Juan Encarnacion certainly had his career year at the right time as he parlayed his 2005 season into a 3-year, $15 million dollar contract with the Cardinals. He’ll replace Larry Walker. It’s quite a step down for the right field slot for the Cardinals. Juan has a .316 career OBA, Walker was an even .400 over his lifetime in the majors.
well, darn near anybody is a step down from larry walker. encarnacion does have a good arm though… i’m a little surprised the cards gave him 3 years though…
I’m not. When Walt couldn’t get Jacques Jones, he got the next best thing…
This is Tino all over again.
at least juan can bring some D to the table. hitting will be a plus. i figure it’s still eckstein, edmonds, pujols, rolen, ……….. and everyone else.
Hrrrmph. They could have gotten 80% of the offensive production at 10% of the price by just playing Taguchi.
Unless Rolen has a big comeback, I don’t see this bunch putting up much offense.
Eckstein probably had a career year. Edmonds is getting older and declining.
Pujols will hit well. That’s probably the surest thing in baseball.
Everyone else just isn’t very good at hitting. Miles? Cruz? Spivey? Only the latter has a chance of having a .300+ OBP
Spivey has a decent chance of putting up a .350 OBP, let alone .300; no point in guilting him by association with those two stiffs. Hector Luna also has a little pop.
I had to wonder a bit myself, until I looked at his stats such as his batting average with runners on and when he is ahead in the pitch count. He will fit very well into the sixth slot based upon what I see.
might have 20 homers 95 rbi. guessing on how the new park works out. probaly a ban box like cincy or phila.
Horrible, Horrible signing.
John Rodriguez would perform better, and is much cheaper.
In fact, So Tags is roughly the same player, although a higher OBP, but lower SLG.
Stupid, stupid signing that has TLR’s hand all over it.
they still have the reigning MVP and CY Young winner…i dont think theyre struggling too bad even if this offense is as potent as ’04