So far the Lance Berkman In Right Field experience has been a qualified success for our St. Louis Cardinals. The good news: He looks like he's lost about 50 pounds, and he homered in the first game of Grapefruit League action. The bad news: He's had a sore left elbow throughout Spring Training and missed yesterday's split-squad game with a mild left calf strain.
↵I can only conclude from this news that Lance Berkman's left side is falling apart; that the Houston Astros knew it when they traded him to the New York Yankees; and that by Opening Day he will be kind of tilted over to one side, permanently, like furniture I have to put together by myself. Jon Jay will have to support him very gingerly when he comes up to bat.
↵Berkman is—I can only hope—the equivalent of Larry Walker on those MV3 teams. If you expect him to play 150 games this year, or ever run without grimacing, you're out of luck. But he could still pull out 130 games and a lot of gimpy doubles and home runs, so long as he doesn't miss this afternoon's game against the Astros with a strained left face.