No longer an experiment, Schumaker will be Cardinals’ 2B _ for now
JUPITER, Fla. _ As far as St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak is concerned, outfielder-turned-second baseman Skip Schumaker legitimately can be called second baseman Skip Schumaker.
The subject of one of those seemingly cockeyed ideas often spawned by fans in the off-season, Schumaker has done well enough this spring in his move from the outfield to be the Cardinals’ starting second baseman after the three who played the position the most in 2008 _ Adam Kennedy, Aaron Miles and Felipe Lopez _ all went elsewhere.
“As of today,” said Mozeliak this morning. “Obviously, it depends on the matchups and all that, but he’s played very well for us.”
There had been no timetable for the decision, said Mozeliak, nor was there a moment when everyone involved thought this really would work.
“The thing that was gettiing frustrating both to the manager (Tony La Russa) and myself was we never put a date on it,” Mozeliak said. “We were open-minded to see how far this would go. He’s played well, and this may be something where we get well into the season and realize it’s not the right fit. We don’t know that answer. As long as he plays well and is effective offensively. . . it’s positive for the Cardinals.”
Mozeliak said Schumaker’s progress _ or lack of same _ during the spring _ hadn’t precluded him from possibly looking elswhere for infield help. “It wouldn’t be prudent not to be looking out there,” he said, “but by the same token, I always thought it wasn’t fair to be doing that. We never had like an all-points bulletin trying to address it.
“It was something we were cognizant of, but the reality was that we wanted to give him a fair opportunity to try to do this.”
Schumaker had a couple of rough games early in the exhibition season. Asked when he felt good about the experiment, Mozeliak said, “It was never like a needle-mover. I always thought the way to approach this was more than 12 spring training games, or just spring training, to get the final answer.
“If those low points became an everyday occurrence, then we would have had our answer,” said Mozeliak. “But there’s always been a progression and not a regression.”
Mozeliak said that a decision regarding lefthanded reliever Royce Ring will be forthcoming later today. Ring was placed on outright release waivers, which expire today, and if Ring clears, then he will have to decide whether or not to accept an outright assignment to Class AAA Memphis.
Asked if he thought Ring’s accepting the assignment would be beneficial, Mozeliak said, “Obviously, yes. It’s good to have depth but I do think we’re covered either way.”
Ring, signed as a free agent to a $475,000 contract, had an 11.12 earned run average for 5 2/3 innings and opposing batters hit .370 against him.
“I wouldn’t say (Ring was a) ‘disappointment,”’ said Mozeliak. “But we did have some higher expectations.”
(10 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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“The subject of one of those seemingly cockeyed ideas often spawned by fans in the off-season”
Thanks for the nod, commish!