The Cardinals Are Making a Huge Mistake With Cesar Izturis

It was a little puzzling this winter when the Cardinals signed Cesar Izturis. Free of David Eckstein, most people expected them to attempt to upgrade their team at the crucial position. Instead, the Cardinals went out and signed Izturis, who sat on two benches in NL Central last year (with the Cubs and Pirates). Why they did that is beyond me, but Brendan Ryan's giving them an out this spring with his .366 OBP while Izturis has racked up five hits and six errors. Tony La Russa, however, insists on sticking with Izturis:

"What bothers you most the errors or the hits?" La Russa asked the media this morning. "He's playing very well defensively. So, the errors - I don't have any problems with. If you're going to evaluate people on the number of errors in spring training, over time you're going to make a lot of mistakes. There's some guys who can't play, but not him. Hitting, I think he's getting better."

I'm certainly not one to quibble with ignoring spring stats, but you don't need spring stats to tell you that Izturis isn't much of a player anymore. He is quite literally one of the worst offensive players in the game and his defense has started to slip in the past few years. Really, there's no excuse for him to be in a starting lineup anywhere in the league. The fact that he's found a starting job is mind boggling.