Juan Encarnacion, one of the Cardinals’ offseason signings, has been having a rough go of it in the WBC. Unlike Pujols, his Dominican Republic teammate, Encarnacion has been struggling mightily. After badly misplaying two balls in the field during yesterday’s game, he followed it up by going 0 for 5 at the plate today. Now I realize that Juan is probably not quite in mid-season form yet but with so many other players having great tournaments (Lee, Pujols, Beltre, Griffey Jr. etc etc) it is frustrating to watch. Encarnacion is supposed to step in and fill the shoes of Reggie Sanders both in the field and the lineup. While Encarnacion has never shown much power (16 HRs last year), he is coming off his second best season in terms of RBI (76). And, looking strictly at the numbers, he would seem to be a perfect replacement for Sanders, but there just seems to be something intangible Reggie brought to the team. Whether it was a timely homer or a key stollen base, Sanders always seemed to be clutch. That little something extra made him more valuable than just his HRs, RBIs, and batting average. Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if Encarnacion ends up being yet another rabbit out of Jockety’s hat… but I have more than a few doubts about this one. I probably should have already learned better than to doubt Wise Walt but I can’t seem to help myself. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 13th, 2006 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Cardinals, WBC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Juan Encarnacion, one of the Cardinals’ offseason signings, has been having a rough go of it in the WBC. Unlike Pujols, his Dominican Republic teammate, Encarnacion has been struggling mightily. After badly misplaying two balls in the field during yesterday’s game, he followed it up by going 0 for 5 at the plate today. Now I realize that Juan is probably not quite in mid-season form yet but with so many other players having great tournaments (Lee, Pujols, Beltre, Griffey Jr. etc etc) it is frustrating to watch. Encarnacion is supposed to step in and fill the shoes of Reggie Sanders both in the field and the lineup. While Encarnacion has never shown much power (16 HRs last year), he is coming off his second best season in terms of RBI (76). And, looking strictly at the numbers, he would seem to be a perfect replacement for Sanders, but there just seems to be something intangible Reggie brought to the team. Whether it was a timely homer or a key stollen base, Sanders always seemed to be clutch. That little something extra made him more valuable than just his HRs, RBIs, and batting average. Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if Encarnacion ends up being yet another rabbit out of Jockety’s hat… but I have more than a few doubts about this one. I probably should have already learned better than to doubt Wise Walt but I can’t seem to help myself. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 13th, 2006 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Cardinals, WBC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.