Cardinals close to signing Felipe Lopez
by OremLK on Feb 26, 2010 6:17 PM CST
Email
PrintThe St. Louis Cardinals are close to agreement with free agent utility player Felipe Lopez on a one-year contract that would offer infield depth and add a much-needed lefthanded bat, sources close to negotiations confirmed Friday.
The parties were close enough to a deal Friday night that they had discussed the possibility of Lopez undergoing a team physical this weekend....
The marked-down deal would be for less than a $2 million base plus incentives, according to a source familiar with talks.
I only bring this up because we've discussed the possibility of signing him here on numerous occasions as the off-season has worn on.
This development frustrates me on five levels:
- One, Lopez would be a (possibly substantial) upgrade right now at either second or third base on the cheap.
- Two, signing him would have kept our division rival from adding what will likely be about one additional win, widening the gap between our two teams.
- Three, an inexpensive guaranteed multi-year deal would have been very advantageous considering the poor state of the second base market next off-season and our lack of in-house options to replace Matsui.
- Four, Lopez would give us another layer of (albeit poor) backup for Tommy Manzella to go with Jeff Keppinger.
- Five, regardless of who he replaced (if anyone; I would be fine running with only four outfielders), the bench would get stronger.
So the Cardinals demonstrate, once again, superior front office management to our Houston Astros.
9 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
This would be Lopez’s second time around for the Cardinals. I think LaRussa likes him, because he can be used at so many infield positions, as well as a corner outfielder. If I recall, LaRussa is the last manager to use Lopez quite a bit in the outfield. This is a nice move for the Cards because they are likely to go with a young unproven player at 3d (Freese), and it will be nice to have Lopez around in case he doesn’t measure up. The fact that the Astros have never been connected to Lopez in media reports indicates to me that the Astros don’t like him for some reason. After Lopez fired Boras a few weeks ago, that took the Boras-impediment out of play. I felt like Lopez was a real pain in the butt when the Brewers played the Astros last year. He had such good at bats. Now I suppose we will have to put up with that when the Astros play the Cards.
Lugo?
After reading a bit at vivaelbirdos.com, I realize that this move may make it tough for Julio Lugo to stay on the 25 man roster for the Cards. If Lugo becomes available, is Lugo worth consideration as a back up plan at shortstop? Reuben Gotay—remember him? we discussed him as an intriguing AAAA back up earlier in the off-season—is also competing for a Cardinals infield reserve job. The Cards also have another infield reserve, Tyler Greene, in the mix.
$2 million for a 29 year old experienced .300 hitter
Looks like Cardinals stole one
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Feb 27, 2010 7:23 PM CST reply actions
Lopez isn’t a career .300 hitter. His career batting average is in the .260’s. I think the Cardinals got a fine deal for a utility player. But Lopez is unlikely to repeat last season’s offensive stats. He is more likely to be a .740 OPS player next year than the .805 OPS in 2009.
I would tend to expect somewhere in between those two marks; perhaps .760-.770ish. It’s true he won’t likely bat .300 again, but I could see his batting average remaining above his career mark. In 2009 his line drive and groundball rates went up and his flyball and popup rates went down, which is a good formula for a high batting average.
Cardinals fans are excited over the signing
They’ll be even more excited if Lopez duplicates that .385 average he recorded his last stay in St. Louis.
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Feb 28, 2010 5:39 PM CST up reply actions
Here is a fangraphs article on the Lopez signing. The article is probably a pretty fair assessment. The conclusion is that St. Louis got a good deal, but that Lopez will probably regress from a .358 BABIP to .320-.330 BABIP, and the article makes a good point that St. Louis’ ballpark won’t help his numbers. As I’ve said, Lopez will help the Cardinals. But if fans are counting on a repeat of the .385 average (which was over a small sample), they are likely to be disappointed.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
TCB Tweets!
Current Series
3 game series vs Rockies @ Minute Maid Park
|
Colorado Rockies
Friday, Apr 6, 2012, 6:05 PM CDT |
||
| Sat 04/07 | 6:05 PM CDT | |
| Sun 04/08 | 1:05 PM CDT | |
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Cincinnati
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Houston
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Milwaukee
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
|
St. Louis
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.15.2012 at 6:05 PM CST)
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
