Some sad news out of St. Louis today. Reports are in on Juan Encarnacion's recovery from his horrific injury last month, when he took a line drive right on his left eye, and things are looking pretty bleak. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The Cardinals are increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of right fielder Juan Encarnacion returning as he has regained only 20/400 vision in his left eye since being hit with a line drive Aug. 31, a source familiar with the situation confirmed.
After being driven to Boston last month, Encarnacion underwent surgery to repair fractures of the eye socket.
Encarnacion remains in Boston, but club officials expect him to return to St. Louis to be examined by a retinal specialist within the next two weeks.
When thinking down the road about the prospect of a return, though, things don't look very good. The last really bad eye injury I can think of in baseball is probably Bryce Florie. While he did defy expectations and make a return to the majors, his return only lasted seven games and he was clearly not the same pitcher he was before his injury. Still, the first concern here needs to be that Encarnacion is OK and can get at least some sort of normal use of the eye back. That's way more important than whether or not he ever plays baseball again.
... because he doesn't think the farm will come through. Here's Tony La Russa's expectations on what the Cardinals will do with their roster next year. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
La Russa dismisses the notion that the club could try to "go young" next year by flooding the roster with organizational products. A lack of pitching help from Class AAA Memphis this season reinforced his point.
"For 2008, I don't think you can legitimately make this a transition club, where you bring in young guys who pitch and hit. We ain't got that," La Russa said. "If that's true, help has to come through trade or free agency."
The reason why this is relevant is because the Cardinals are going to have to get very creative with their payroll next year. As the P-D points out, the team has $48.5 million committed in players who will miss a good chunk of next season or the entire year -- guys like Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, Scott Rolen, Adam Kennedy, and Juan Encarnacion. All told, that's nearly half of the team's projected payroll next year, which is expected to climb at least moderately from this year's $101 million.
The Cardinals are in MLB's 21st largest media market yet have the resources to compete considering they sold greater than 3.5 million tickets this past season. After winning the World Series in 2006, however, they set the bar for expectations awfully high, which doesn't make them completely immune from fan backlash if the team can't show significant progress next season.
"This is a serious hit, career-threatening," manager Tony La Russa said Saturday. "The other ones are not to be diminished, like Carpenter's arm, but they're not in the same category. It's like Josh."
The Cardinals have persevered through the death of reliever Josh Hancock, ace pitcher Chris Carpenter's season-ending elbow injury, utilityman Scott Spiezio undergoing treatment for substance abuse and manager Tony La Russa's DUI in spring training. Friday was a double whammy with Scott Rolen placed on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury that likely will sideline him the rest of the season, and then Encarnacion's frightening injury.
Yes, it's a difficult pill to swallow for both the team and the player ... but he's still alive, so really, this is absolutely nothing like Josh Hancock. Nothing. At all. Whatsoever. Moving on ...
Sadly, this isn't the first time Encarnacion has suffered from an injury like this: in his rookie year, he took a fastball to the face and broke his nose and left cheekbone. I don't know if his current injury might be complicated by the fact that the left side of his face has already undergone such trauma, but I hope that's not the case. As a Tigers fan, I still remember that first injury, and even though he hasn't played for the team since 2001, I've kept tabs on his career over the years. Right now, I hope I haven't seen him play for the last time.
With all the joy surrounding the resurgence of Rick Ankiel, some may have overlooked the plight of Juan Encarnacion. He now has his bottom firmly entrenched on the bench instead of out in right field, making a difference, man.
Juan feels Tony La Russa didn't communicate the playing time issues to him well enough, and in turn, his feelings were hurt. From MLB.com:
"You've got to play whoever is doing the job," Encarnacion said. "I'm not upset about that situation. I'm more mad about [the fact that] I didn't even know what was going on before that happened. Players should know a lot of things that happen before you know, everybody knows about it.
[ ... ]
In a story in Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, La Russa pointed to some of Encarnacion's shortcomings, saying that "there are parts of the game he can play better." Encarnacion was disappointed that La Russa made the comment publicly rather than in private.
