Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus (Update: Finalized!)

[greenback44]

Do you really think the Cardinals will learn anything new about Brendan Ryan or Aaron MIles in 100 at-bats in Florida, half of them against minor leaguers and fringe major leaguers?

Not as much as they will the month and a half of constant supervision both in the cages, vs. live pitching, and during infield to see if the players have worked hard during the offseason, maybe bulked up, or came into ST healthy.

Most of what needs to be accomplished during ST happens away from ST games.

And they've had two years to do the exact same away-from-the game stuff with Miles, five years with Ryan, yadda yadda yadda. Health is an issue, I suppose, but that's a little different from "spring training competition."

At this point spring training is as much a pseudo-season for extra revenue generation as anything else.

[UK]

They'll factor what has previously happened as well. Nothing wrong with competition at this point, hopefully it'll bring out the best in Ryan.

Plus, I haven't seen anything from Ryan that suggests he's anything above a marginal (utility) player, but I do think he would have the inside track if it came between and Miles.

[Magneto2.0]

Anyone know any solid Bluejays forums? I'm curious to see how they are reacting to this news.

I personally support it; I never got excited when Rolen was coming to bat last year. I wonder if he'll try to catch up to a high fastball and pop it up again? Wow! he did!

With Rolen's petulance (not to say that LaRussa isn't partially at fault too), the whole Dugout Drama thing was tiresome. I expected a move between now and midseason. Glaus has more talent than what I figured we'd get for it, so I am pretty content. We'll all see in a couple months though!

THe MLB one is decent. It's pretty mixed reaction.

[haltz]

There's no competition. They paid $5M for Izturis and Miles who are terrible. Stamp it.

Ryan would win a real competition over those guys pretty easily, all things considered. Hopefully he wouldn't smile about it though.

[greenback44]

They'll factor what has previously happened as well. Nothing wrong with competition at this point, hopefully it'll bring out the best in Ryan.

Plus, I haven't seen anything from Ryan that suggests he's anything above a marginal (utility) player, but I do think he would have the inside track if it came between and Miles.

He'd have the inside track against Miles if anybody aside from Tony LaRussa was keeping score. His "spring training competitions" are rigged, although rigged job competitions aren't bad in and of themselves.

I'm not high on Brendan Ryan. Few people are. The point is that Aaron Miles and Cesar Izturis are that useless.

[UK]

Larussa isn't dumb (hopefully he ain't too biased), the Cards should be able to point out that Ryan is playing above both Miles and Izturis. Until Ryan stables himself defensively at SS by concentrating more, that playing field will not be level. Battle between marginal SS will usually be decided by defense 1st and unless Ryan has solved the concentration problems, they'll prob. go with Izturis.

Hopefully, that fielding % in Memphis is a sign of things to come.

[greenback44]

Ryan's better than Izturis or Miles even with his concentration issues. This is a matter of style rather than substance.

[Richie Allen]

Ryan's better than Izturis or Miles even with his concentration issues. This is a matter of style rather than substance.

If you could mark him down for .290/.350/.400, I'd agree. But I think there are a lot of doubters who don't think he'll be able to be counted on for those type numbers again. Hope I'm wrong, as one of his doubters.

[skmsw]

Larussa isn't dumb (hopefully he ain't too biased), the Cards should be able to point out that Ryan is playing above both Miles and Izturis. Until Ryan stables himself defensively at SS by concentrating more, that playing field will not be level. Battle between marginal SS will usually be decided by defense 1st and unless Ryan has solved the concentration problems, they'll prob. go with Izturis.

By no means do I think LaRussa is dumb (although I do have my own opinions about some of the things he is the best at, no longer being things that make him better than other managers).

But he is the guy who took Ryan out of a game for smiling, and who played Miles at shortstop with Ryan available (defense first indeed). I'm simply nowhere near as confident as you that the choices are always made on the basis we'd like.

And by no means do I have confidence that Ryan is much more than a utility infielder. But he's younger and cheaper than Izturis or Miles, is better than either defensively, and pretty much can't be any less productive offensively.

[haltz]

In my purely amateur take on Ryan's fielding, I think he suffers from happy feet and overplaying the ball sometimes, if that makes sense. Presumably this is something that will change with MLB experience, or maybe it's just a sample issue. But I've watched very little of him. He had really good range though last year.

I think this is backed up by his small sample THT fielding stats. One translation has him at +0, or average. If you extrapolated his OOZ plays, he'd end up with 93 extra plays over 1375 innings. Or 5 more than Tulowitzki.

Anyway, yeah, the point isn't really Ryan, but that Izturis is that bad. Only Everett-esque defense can overcome a replacement level EQA, and Izturis has been average for three years running in UZR.