Cantu Buy Me Love

Once upon a time, there were three third basemen. Each of them had risen through the minors at a steady clip and made their general managers really super excited. Before long, all three of them had been promoted to the major leagues!

Once they got there, the young ballplayers had their ups and downs.

The most powerful one needed a couple of tries, but he started improving, only to hurt his back.

The youngest had one of the better rookie seasons in history, hitting 28 HRs and driving in 114, only to regress in his second year.

The last of them, well, did okay. He was not as shiny a prospect as the other two, but, relative to the players around him, he was pretty good. Of course, when he got to the majors, it only took a couple of years for his GM to figure out that, despite his unyielding belief in magic, his marginally talented third basemen wasn't getting better.

So, only a few short years later, all three were out of job.

If you were Brian Sabean, and had literally no prospects at the position, who would you pick?

The answer, of course, is none. Instead, just wait for a smart GM like Larry Beinfest to sign all three to minimum deals, and pounce on any scraps Beinfest may be so kind to throw back.

Here we are, about a half a year later, and the Marlins are once again defying expectations, partly because of the solid bat of Jorge Cantu (the youngest one), who's having his best season ever. So you can understand that, in leading his Marlins to a victory over the G-Boys, I cursed Sabes with an extra fervor last night.

In case you don't know the rest of the story, Dallas McPherson (the most powerful) is leading the minors in home runs for the Marlins AAA affiliate, ready to replace Cantu at a moment's notice should he get injured. (That's called depth, Brian.)

The marginally okay one, as we all know, was Jose Castillo, who was last seen storming Lord Farquaad's castle with a giant gingerbread man.

Meanwhile, the life cycle of third basemen continues in San Francisco, as the Giants now have their very own marginal prospect's career to ruin.

If you were wondering, said marginal prospect put up another 0-fer last night, bringing his average down to .095.