Nothing Shall Come From Something, Trade Again!
Categories: Cardinals
And so, just like that, the Blaine Boyer Experiment comes to an end here in St. Louis.
Now, let me get this straight: the Cardinals traded away Brian Barton, a right-handed hitting outfielder who showed last year that he was at least able to get on base at a decent clip (.354 OBP in 179 plate appearances), and still had some upside to grow into, for sixteen innings of average- at best- relief work?
Farewell, Monorail Man, we hardly knew ye. (And barely cared.) Somehow, it just isn't as cool as Rocket Man, is it?
Wow. Just wow.
At the time of the deal, we heard that this was a guy Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan had been lusting after for quite some time. We heard about the miracle bullpen sessions with Marty Mason, and how Boyer was to be the next Braden Looper Memorial Starter Conversion Project.
Instead of all that, we now have no Blaine Boyer, no Brian Barton (who, by the way, the team certainly could have used when Ryan Ludwick and Dick Ankiel were both on the DL and Chris Duncan was busily turning back into a big, clumsy pumpkin), and the the bullpen now features Blake Hawksworth, who can't be optioned back to Memphis and will likely be lost in another three weeks whenever La Russa and John Mozeliak decide they need to make another ridiculous move to bring in another marginal relief arm for another handful of innings. Fantastic.
But while I've got you here, let me pose another query. Jess Todd was called up to throw less than two innings the day that Boyer was released, right? So obviously, the organization thought that Todd was capable of throwing at least a couple of low-leverage innings. Why in the everloving hell wasn't Todd just called up a month ago, instead of trading away a useful commodity for a reliever with a track record of failure?
I don't get it. The organization never seemed to warm to Barton for some reason, and I just don't understand why. Is he an all star? No, he is not. But he has some tools, a good batting eye, and really cool hair. Blaine Boyer has, um, well, a nice new Diamondbacks jersey. So there's that.
Maybe such a marginal move shouldn't piss me off this much, but it does. I don't care who it is, giving away talent for nothing is the sort of thing that good organizations simply don't do. Period.
I don't even have a cool William Shatner video to cheer me up this time, but... I'll see what I can do.
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