What a season

Wow has it really been almost two weeks since we've posted anything on here?!?! Maybe it's the moving to a new home that kept me from posting....or maybe it's the fact that the Cardinals have fallen of the face of the earth since the last post. Either way the first two games of this Phillies series is the perfect comparison to the Cardinals season. The first game...a total blow out for most of the game, down 11-0 heading into the bottom of the 6th. They score three runs during that half inning to at least make things SOMEWHAT less embarrassing. Then all of the sudden they have a scoring outburst and eventually pull within one (sound familiar?!?!) only to let themselves down and lose by two. The next night rolls in. The Cardinals take an early lead but can't hold on letting the Phillies tie things up, the go extra innings only to allow three runs in the 14th to make it look like the game wasn't as close. Justin just made the comment that when you think about it, this was one heck of a managing job by Tony. 21 of 25 on the opening roster have spent significant on the DL. He's lost his best pitcher after one start. And now has lost his best player for the last week and a half of the season. He's had to deal with the death of Hancock, his own DWI, Juancion getting smacked in the eye by a foul ball, season ending surgery for Rolen (again), substance abuse problems for Spiezio etc ect. Yet up until these last two weeks he had his team RIGHT there. Fans can be as upset with him as they want....but there's only so much you can do with AAA players. Last year Cubs fans used the excuse that they had so many injuries and that was the reason for finishing in last place in a bad Central Division. I think Cardinal fans could argue that this season has been much more of a challenge then what the Cubs had to face last year....yet the Cardinals won't find themselves in last place.
So here's to giving Tony another contract and extending Duncan and Jocketty. But more importantly here's to hoping that ownership will actually open their pocket book a little more and give them more room to work with.

Take the good with the bad

Or so they say. And the Cardinals have had their fare share of "bad" this year. Beyond the injuries, the Cardinals have faced some crazy stories during this year, from Tony's DWI, Hancock's passing, losing their ace for the year, Encarnacion's freak season (and potentially career) ending injury.
All that, yet the return of Rick Ankiel has seemed to bring SO much joy and excitement to Cardinal nation that a lot of that bad stuff seems like forever ago. The 28 year old is having a stellar year even though it's only a month old. And on what could be considered a "career day", news comes out that he might of used HGH back in 2004. Now granted this article says NOTHING about him taking it after it was banned, and it was also well after his phenomenal 2000. But this couldn't have come out at a worse time. This team has been so resilient all year. And if by some miracle they are able to make the playoffs, I would venture to say it would be Tony's greatest managing yet....even over last year!!! How this team has overcome the injuries and stories that have happened to them this year is beyond me. They have two everyday players who have not been on the DL at some point during this year, and they will have to play the rest of the year without 3 starters and their ace. I don't care how bad the central is, it's an amazing story that they are still in this thing. And I think that no matter what happens, Cardinal fans need to step back and think about that for a second before they complain about the "off" year (that's if they miss the playoff's).
On a side note, one of Tony's better friends, Jim Leyland, said the other day that he fully believes that not only will Tony be managing next year but he thinks that it will be in St. Louis. Take it for what it's worth.

Moves

Well Rolen is now on the DL today....and could be done for the year. It's not a HUGE loss on the offensive side of things...but I have a feeling they're really going to miss that glove over at the hot corner.
In related news the Cards have acquired Russell Branyan from the Phillies on Friday. More then likely he'll platoon with Brendan Ryan until/if Rolen comes back.
Mulder is penciled in to start sometime next week with the Cardinals. They will probably go with a 6 man rotation from here on out. Mulder has looked OK in his rehab starts...the biggest test will be tonight when he pitches in AAA.
That last series hurt at least a little bit. It wasn't a huge series loss, but since the Cards actually LOST a game to the Cubs, it hurts. But the trend continued...losing to teams that they SHOULD beat (except against Oswalt..that guy is a ton). But with 5 games left with the Cubs and three with Milwaukee, they've still got a decent shot at winning this thing. Go get 'em boys!!

