Barton update
« The 2006 Starting Pitchers | Main | Mets Fans »Amidst all the spring training discussion and news, I think one tidbit of note to Cards fans has gone un-noticed. Daric Barton was sent down March 17th after hitting .182/.400/.182 this spring. Granted, this was only 2-for-11, so one more hit would've made for a passable .272 average (small sample size and all). Plus, the A's said even before camp opened that they didn't expect him to be on the roster on Opening Day, if even at all this year. And yeah, he's still near the top of many prospect lists (I'm assuming... he was #41 on one list I saw). But I think we can atleast take some solace in the fact that he's not sticking with the major league club quite as soon as some projected. He could still be an excellent MLB hitter in 2007 or beyond, but I think he's still got a ways to go. Despite putting up great numbers last year in the minors, he spent more time in Single-A than AA, and none at all at AAA yet. And lastly, it looks like he's officially been converted to 1B, dropping his value quite a bit IMHO.
Posted by John at March 29, 2006 07:05 PMThe part that makes me sad is that he would almost certainly be the best LF option were he on the Cardinals... and he's 20.
:LKP(U@TP((#@(
Posted by: DanUp at March 30, 2006 04:36 AM"And yeah, he's still near the top of many prospect lists (I'm assuming... he was #41 on one list I saw)."
He just turned up as #11 on Aaron Gleeman's Top 50 list in The Hardball Times.
Posted by: Len Cleavelin at March 30, 2006 10:31 AMSmall sample size is right. With a single and a double in his next two plate appearances, he'd have a line of .308/.471/.385, for a .856 OPS.
Eleven at-bats is hardly enough to make any kind of statement about the State of Daric Barton in 2006.
The kid is 20 years old, and he reached base 7 times in 16 plate appearances in the Major League camp. I would take a bet that he finishes with an OPS of better than .900 in however much time he spends at AAA this year...
Posted by: salvo at March 30, 2006 07:09 PMHe's 20 years old and well on schedule to perform at the major league level in due time. (Pujols was in single A at his age.) All his numbers look good and player development guys still love him. No one seriously thought he would be playing in the majors right now, but there's no reason to think that he won't be some time soon. Consider this in light of the fact that Danny Haren finished the season very strong last year and is being projected as a top 10 AL Cy Young contender this year and you see that Walt Jocketty made the worst deal of his career. But at least we got an "ace", albeit one who wasn't able to contribute meaningfully in the playoffs last year and is clearly on the decline. Any reasonable mind in baseball would prefer to have Danny Haren today than Mark Mulder straight up. It cost us a solid middle reliever and one of the biggest prospects in baseball to get the worse starter in that deal. I'm certain this won't be the last update we see on Daric Barton...
Posted by: PG at April 1, 2006 11:07 AM