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I remember a long while back looking for players who transition from a career of OF to the IF. It was pretty tough, but the one recent guy I found was Melvin Mora. It will be interested to see if Skip can make the transition. He seems to be an all-round solid fielder according to Cardinals fans. His top comps are littered with middle infielders.
And here’s a related blog post from the same paper.
(Hat tip: Mike)
from an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
CAMP MVP’S
An unconventional but entirely appropriate choice is to split the award between third-base coach Jose Oquendo and bench coach Joe Pettini for their work with novice second baseman Skip Schumaker. Force-fed the idea when manager Tony La Russa successfully pressed for Adam Kennedy’s release, the coaching duo gave Schumaker a chance to make the first successful outfield-to-second base move since San Diego’s Alan Wiggins in 1983.
Pettini took over Schumaker’s supervision during Oquendo’s term as manager of Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. Oquendo returned to conduct daily morning tutorials before official workouts. La Russa refuses to declare the experiment a success, but it is remarkable Schumaker has advanced this far.
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I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a guy to transition from OF to 2B, but it’s definitely unreasonable to expect them to do it in the seven weeks the Cards gave him to do so.