Your Newest Cardinal, Brian Barton

[bigboy1234]

And heres everything you ever wanted to know about him.

Barton, a potential five-tool player, hit .305/.402/.420 with 21 stolen bases in 2007 between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Buffalo. He was considered the consensus best gamble on the board. Most clubs were scared off by concerns about the knee surgery Barton had several weeks ago, but St. Louis obviously did its homework and dispatched scout Charlie Gonzalez to the University of Miami to see Barton work out.

"He's wearing a knee brace right now, but we were able to learn that it's not anything that's going to hold him back from being ready for spring training," Cardinals director of scouting and player development Jeff Luhnow said. "Really when you look at his career, the only time he hasn't performed is that small sample in Triple-A this year and we don't know how much of that was due to the injury. Clearly there was something bothering him, but he finished the season.

"He's a guy that checks a lot of boxes for us because he did perform throughout his career and our scouts liked him a lot. Every time we've seen him we've graded him out with pretty good tools across the board. He can run, he can play all three outfield positions. Defensively, he's very adequate and for us to take a Rule 5 position player the number one concern has to be defense. We felt like that is part of his arsenal and then the bat is a bonus, but he's also a righthanded hitter and right now if you look at our outfield, we've got three lefthanded hitters. He's going to have a legitimate chance to make the club."

Barton, who signed with Cleveland as a nondrafted free agent in 2004, was at home in Miami when he got the news, and was obviously elated to get an opportunity.

"Being left off the (Cleveland) roster was a little disappointing, but at the same time I had to understand that certain teams have certain needs," Barton said. "It's a business and that's the way you have to treat it. Everything's been good health-wise

[mizzoupacers]

Sounds interesting. Obviously the knee is a concern, but without the knee problems, he never would have been available to us.

Not sure what to make of the pet turtle. But Tony is supposed to be an animal-lover, right? Turtles are usually kinda quiet anyway.

This is the kind of move that makes sense for the Cardinals, at least in my opinion. Barton sounds like he has the potential to give the team a really good return on its investment, yet the risk involved with that investment is very manageable.

Now if they would just start drafting the best players available and commit to making the investment necessary to sign them.