Before anybody gets a crazy notion that signing Ludwick solves the gaping hole in LF....yes, i call it a hole in LF with Alonso & Sappelt traded away, and only Heisey (i can't hit LHP, i can't hit when i start, i can't get on base for anything) remaining out there.....i just want to throw some thoughts out on Ludwick:

Looking at Luckwick's #'s he was a good power hitter in the minors who couldn't hit in the majors and therefore couldn't stick with a major league team and bounced around from Tex to Tor to Cle and finally StL.

From 2002~2005, his best season was batting 0.247, and he just wan't a very good hitter.

He spent all of 2006 in AAA, not able to reach the majors.

In 2007 he started for StL hitting 0.267, which was the best he had ever done.

In 2008 (age 29) he put it all together and had a great year hitting 0.299 BA, 0.375 OBP, 0.591 SLG with 37 HR's and 113 RBi's.

The next year (2009), he declined but had a decent year with 22 HR and 97 RBI, but his #'s otherwise fell to 0.265 BA, 0.329 OBP, 0.447 SLG.

Since then, he has steadily declined and in 2010 hit only 0.251, and then in 2011 hit 0.237.

His numbers show:

2003 bad

2004 bad

2005 bad

2006 bad

2007 good

2008 very good

2009 good

2010 bad

2011 bad

2012 ...

I'm not really sure what they want from a guy who best case scenario hits 0.230~0.250 in LF, when they have Heisey who will likely hit better in LF already. Ludwick's only attribute was his power, but it's dropped off the map over the last few years.

Ludwick: bad hitter, no speed, high K's, good BB's, minimal power

Heisey: decent hitter, some speed, mediocre K's, bad BB's, decent power