As the Cardinals enter the final week of spring training here in Jupiter, Fla., there are still a few questions that don’t have definitive answers. The outfield situation is cloudy, not to mention the bench. Because of the continuing rehabs of Jim Edmonds and Juan Encarnacion from off-season surgeries, neither is expected to be 100 percent on opening day.
From the looks of things Edmonds might be back sooner as he continues to take batting practice while Encarnacion has yet to pick up a bat. That leaves the Cardinals with some holes. So Taguchi has been average, Preston Wilson has not been much better. For Wilson, there is a spot that is begging for him to take. The Cardinals have been in need of a power bat that can come off the bench and play more than one outfield position. Wilson fits the description. Wait a minute! Did I mention that he has a hole in his bat? He has been a feast or famine kind of a guy… He can hit it as far as anyone can and yet he is capable of going 0-for-4 in 12 swings.
Wilson has it all in front of him. The Cardinals would like for him to make this team. He is good in the room, he has a great personality and he is one of the few African American players the Cardinals have in their entire organization. You would have to go down to single A to find a legitimate African American in the Cardinal organization in 20-year-old outfielder Darryl Jones. As I have said before, this is not a Cardinal thing when it comes to lack of African Americans playing baseball. It’s a baseball thing period.
The injury situation truly exposes the Cardinal bench. They as we speak are short. Scott Spezio will be pressed into service on opening day. That could be a good thing. The more early season at bats a professional hitter like Spezio can get early the better for him and the Cardinals. As for the rest who vie for spots, the jury is still out on the other candidates in John Rodriguez, So Taguchi, Skip Schumaker and anyone else. The unfortunate element here is had for pitcher had a few more at bats in the minors; we would be talking about him. Rick Ankiel was recently sent back to the minors but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Ankiel looks and plays like a big leaguer these days. His lack of plate experience was the question. He needs about 350 to 500 at bats before he could contribute on the major league level. So far this spring Ankiel played in the outfield like a veteran. He made the routine plays, he threw to the right bases and he looked at home. Forget about the teenage sensation we once knew as Rick Ankiel the pitcher. Say hello to the up and coming outfielder Rick Ankiel who will soon be patrolling an outfield near you.
NCAA Anyone?
Well it’s not SIU-Kansas, but it is the NCAA tournament and it’s in St. Louis this weekend. While the defending national champion Florida Gators will be in the house, the rest of the teams do not carry the same electricity that we would have liked. Hold on. What am I grousing about? Thanks to ST. Louis University and Mizzou, this is as close to the tournament St. Louisans will get this year. In any event, there should be tickets available. Check it out. One of these teams is going to the Final Four and that’s not all bad.
On the coaching front, the time is now for firings and hirings. I noticed that Michigan parted ways with their coach Tommy Amaker. Six years on the job and no NCAA tournament. Amaker took a bullet for the university when they were put on probation for the Chris Webber shenanigans. He even admitted that it did not work as planned. He graciously moved on. At Missouri State they held a press conference to say that their coach Barry Hinson will continue to be their coach amid speculation that he would be fired considering he failed to make the tournament for the eighth consecutive year. By the way that is the same amount of time he has been at Missouri State. Guess he either has some kind of recruiting class coming in or some kind of pictures on someone to keep his job. The Missouri Valley Conference is no longer an “Aw shucks” conference. They are for real at least I thought they were. While it is not the Conference’s responsibility to hire and fire coaches, if you are trying to grow and compete, you have to have more teams that are tournament ready. Missouri State is not even NIT ready having been knocked off at home in the first round. Oh well, maybe they like mediocrity in Springfield.