Rick Ankiel's Comeback

Ankiel is 28 years old. No point in keeping him in the minors much longer. If he's ever going to make it back to the majors, it has to be soon.

 

If I recall correctly, Ankiel's got a lot of pop, but he's got some big holes in his swing, too (he's got 78 Ks and 22 BBs in 331 ABs.) ... that may be playing a part in their delay in calling him up.

 

He's out of options.

 

What's his OBP and OPS? Strikeouts are just outs. You hardly ever strike out into a double play (although it has been done.)

 

In 2007, 78ks in 332 at-bats is nothing for guys who dig the long ball.

As for the former pitchers-turned sluggers, I believe the Babe was once a serviceable big-league hurler, not that it was a crisis or injury that forced his hand.

 

So you go from saying team members will resent Ankiel to saying he's out of options?

 

No idea on his OPS but his OBP was below .330 last I heard ...

 

Paging Chris Coste to the Rick Ankiel thread.

 

Ankiel's stats:
AVG - .272
OBP - .320
OPS - .888
SLG - .568
K's - 78
AB - 331

 

He is out of options, but more importantly, the Cards really don't have anywhere to put him.

Duncan's entrenched himself in left, and he ain't moving. Edmonds is the guy you want in center, when he's healthy, and Taguchi has filled in decently for him this year. Encarnacion is an established right fielder, and you've got a declining Preston Wilson behind him. Plus, Ludwick, Spiezio and Schumaker off the bench already.

Is Ankiel better than any of them? Maybe, maybe not. Disregarding his age, he's not a can't-miss prospect because he's an undisciplined hitter. Not that that's stopped a lot of guys with pop in their bats, but still.

You can't call him up just because he's a "name" with an inspirational comeback story. He'll definitely have a lot of fan support if/when he gets called up, but nobody's worried about fan support in the 'Lou. [/insert 'moran' picture here ]

You've got to have a place to play him, and the Cardinals don't. They're paying good money for the five outfielders on the squad right now. How would they bring up another one?

 

One quick note: I'm pretty sure Preston Wilson's still on the DL, and may never be heard from again. His knee's pretty well screwed up.

 

If I'm the Cards, I market him to the AL as a combo OF/1B/DH/PH.

If he's playing center in AAA, he can probably handle the corner fields too.

But at the age of 28, no point in keeping him in the minors to see if he's gonna magically cut his strikeout rate in half. Not gonna happen.

He's got 27 HRs 2/3 of the way through the minor-league season, that roughly projects out to 40 for the full season.

When you jump a player a level of competition, as a rough rule of thumb, subtract 10-15 percent from his production to give you a general idea of what he might do at the higher level: that would give Ankiel something like a .250 average, .300 OBP and 30-32 HRs in a full season of MLB at-bats.

That ain't Hall of Fame, but it's a useful player. Plenty of teams have OFs/DHs in their lineups who aren't doing that well.