Cardinals Sign Houston Summers

Houston Summers was the knuckleball pitcher that was with the Silver Hawks for just a few games in 2009. He was released by the Diamondbacks this offseason, but signed with the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday. Maybe we'll see him again this year, pitching with the Quad Cities River Bandits.

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Houston Summers is a 22-year-old right-hander who was taken in the 47th round of the 2005 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had appeared primarily as a catcher, but also as second baseman, third baseman and in the outfield before becoming a full-time knuckleball pitcher three seasons ago.

Pitching since 2007, Summers has appeared in just two games above the A level. He was primarily a starter the first two years before pitching in relief last season. Overall, he has a 9-10 record with a 4.22 ERA in 45 games including 17 starts. Summers has 78 strikeouts and 96 walks in 162 career innings.

Baseball America Top 10s

Since the last time I linked you to the latest rankings, a few more teams that have affiliates in the Midwest League have been posted over at www.baseballamerica.com. Click on the team names below to see who BA considers the top prospects in each organization (and see some familiar names in the process).

Cardinals (Quad Cities River Bandits)

Padres (Fort Wayne TinCaps)

Dodgers (Great Lakes Loons)

The Diamondbacks are coming up on Wednesday, and I'll of course have a lot more information on that when it happens.

McGwire as Hitting Coach?

ESPN.com is reporting that Mark McGwire is going to be the next hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Is this really a good idea?

Listen, I don't even care about the steroids issue. Seriously, I don't. What McGwire did was probably illegal by the laws of the country, but not by the rules of baseball. While that doesn't justify what he did, I sometimes feel that McGwire is being unfairly criticized as the poster child for something that a lot more people were doing as well. Baseball also turned a blind eye to the whole thing when they could have easily stepped in.

The reason that I'm questioning this move is because McGwire wasn't that good of a hitter. His career average was .263, and that would be a heck of a lot lower without all the home runs he hit late in his career. He's arguably the most one-dimensional hitter of all time, and I'm saying this as a McGwire fan.

I just don't know that I want a guy who had more homers than singles one season as the guy instructing my players on the finer art of hitting. If you throw in the whole steroids issue, I think this makes it an even worse move.