Last week we talked about the possibility of a Spring Training star emerging to capture the imagination of people who don't know or care about the idea of small sample-size; this week, he actually showed up. The good news is that Matt Carpenter is the real thing, and not a Spring Training phantom; the bad news is that there's really no place for him on the Opening Day roster. So ends so many Spring Training romances—I'm not sure whether he or we Cardinals fans are Ilsa, but somebody's about to be left on the tarmac with Captain Renault.
Carpenter was an internet celebrity on prospect circles last year for his sudden emergence at AA Springfield, where he showed off an outstanding ability to get on base. At 24 he was old for AA ball—he had been drafted as a fifth-year senior—but when you hit .309 with an on-base percentage of .418, in the words of the late baseball analyst Aaliyah, ain't nothing' but a number.
It doesn't take much looking to find a comparable player to Matt Carpenter, and that's his problem—he's basically David Freese, circa three years ago. That's right—identical OPSes, similar power and average numbers, and both players are old for their leagues. In general, Freese hits for more power, where Carpenter has superior plate discipline. But there's only so much room on the MLB roster for competent defensive third basemen with nice-but-not-overwhelming offensive skill-sets.
Carpenter will cool his heels in AAA Memphis this year unless a pair of ankles intervene. That, after all, is the one thing he and David Freese thankfully don't share—an injury history twice as long as this post.
