Time For Taveras

Steven

Let’s leave emotion out of it for a second.

  1. PLAYER A: 103 AB | 31 H | 19 RBIs | .852 OPS | 5 HR | 8 BBs
  2. PLAYER B: 121 AB | 25 H | 11 RBIs | .598 OPS | 3 HR | 8 BBs
  3. PLAYER C: 102 AB| 30 H | 18 RBIs | .765 OPS* | 3 HR | 7 BBs
  4. PLAYER D: 52 AB | 8 H | 2 RBIs | .491 OPS | 0 HR | 5 BBs

You have two choices for your outfield, who do you take nearly 40 games or 1/4 into the season to play in CF and RF flanking Matt Holliday?

You’ve probably already figured out that you’re playing Oscar Taveras and Randal Grichuk over Allen Craig and Peter Bourjos. But Allen Craig has 25M+ left on a new contract along with a history of hitting in the big league level for the past 2 years.

So really, there is one spot left.

Peter Bourjos has learned the hard way that when you play for a fickle and intense baseball market, your fate can turn quickly. He’s had limited ABs the past couple of weeks, while Grichuk and Jon Jay have been starting in CF. In those limited ABs, he’s looked lost.

The Cardinals are .500 and close to digging a pretty deep hole in the NL Central. They have one of baseball’s best prospects producing in AAA, are giving starts to another rookie and the offense is stagnant.

Even with the specter of starting Taveras’ arbitration clock looming, it’s getting less excusable to keep Taveras in Memphis while the big club flails.

It’s time for the Cardinals to call up Taveras. We want it. They should too.

* = This is a combined AAA/MLB number. I did the math, so it may not be perfect. But I think it’s close. I wasn’t ever that good at math.

Photo: StanGraphs.com

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