I am not making any statement as to his abilities, though the precedent is there for late-blooming minor league supersluggers to retain a lot of their gains in the big leagues, but I can see why the omnipresent Unnamed Scouts told the Cardinals to keep with Joe Mather while he was sucking it up in the low minors. He looks like a cross between a baseball player and an American Gladiator; he jumps like a basketball player; he runs in big, cartoon-athlete strides; he is the very model of a modern minors MVP. Most bizarrely, his swing looks exactly like Mark McGwire’s from the side–at least it seemed that way when I was at the game Sunday. I’m not convinced he’ll be, in the scheme of things, any better than Chris Duncan. But if I were an A-1 Tools Hound I would be.

I was also happy to see Mark Worrell warming up in the bullpen. I was beginning to think that Kelvin Jimenez, the Peter Principle of relief pitchers, would inhabit the back of the pen/front of the bus role until Jeff Tabaka came and carried him into shaky reliever valhalla himself, but I guess three home runs in one long relief appearance was where the line has been this whole time. To avoid being too one-sided about it I will say that Jimenez had a FIP of 4.17 last year–having given up one fewer home run in 2007 than on Saturday–and has probably been unlucky in his major league stints so far. But he wasn’t a fit on a team with three superior relief prospects.

And as far as prospects go, Mark Worrell may be the most Stechschultian of the Cardinals’ new closers-in-waiting, but he’s better and younger than the average save-accruing suspect. More importantly, he might actually be Silver King, one DeLorean removed from leading von der Ahe’s St. Louis Browns to the American Association pennant. (You’ll notice that Silver King declined noticeably during his age-25 season–perhaps under the strain of pitching in two centuries at the same time!)

Long live Silver Worrell, king of righty stymying.