Yet another huge week

Well the Cardinals have climbed back into the race and it has been in large part due to the pitching staff. Viva El Birdos has a good article about how well the starters have been, and not just for the past few weeks. Just to sum it up the Cardinals pitching staff is tied for the best ERA since June 15th with San Diego. That's a stat that needs to be talked about in regards to the resurgence of this team.
Every Cardinal fan hoped, but few expected that the final month would still be important for this team. In fact the day I heard that Carp was done for the year I myself posted on here that the season was dead. No matter what happens, this season has been better then what most of us thought it would be. And were as most will consider last years team Tony's greatest coaching venture to date....if the Cardinals can make the playoffs this year (just make the playoffs, not win in the playoffs) one could argue that THIS season is his greatest achievement.
This week will prove to be another key week for the Cards as they face, the Astors (who are set to fire their manager and GM this afternoon), Reds, and Pirates. The problem with these teams, is that the Cardinals always seem to lose to the teams they SHOULD beat..and they should be all three of them. Come on boys...keep up your winning ways...and good pitching!!

Newsworthy

verdict is in - Russel is not going to sign with the Cards. and let me just say that i'm really not a fan of this article by jim gordon...i can understand his frustration and it sort of feels like it's a waste, but walt thought things would get done. but cam's right, you can't pay $1.4 million for a 4th rounder...and let's not forget that at least he isn't with another organization this year. that's a small conciliation, but still

on the upside - we're only 4.5 games from the brewers and 3 behind the cubs. i'm still pessimistic, but they're making a real push. we'll see what mulder does in his rehab start.

Signing deadline

Well midnight tonight is the deadline to sign the players drafted in this years first year player draft. If you don't sign them they can go back to school or whatever without much of a penalty to them while the team drafting loses out on the pick. The Cardinals have two picks unsigned including one huge one, Kyle Russell. Russell lead NCAA division one ball last year with 28 HR's, yet he fell to the 4th round. Many people considered him the best "power bat" of this years class, the problem is that he's is THE all or nothing player. He strikes out a ton along with those long balls. He drawn the likeness of Russell Branyon (tons of power but never amounted to much of anything) but also Adam Dunn. The problem right now is that the Cardinals are trying to sign him to (or at least close to) the market price for a 4th rounder, while Russell's camp is trying to sell him as a possible 1st rounder and therefore trying to get him 1st round money (kind of like Brady Quinn). This makes sense...to a point. The guy did lead the Div 1 in HR's last year. The biggest problem with that argument is that Russell did NOTHING in the short leagues that he has played in since being drafted. Granted it was only a small sample size...but he sucked it up until the end.
Either way, supposedly talks haven't developed into anything and Russell has informed some people down there in Texas that he'll be coming back next year. If this is true the Cardinals will probably be getting a lot of grief from their fans....but paying first round money for a fourth round pick is a bit of a stretch...especially when you haven't showed that you can deal with wooden bats. But you'll have those fans out there that will run with this and call Jocketty and company cheap. It's a lose lose situation in some respects. But hey....there's still time!!!

Wow!!!

That was one of those moments that even if your not a Cardinal fan, heck even if your not a baseball fan, that was an amazing moment last night. My wife, who could care less about baseball most of the time, even stopped and watched the story that the local sportscaster did on him. That was a moment that every Cardinal fan had to feel good about. As much grief as fans have given not only him but mostly the front office for sticking with him as long as they have, and as horrible of a season the Cardinals are having right now, that was by far the best moment of the season. And you could see it in that dugout. If you had no idea what was going on, you would have thought the Cardinals had just won a huge playoff game or something. LaRussa was jumping around like he NEVER does during the regular season, and that stadium was going NUTS!!! I mean how crazy is it that the pitching starved Cardinals just got 7 shut out innings from Joel Piniero, and it is nothing more then an afterthought right now. The Cardinals just beat one of the best pitchers in the national league and nobodies talking about it. Like Mike Shannon said last night, this could very well be a HUGE spark for this team. It seems like there is always one game that people can point to and say "Ever since that game...." and if the Cardinals are able to pull of this crazy comeback, this will be that game.
Welcome back to the bigs Rick Ankiel. You have worked so hard to get back to this point....enjoy it!!!