"It hurts my feelings when your manager says you don't give the effort to play," Encarnacion said. "I was giving the best effort I can do. That's not making me feel good. He hurt my feelings about that situation.
Adding to Encarnacion's situation? He was a late scratch from Sunday's game due to right knee soreness. (Yes, he was going to start yesterday.) Juan will undergo an MRI today. But the real question is this: will he undergo cardiac surgery to repair his aching heart as well?
Ever since I went out on a bit of a limb and predicted that the Cardinals were about to put themselves back into the NL Central race, they've stunk. They went and dropped five in a row to the Pirates and Nationals before heading into a series with the Padres this week. Then they fell behind 3-0 last night against the Padres. Finally, they must've decided that enough was enough because last night they put on a parade of hits that was certainly their biggest parade since they won the World Series last fall.
"It was a little grim and ugly through the first four innings," Rolen said. "It was a little silent throughout the stadium and the dugout and everywhere. It's no secret. We haven't been playing good baseball. We haven't been swinging the bats well. ... (Then) something damn good happened. Something damn good happened for this clubhouse that hasn't happened in a long time."
I suppose that's an understatement, but I don't know how you accurately describe 10 hits in a row, so I'll let it slide.
On Tuesday, Miklasz noticed both Juan Encarnacion and Albert Pujols coasting on a couple of key plays: Encarnacion failed to slide into second base on an attempted steal, explaining afterward that he thought he heard a foul tip; Pujols was slow out of the batters box on a line drive and was eventually called out at first base. Once upon a time, both infractions would have raised Tony La Russa's ire. Now? Not so much.
After the game, La Russa didn't seem put out by Encarnacion's foul-tip excuse. In comments to the media, La Russa didn't criticize Encarnacion or suggest, in mild terms, that Encarnacion's concentration needs to be better. La Russa spoke to Encarnacion in private, but that isn't enough. Encarnacion should have been benched for a game. La Russa insulted the intelligence of the team's fans by publicly posturing that nothing wrong had happened. Fans need to know that the manager is still up to being a leader.
But La Russa took the easy way out. When FSN-Midwest's Joel Goldberg asked a perfectly reasonable question about Pujols' standing in the batter's box, La Russa barked at the reporter and asked if Goldberg's intention was to "start trouble."
Once again, La Russa found it more convenient to jump a media person rather than hold his players accountable. It continued a season-long pattern: La Russa initiating a conflict with the media while waving off his players' lapses in the commitment to fundamentally-sound baseball.
LaRussa has always been combative with the media, but this season has been especially rough.
"I don't expect him to be there opening day," La Russa said. "I'm not going to push him. He doesn't want to be pushed. I don't want to push him. So one and one definitely equals no push."
Tony LaRussa's questionable math abilities aside, this certainly complicates things for the Cards. They were already getting ready to open without Jim Edmonds in center; now if Edmonds can't make it back a full 2/3rds of their projected starting outfield will start the year on the shelf. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article linked above, LaRussa and Edmonds both insist he'll be ready for the opener, but a similar AP article on the same subject seems to suggest otherwise. If neither one can go, the Cards will be forced to pick from such luminaries as Skip Schumaker, So Taguchi, Preston Wilson, Miguel Negron, Rick Ankiel, John Rodriguez, Tagg Bozied and Ryan Ludwick to fill out their early season outfield.
Still, this probably isn't a huge deal for St. Louis. Encarnacion is expected back as early as mid-April and Edmonds probably won't miss much more time, if he misses more at all. With the NL Central being predicted to resume it's position as the weakest in baseball, a slow start out of the gates might not hurt the Cards that much at all. Still, I think it's probably safe to say they'd rather not risk it.
Some sad news out of St. Louis today. Reports are in on Juan Encarnacion's recovery from his horrific injury last month, when he took a line drive right on his left eye, and things are looking pretty bleak. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 
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