If you've heard one thing about Adron Chambers, the St. Louis Cardinals' only September call-up to be making his Major League debut, it was probably about how fast he is—Chambers, 24, has 35 triples in his minor league career, including 16 in his 2009 breakout with Palm Beach. With that in mind it was only fitting that Chambers made his debut Tuesday as a pinch runner, replacing Lance Berkman after the outfielder-in-name-only picked up his second hit of the night. Chambers scrambled to second on a wild pitch before being stranded there.
(Chambers didn't stick around to make his defensive debut; in a truly La Russian set of moves, Jason Motte came in in his spot while Ryan Theriot was switched in to hit in the pitcher's spot in case of a blown save.)
Chambers hit .277/.368/.415 with a career-high 10 home runs in 128 games as Memphis's starting center fielder. One thing he'll have to work on, strangely enough, is his baserunning—for all his speed he's never stolen more than 22 bases in a season, and this year he was caught on the basepaths 13 times. When he gets going and the ball's in the gap he uses his speed brilliantly; from a dead stop it looks like Adron Chambers has a ways to go.