Here he comes!!

According to KSDK in St. Louis, the Cardinals have called up Rick Ankiel. He's been crushing the ball down in Memphis, but is pretty much an all or nothing batter. He was expected to be called up in September when the rosters expanded. But if Frank Cusumano is right, we're going to see him earlier then we expected. If this is true he's gotta stay up the rest of the year or have to clear waivers if he can't handle it. Here we go!!!

Music

This one if for our brother, Jason. A while ago he called up saying he thought it would make for a cool post if we listed the music that the closers came into the game with. Well....this Wikipedia page takes it one step further.

Now to the Cardinals. Who knows what to expect from this team anymore. They beat the Brewers 3 out of 4 including some rather impressive comebacks. Only to follow that up with losing 5 of 6 to the Pirates and Nationals. Only to follow that up with a somewhat decent game on Monday (they really had one good inning (scoring 10 runs in the 5th but getting shut out the other 7 innings). Followed by the offense taking another day off while Anthony Reyes was on the mound. The good news though...the Brewers are showing they haven't really been able to handle the pressure, and the Cubs have fallen apart without Soriano. I still don't think there's much of a chance the Cards make the playoffs. Mulder is at least getting ready to make some rehab starts. But word is is that it will take 4 or 5 starts before he'll MIGHT be ready. That's roughly another 20-25 days. But they are saying (they being the medical staff) that Mulder NEEDS to start this season to get him ready mentally and physically for next year. More of the waiting game for Cardinal fans.

What happens next?

So we didn't move Eck, Juan, or any of our pitchers...our pen is still intact. We'll see what Piniero does for us and if Duncan can resurrect even a shadow of what this pitcher used to be. his arm is conditioned as a relief pitcher, so it will be interesting to see if they dump him into the rotation right away.

Skip was sent down to make room for Piniero - he was batting over .300

Maroth is going to head down for the next month - rumor has it that they'll be asking him back around September.

with the Cubs matching the Brewers for the division and the Cards 6 back...it could be an interesting last couple of months. come one Mulder...you're our Luke Skywalker, our Frodo, our Harry Potter...

New Pitcher coming into town???

Update: Here's the official release from the Cardinals

According to John Hadley of KTRS the Cardinals have acquired Joel Pineiro for a player to be named later. He had a few decent years with the Mariners back in '02 and '03, so as always....we'll see if Duncan can work his magic.

Trade Deadline

I love this time of year...even if the Cards stay put. The sad part though is that there isn't any HUGE name being tossed around out there. Mark Teixeira is the biggest name out there, and many people think that once he leaves hitter friendly Arlington his numbers will dip. There aren't any big name pitchers out there at all...unless you consider Jose Contreras a big name. One thing that does appear clear, is that Kenny Williams (the GM of the White Sox) appears to be taking the roll as the Scott Boras of GM's (that is if the reports about him are true). One report had him asking for Hideki Okajima (one of if not the best set up man in baseball this year) for Jermaine Dye. In 50+ innings this year Okajima has only allowed 5 ER. Meanwhile Dye has been pounding the ball to the tune of .235 and is in his walk year. Ah the greed of the human race.
On the Cardinal front there have been a few rumors out there regarding some STL players. One has the Cleveland Indians wanting Troy Percival. With how much the Brewers gave up to get Scott Linebrink, I would be more then willing to explore that if I were Walt. Another rumor had Anthony Reyes going to Philly for OF Michael Bourn. I don't know much about Bourn, but from what I've heard he's a Juan Pierre with a better arm and a better eye. He won't hit for power but has a ton of speed....and of course is young. The biggest problem with getting Bourn would be that in a few years we would have two guys in our OF that although they would be young wouldn't really be the power threat that outfielders have become these days. As far as Reyes goes, in my opinion the Cardinals either need to keep him in the rotation or trade him. His AAA numbers are great and one would like to think that if given a fair shake (the past two years TLR has come out and said that he would have to fight for a rotation spot when everybody else thought it was clear he would get one..especially heading into this year). Reyes didn't pitch BAD in his first 8 games. During those games he never allowed more then 4 ER's...but didn't get any run support (during that time the Cardinals scored a TOTAL of 8 runs!!!!) I say throw him out there and give him the confidence that he is staying up no matter what...and see what happens. Maybe he does flop and maybe he does need a change of scenery, but at least give him a chance to flop with an offense that might actually give him some support now. And if you want to send him back down...trade him!! Don't toy with the guy. Get a prospect or two out of him and let him "fail" with somebody else. All in all I think if given TLR and Duncan's full confidence, he could be a solid pitcher.
And finally, as far as Izzy goes. A week or two ago it was thought by many (including myself) that Izzy was the most likely Cardinal to be traded. However, word has it that Izzy has told Walt he wouldn't waive the no trade clause that he has earned through his 10\5 (10 years in the majors and 5 with the same team). He likes it hear and wants to retire with the Cardinals. As a baseball fan I love to see that loyalty. Kind of like Biggio and Bagwell down in Houston (although they spent their entire career with Houston...which is unheard of these days). Now that your bum hip is all better...we love you in St. Louis too Izzy. And with a reasonable $8 mil option next year, the front office wouldn't mind having you back either I'm guessing.

