St. Louis Cardinals Surprise, Sign Lance Berkman

I guess the St. Louis Cardinals figured if they won the World Series with Chris Duncan starting 59 games in the outfield in 2006, they can do the same with Lance Berkman in 2010.

In a surprising move, the Cardinals signed Lance Berkman to a one-year, eight million dollar contract on Saturday. The 34-year-old switch-hitter will play left field for the Cardinals in 2011. Matt Holliday will move to right, and Colby Rasmus will remain in center.

This is a surprising move, because Berkman hasn’t played the outfield since 2007, and even back then he wasn’t very good at it. And on top of that, Berkman has two bad wheels, and Holliday has never played an inning in RF in his Major League career.

Perhaps with four groundball pitchers in the rotation, the Cardinals are banking that a limited amount of flyballs will be hit.

While the Cardinals have statistically gotten worse on defense with the acquisitions of Ryan Theriot and Berkman, their offense should be better with these acquisitions in 2011.

As much as Berkman fell off last year, he still was good for a .368 combined OBP with the Houston Astros and New York Yankees. His BB Percentage and K Percentage were right in line with his career averages.

Where Berkman really fell off in 2010 was his performance as a right-handed batter. He only hit .171/.261/.256 with one HR as a right-handed batter. One would think he could only improve on that in 2011.

With Berkman, the Cardinals now will feature a lineup that looks something like this:

1. Schumaker, 2B

2. Berkman, LF

3. Pujols, 1B

4. Holliday, RF

5. Rasmus, CF

6. Molina, C

7. Freese, 3B

8. Theriot, SS

9. Pitcher

For a National League lineup, it’s not that bad. It’s still very top heavy, and if Berkman can’t stay healthy, this lineup doesn’t look nearly as good.

Berkman only played in 122 games last year, and that was with him playing first and DH. So it will be interesting to see how healthy he can stay trying to track down fly balls in left on a daily basis.

If Berkman can stay on the field, Berkman can still be productive enough to give the Cardinals a solid bat in front of Albert Pujols. Of course, that’s a big if.

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