Kuzul

Jan. 20, 2011—Who remembers Joe Crede? Well, Crede is finally back in professional baseball. In his last year, Crede helped the 2009 Minnesota Twins to the AL Central title.

But after being out of baseball for a season due to chronic back pain, Crede signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Rockies, pending a physical. 

Crede had previously spent his career mostly with the White Sox, including a nine-year stint with the club from 2000-2008. After his tenure with the White Sox, he spent a season with the Minnesota Twins in the 2009 season, but after 90 games, he was forced out due to his back problems.

Crede is a career .254 hitter, but his strong defensive skills (.965 career FLD%) suggest that he may be a back-up (no pun intended) to Ian Stewart at third base. 

An All-Star in 2008 and a Silver Slugger in 2006, Crede brings some pop to a Rockies lineup that may already be stacked. Crede has 140 homers to his name, and his 30 home-run season in 2006 season suggest that he may be able to help the Rox this year. 

The thing that us fans must realize is that Crede has been out of baseball for nearly a year and a half, and if he wants to help the Rox this year, he will have to demonstrate that he has stayed in shape and kept on a strict schedule involving baseball activities. 

All the Rox know is that too much depth can never hurt a system. 

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The St. Louis Cardinals’ run at an 18th National League pennant took a serious hit Tuesday, when the team learned that rookie third baseman David Freese re-injured a sore right ankle in a rehab start with Double-A Springfield, and will miss the rest of the 2010 season.

After injuring the ankle on June 27, Freese was expected to help rejuvenate a limping Cardinals offense sometime this month. Instead, it appears St. Louis will have to do without him.

But without adding another bat, another National League Central crown seems unlikely.

Right now, the plan going forward is to have rookie Allen Craig, who is hitting just .139/.200/.250, and has spent most of this time in the outfield.

Why in the world would a contending St. Louis squad make him the starting third baseman?

With weak bats at shortstop and second base already, the Cardinals cannot afford to have three-quarters of their infield and a third of their lineup below the offensive norm.

Although Craig projects as a strong major-league hitter going forward, right now he’s a “Quadruple-A” type who dominates the minors, but can’t seem to figure out MLB pitching. He’d be a relatively cheap option, but if St. Louis wants to show Albert Pujols that they are committed to winning now , they need to pursue a strong bat at the hot corner.

However, now that the 2010 trade deadline has passed, the Cardinals must try to improve their third base position through some other option.

Look no further than Joe Crede.

As a former White Sox and Twins third baseman, Crede has battled injuries in the past, but when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best hitting third basemen around, and one of the top fielders to boot. It still baffles me that no team made an effort to sign him.

But why should St. Louis take a chance on the oft-injured third sacker?

For starters, his glove would be an improvement over even Freese’s. Coming into the season, Bill Dewan ranked his as the third best glove available at the hot corner, behind only Adrian Beltre and Pedro Feliz. He also ranked third among free agent third basemen in UZR/150 last season, behind Beltre and Chone Figgins.

Beltre and Figgins snapped up multi-year deals, and Feliz caught on with Houston, making Crede the best defensive third baseman available.

Crede has pop at the plate, too. Although he’s been limited to less than 400 at-bats for the past three seasons, when healthy, he can slug it with the best of them.

In 2006, with a career high of 586 at-bats, he won a Silver Slugger Award, while also setting highs in batting average (.286), on-base percentage (.323), slugging percentage (.506), home runs (30), RBI (94),  total bases (275), and WAR (3.6), along with tying a career high with 31 doubles.

Now, was Crede’s 2006 season a fluke, or was he the real deal?

His AB/HR ratio that season was 18.13, not much less than his career ratio of 22.15. I’m not saying Crede can duplicate the power numbers he displayed in 2006, but he can give the Cardinals a home run threat that their lineup is currently missing.

So, would Crede, who could be had relatively cheaply (his salary in 2009 was $2.5 million), be a good signing for St. Louis?

In my opinion, if St. Louis doesn’t move on Crede, easily the best third baseman available on both the free agent market and on the waiver wire, their shot at the 2010 Central Division title could be shot.

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As usual, there have been a lot of rumors that continue to swirl around the Yankees as the trade deadline approaches in July.

However, the Yankees might not have to trade anything to add depth to their bench because there are some very talented free agents available that could get the job done just as easily as somebody the Yankees could trade for.

This is also a better option, due to the fact that the Yankees wouldn’t have to give up any prospects, and some of the players out there might be cheaper than picking up the contract of a traded player.

Mark Grudzielanek is a hard-nosed veteran player who has had a very solid 15-year career in the big leagues.

He has over 2,000 career hits and a career batting average of .289, along with a .986 fielding percentage. He was an All-Star way back in ’96 and won a Gold Glove in 2006.

Grudzielanek started this season with the Cleveland Indians, and hit .279 with 11 RBI and 10 runs scored, but was released because the Indians wanted to give their younger players a shot, realizing their season was over.

He would give the Yankees a much needed veteran presence on the bench, while providing solid defense in the middle infield and an average bat, for a cheap price too.

An option for the corner infield spots and occasional DH is Joe Crede, who has dealt with some back issues over his career, but may be worth the risk to the Yankees.

He hit 15 home runs in a injury interupted season with the Twins a year ago, and has hit 140 homers over his career.

The Yankees could use some of that power off the bench right about now, considering the four players warming the bench right now have a grand total of zero home runs, at least not until Marcus Thames returns. A power outage indeed.

Crede would be a big risk, considering his injury history, and he probably wouldn’t come cheaply (not with Scott Boris as his agent), but the Yankees do need some pop from the bench.

Another veteran, and former teammate of Joe Crede, Jermaine Dye is also still available, which simply amazes me that a player of his caliber can’t find a job.

He too would get the job done for the Yankees in the power department, he hit 27 home runs and had 87 RBI for the White Sox last year.

Dye would be a major upgrade over any of the outfielders currently on the bench or Thames, he is 35 but still has a cannon of an arm in the outfield.

These guys could all help the Yankees with their very young and inexperienced bench.

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