 | Fantasy Football is evolving. Find out when. |
 | The Official Fantasy Baseball Commissioner Game of MLB.com. |
 | Compete for up to $3,500 with Fantasy Baseball Premium Games. |
The Cubs made another intriguing move today claiming infielder Adrian Cardenas off waivers from the Athletics. The lefty hit .314 with 51 RBIs, 28 doubles, four triples, five home runs, 70 runs and a .374 on-base percentage in 127 games with Triple-A Sacramento last year.
He's the type of guy the Cubs view as better competition for the second-base job than DeWitt, who although very versatile, failed to hit for a solid average last season.
The Cubs are going with Darwin Barney and Jeff Baker at second base, but now Cardenas enters the mix.
Jemile Weeks, Cliff Pennington, Scott Sizemore, Brandon Allen, Chris Carter, Adam Rosales & Daric Barton on the 25 man roster for IF players, with all of those players ranging in age from 24-28. It also likely means that Mr. Cardenas has a hole in his game (he is a liability defensively), that the A's are not willing to wait for him to develop.I would say it has to be a pretty major hole.
And so was Rosales in the minor leagues.
Bottom line, the guy is a high average hitter with little power and shaky defense.
Dare I say, a Mark DeRosa wannabe?Dare I say you are an idiot.
If it is throwing then that can be fixed fairly easily.Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch say hello.
If it is moves like this that is the bedrock of the future team, this team is going to suck for a long time.
The minor moves are going to lead to the bedrock of the future team.
The 2009 and 2010 seasons for Cardenas were all about him getting over the Triple-A hurdle. In 2011, he finally proved he could hit for average and get on-base regularly at that advanced level. There are still some remaining questions that the infielder will have to answer before he gets a long look in the big leagues, however.
The Florida native has been a top prospect since he was drafted in the first round out of high school by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006. Since that time, Cardenas has shown the ability to hit for average. In nearly 2,500 career minor league at-bats, Cardenas has a .303 average. He has hit for .290 or better at every minor league level. Cardenas is a contact hitter who doesn’t walk or strike-out much. He has only 260 career walks and 354 career strike-outs.
One area that hasn’t developed yet for Cardenas offensively is his power game. The left-handed hitter is well built at 6’0’’, 205 pounds, but he utilizes a swing that is more conducive to going the other way or lining the ball into the gap than going over the fence. In 491 at-bats for Sacramento in 2011, Cardenas hit .314 with a .374 OBP, but he slugged only .418. Cardenas has average speed and hasn’t been a major base-stealer throughout his career.
Where Cardenas lines-up defensively is the biggest question about his overall game, however. A natural second baseman, Cardenas is blocked at that position in Oakland by Jemile Weeks, so the A’s have tried moving him around the field to find a better fit. Over the past few years, he has spent time at shortstop, third base and in left field. He struggled at third and scouts don’t believe he has the range to handle shortstop. Cardenas was fine in left field, but he doesn’t have the power that most teams desire for that position.
Cardenas has an excellent feel for hitting and profiles as the kind of hitter who would hit for average in the big leagues. Whether hitting for average is enough to make him a major league regular remains to be seen. Settling into a permanent defensive position would help clarify his major league future. With Weeks firmly ensconced at second in Oakland, Cardenas’ best opportunity at the major league level may come with another organization.
If it is moves like this that is the bedrock of the future team, this team is going to suck for a long time.for the last 3 years Kboy has been telling how stupid we were to say a pathetic non competetive team sucked....suddenly he's decided it's ok.
