Opening Day, or a reasonable facsimile, is rapidly approaching us so I thought I'd check in on some former Cardinals to see what they're up to these days. All of these cards came to me courtesy of Six-4-Three DP in a trade that went down last month.
Rick Ankiel still figures into the Washington Nationals plans after going through a pretty dreadful season in the nation's capital last year. Washington re-signed him, I can only presume, for his defense. I was a huge fan of Ankiel the Pitcher, and he really did put together a brilliant season-and-a-quarter for the Cardinals in his reincarnation as an outfielder. Unfortunately, it's not 2008 anymore.
Brian Barton is an actual rocket scientist, and was also the first Cardinals Rule V draft pick of recent memory, or at least since I understood what a Rule V pick meant. Erik Komatsu, incidentally, looks like a candidate this year to stick with the big club. He would be the first Rule V'er to break camp with St. Louis since Barton. Meanwhile, according to his own very strange but elaborate website, Brian Barton is playing in the Mexican League this year.
Joel Piñeiro signed a minor league deal with the Phillies but didn't make the team. No one misses Dave Duncan and His Amazing Traveling Circus of Pitching Wonder more than Piñeiro. There are so many mediocre and terrible pitchers out there, however, that I would be surprised if he didn't catch on with someone sometime this season.
Anthony Reyes was once a big deal. He had a couple of fleeting moments of brilliance with the Cards and was off to a promising start in Cleveland after being cut loose. Now, when I type his name in to Google's news search engine, someone named "Anthony Rendon" comes up instead no matter what I do. That can't be a good sign.
Joe Mather was never more than a fringe player/occasional call-up for St. Louis, but it appears that he's about to break camp with the Cubs. I'd be happy for him, but it's the Cubs, so I guess I will just shrug my shoulders and hope he doesn't break out any Aaron Miles-esque quotes about being ready to "play baseball the right way."
Brian Barton's website certainly is a trip. A website chronicling his Mexican League adventures sounds like something that Kenny Powers should have done in season two of "Eastbound and Down", if Kenny were a nice african-american gentlemen instead of a foul-mouthed John Rocker / Rod Beck / Mitch Williams walking portmanteau.
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