Is Giles in the Cards?
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by user Ryan vb
Remember waaaaay back when, right around the free agent filing deadline last fall to be exact, the mainstream media and their redheaded step children on the internet buzzed on and on with speculation that Brian Giles was going to be a Cardinal?
Yeah, pricey, older option for left field, and the organization decided to use its “limited” income to pursue A.J. Burnett instead. Now it’s all coming back to you.
Turns out Brian Giles has a brother, Marcus, playing second base for the Braves, a team looking to save face as the Mets runaway with the division title the Braves have come to expect over the last umpteen years. Without getting lost in the morass of the NL East standings, suffice it to say that the Braves need bullpen help, in a bad way, and Giles is rumored to be their currency for grabbing a live arm.
The 28-year-old Giles swings a solid stick. He posted an OPS above .820 in his last three seasons, with a .916 in 2003 that was supposedly just a peak at things to come for the young Giles. He’s like Junior Spivey, only good. This season his play suffered a bit because of a strained finger, an injury that could crush computer bound schlubs such as me. April was his most forgettable month when he went .192/.323/.308. His OPS climbed back north of .700 in the months since.
Giles has hit in the number two spot for most of his career, but since Furcal left the Braves for the richer, greener pastures of Los Angeles, Giles has been in the leadoff spot, a spot he hasn’t been in regularly since 2001. Needless to say, Giles produces much better in the two spot than he does the first.
Hey, I know a team that could use a number two hitter – the Cardinals. Giles, a former 21 HR hitter, has the slugging ability to fit quite nicely in our own two hole and would see more than enough fat pitches hitting ahead of Albert Pujols to make his free agent asking price after the 2007 season stratospheric.
Of course, we’ve got a second baseman, two of them in fact, that make productive options for the 8th spot in the batting order. They’re cheap too. Of course, Giles makes less than $4M next season, hardly putting him out of range for the “cash strapped” Cards.
Part two for the case against Giles is that he doesn’t solve the need for an outfielder capable of maintaining an OPS above .700. Sure, when nine guys come up to the plate in a strategic order, where they roam with a leather hand extender doesn’t really matter. With Eck and Giles at the top two spots, Pujols and Rolen providing power in the 3 and 4 spots, and Encarnacion a productive six hitter, the lineup surely has enough juice to contend with any team in October. The wild card is whether or not Edmonds will get back up to the level he’s capable of playing at before the season’s end. If Jimmy produced at a level close to his “slump” in 2005, the Cards could get by without insisting that an added bat be able to play in the OF. However, with Edmonds slugging at a sub-.400 rate, it’s tough not to pursue an upgrade among those that roam the grass.
Thinking about adding a top-notch bat to the lineup as the Cards play like Champs again, conjures up visions of 2004. I guess you could even take up argument now that another live arm offers more October value to the team than another live bat. It doesn’t matter anyway. The Cards are likely to remain Giles-less for 2006.
Source
Date
Mon 06/19/06, 12:23 pm EST
