GatewayRedbirds.com

Unless he has another year like 2010 I think its a few years too early to think he becomes the designated pinch hitter of sorts. He was one of the 20 best hitters in all of baseball last season and can still play the field. Giambi was basically a DH 4 or 5 years removed from that top 20 consideration when he took that role. Unless something happens to Craig or Beltran I agree that if Berkman remains a Cardinal that would be his role, but if he wants to look elsewhere he will be able to find something.

_________________
NYC Area Cards fans, check out http://gocrazyfolks.com/ and join!

"Hey gunner man, that's quicksand. That's quicksand, that ain't mud."

Puma's aiming to be back Friday now, according to somebody.

_________________

Article:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball ... 525e4.html


Berkman said he understood the new plan to be that, if healthy, he would be activated Friday when the Cardinals are back home.

With Craig and Adams potentially able to play 1B next year unless if Berkman goes to hit 30+ homers this year I don't know why you would spend 10-13 million on Berkman for next year.

++

_________________
"Gee, Paul, if I'd a-known you was gonna throw a no-hitter, I'd a-thrown one too!"
-Dizzy Dean

Also, re: Greenback's post about Loney continuing to get ABs as the Dodgers 1st baseman, it is crazy that we probably have three first basemen better than him.

_________________

I'll continue to disagree with this line of thinking. To me, that's how you go from a first place team to a 3rd or 4th place team really quickly. Berkman gets paid money like that because he's much more productive than a replacement level 1B, which is all you could consider Craig or Adams at this point. Now, if Craig outhits him this year and it becomes apparent that Berkman is no longer worth that kind of money, that's one thing, but that's yet to be determined.

I thought it was a given that we wouldn't keep Berkman past 2012.

_________________
"This is a heavyweight bout indeed."--John Rooney, Oct. 27, 2011

I think we should see how the season plays out. They paid Walker $12M at 38 in 2005 after a year in which he played 80 games. Right now Berkman's missed 21 games. That means normal work load for the rest of year is 110-120 games and if he can post an .850-900 OPS over the season I think he's probably still almost as valuable last year since he's not a defensive liability at first.

Besides that, where are you gonna spend that money in the off-season? Cole Hamels? Colby Lewis? Josh Hamilton? There's no 2B on the market. They'll have $25-30M to spend and nothing to really spend it on. I don't think you let Berkman walk at all, you remember when Chris Duncan tore up the league for two seasons? Remember when Ryan Ludwick hit 30 home runs? Even with his aches, Berkman's a safer bet than Craig or Adams and if you can get him back for another 1 year 12M type deal you do it, but I also don't think I'd go two years unless it was a big discount.

_________________

Exactly. It's always nice when the kids come up and can handle the job, but you still like to have some proven talent on board, especially if they're productive.

_________________
"You have to be concerned about the future, but you also have to be more concerned about the present. If you have to give up two or three young kids - who may not be able to play for several years - to get help for your team now, you have to do it." - Bing Devine, 1999

"They call baseball a game because it's too screwed up to be a business." - Jim Bouton, 1971.

"Big deal. Anyone can win games when the other team doesn't score any runs." - Curt Flood to Bob Gibson, circa 1968