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About The Author:

Brian Feldman joined 101 ESPN in December 2008 as a Reporter/On-Air Talent primarily responsible for covering the St. Louis Cardinals. He hosts "St. Louis Baseball Tonight" before each Cards game along with "The Hot Corner" on Sunday mornings from 8-10 am with Derrick Goold.

Prior to 101 ESPN, Brian worked at KMOX-AM in St. Louis as a Sports Host/Anchor/Reporter. He was hired in April 2007 and received a promotion 5 months later.

Brian graduated from Syracuse University and the prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in December 2006. While there, he was a Sports Anchor/Reporter for WSTM-TV. Brian was hired as a junior in college at age 20.
Updated 128 Days ago

Help Wanted: Left-Handed Power

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Watching the World Series and seeing what makes the Phillies lineup so good, it's quite obvious they've got something the Cardinals do not.

Left-handed power.

That's got to be it.  Because when you look at it, position by position, between the Phillies and Cards...I don't see a huge difference between the teams.

RF: Ryan Ludwick didn't have as good of a season as Jayson Werth, but Ludwick's 2008 was probably comparable to Werth's 2009.

CF: Shane Victorino is very good.  But Colby Rasmus will be better.  Like, next year.

LF:  If Holliday returns, he's certainly better than Raul Ibanez.

1B: Albert > Ryan Howard

Certainly Chase Utley provides more of a punch than Skip Schumaker while the others are close as well.

But the point is, the Phillies do not have THAT much of a better lineup than the Cards.  The difference is they are more balanced and have pop from both sides of the plate.

Right now, Colby Rasmus is the only threat the Cards have from the left side of the plate to really hurt you with some power.  To me, that's why he's got to be more in the middle of the lineup so he can drive in runs...as opposed to hitting more at the top.

The other problem is there is no real left-handed power bat coming up the system.  Brett Wallace was legit, but now he's legit for Oakland.  

I'm not suggesting John Mozeliak needs to go over-the-top and make a bonehead move like the Cubs made in getting rid of a valuable piece (Mark DeRosa) for any left-handed power he can find (Milton Bradley). 

But it is worth noting why Philadelphia is in the World Series for the 2nd consecutive year.

Tags:
Colby Rasmus
  • Brian: IMO...Ludwick is trade bait: decent production, good outfielder, and he's not expensive. Don't be shocked if he gets packaged with a prospect for Adam Dunn. There are no real #4 types available in the FA market. Holliday is a protypical #3 hitter and I don't think he'll be back anyway. It looks like the Cards want to play Freese at 3rd so a trade for Dunn and signing DeRosa makes sense.

    The other thing the Phillies do that the Cards don't is run. Rollins, Victorino, Utley and Werth all stole more than 20 bases. The team had 119 steals with 225 HR's. The Cards had 160 homers and only 75 steals. The lack of stolen bases, hit and run attempts killed this ofense. This was not a power laden team so why didn't we run more? I blame Tony for that, not Hal McRae. I know it's a different era but Skip, Ryan, Albert, Holliday, and Rasmus all have stolen base ability. Tony just sat back and waited for 3 run homers.

    Keith

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