 300 rbi. The Cardinals got a good player, and I would guess he’s going to have a very nice year for them.

DePodesta has previously been the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and was a special assistant with the Padres until a recent promotion to executive vice president. In previous entries on his blog DePodesta has discussed the strategy of offering arbitration, the general “parameters of (the Padres’ offseason) plan”, the option exercised on Brian Giles and this recent statement about the firesale in San Diego: “Are we going to have more inexperienced players on our roster going forward than we have had over the past four years? Yes. Do we expect to lose? No.”

His entry on the Greene trade had a telling take on acquiring Worrell and how he’ll get that big-league chance he covets. Right. Now.

… we bring back RHP Mark Worrell and a PTBNL. A 2004 draft out of Florida International, Mark has spent the past two seasons at AAA Memphis: 126 ip, 103 h, 56 bb, and 146 k’s. Mark is a sidearmer with some funk to his delivery, but he’ll still run it up to 92 mph and typically pitches around 89-90. Despite his sidearming delivery, Mark has been very tough on both left-handed hitters and right-handed hitters, and we think he has a good chance to contribute to our Major League bullpen in 2009 and beyond. He is currently protected on the 40-man roster and has options remaining.

Some funk is putting it mildly. But there’s no arguing the numbers Worrell has put up.

Ditto with the dollars the Padres are shedding. (Check DePodesta’s blog for a blunt take on that.)

Double ditto with the numbers Greene brings to St. Louis.

There have been many articles and many better blog entries already about Greene’s home/road splits, his down, down, down 2008 season, his 27-homer season in 2007 and his low career on-base percentage with a plus slugging percentage. So on. And, so on. But DePodesta’s blog entry jogged my mind about something in the Cardinals’ official release about the deal. Quoth the Cardinals: Greene’s “82 home runs since 2004 rank 3rd among regular Major League shortstops during that span. (Note: Cardinals shortstops combined to hit 24 home runs during that same time span).”

Dig deeper, and it’s not just the homers and the RBIs. The Cardinals got extra-base thump in this trade, relative thump like they haven’t seen at shortstop in several seasons.

SHORTSTOP, YEAR … HITS .. XB … OPS+

David Eckstein, 2005 … 185 … 41 … 99

David Eckstein, 2006 … 146 … 21 … 81

David Eckstein, 2007 … 134 … 26 … 93

Cesar Izturis, 2008 … 109 … 14 … 67

Khalil Greene, 2007* … 155 … 74 … 100

Khalil Greene, avg … 146 … 61 … 95

* Career season.

If you’re not familiar with OPS+ it’s a number that compares a players OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) to the league average and places it along a spectrum with 100 as the base (average) and anything better than 100 being better than average, etc. Greene’s OPS is anchored by his OBP, which tells you a little something about his SLG. That is the biggest upgrade for the Cardinals.

In 1,978 combine at-bats since 2005, the Cardinals’ shortstops have combined for 102 extra-base hits. In 130 fewer at-bats in the same span, Greene has had 191 extra-base hits.

Insert pun about numbers being worth a double-take here.

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Self-promotion conclusion: For folks in the St. Louis area or those interested in St. Louis radio, my role with the new sports station in town, Sports/Talk 101.1 FM, was announced Thursday. Gained a sentence all of my own in Dan Caesar’s Media Views this morning, and an early critic at The Riverfront Times. “Verbosity”? Guilty. “Gravelly voice?” Stings a little. That’s a long way from the role in No Exit. But then again it’s not like they’re asking me to sing Christmas music.

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