THE key week

This week right here could very well determine the rest of the season. This week the Cardinals face both the Cubs and Brewers. And that's important for two reasons. If they can gain ground on both those two teams this week the team will feel they still have a shot, and it could determine if they are going to be buyers or sellers or neither. Like we've said before they don't have much to sell, but if they get out of this week in a further whole then what they enter it with....we could see Izzy or Franklin being dealt. As much as I would love to see Izzy finish out his career in Cardinal red, he could fetch us some decent young talent....nothing huge, but decent. Plus, he is still somewhat of an injury risk with that bum him. He's having a GREAT year stat wise and his stuff is looking pretty stinking good too, and good relief is selling at a high premium.

Burning Holes in our Pockets

Mulder and Carpenter - let's hope they don't turn out to be our Wood and Prior. The abscence of Carp is going to leave us with a huge gap - and our inability/reluctance to move some aging money (Rolen) isn't going to help matters next year. Our farm system is descent, but it isn't very deep.


Maybe we should have tried to get the whole Duncan family! Dave Duncan's other son, Shelley, finally got called up to New York the other day. He's already hit a couple of homeruns!

Pack it in

Watching the Cards losing to ATL already 5-0 and heard the news we were dreading.....Carps done for the year and probably a good chunk of next year too. Time of death......7:46 ET July 19th.

Rusty Rolen

Scott Rolen left the team in Florida to have his shoulder checked out. Brendan Ryan is said to be our guy tonight facing Dontrelle Willis. He's heading out with some issues in his left shoulder. At least this time he is speaking up when he's hurt rather than keep things under wraps from Tony.

Ol' Doc Paletta is earning his check this year! Seems like the only reliable player whose body isn't falling apart is Albert Pujols. The upside is that if we can keep things close enough with sending out a minor league team everynight, maybe next year we can have another serious run at the October Classic.

No news

Well...still no news about Carpenter. One would like to think that the ol' "no news is good news" saying would be true in this situation, but I don't think that is the case. I haven't heard anything at all as to if the swelling is gone, last I had heard it had at least gone down. What scares me the most is that Paletta was wanting to talk to other docs before diagnosing.
My question is, is that if it's arthritis and nothing else....is there really anything that can be done except take anti-inflammatory meds? Can surgery fix it and if so what kind of recovery time are we looking at here??? Stay tuned for more information.
As far as the rest of the team goes, it sounds like Jimmy ballgame might be coming back as soon as Wednesday. He sprinted around the bases the other night and seemed fine. At this point he just has to pass a conditioning test before being activated.
If you're wondering if the Cardinals will be able to pick up a starter before the trade deadline...at this point I don't see any impact pitcher being added. Even though the starting rotation is obviously the weakest link on the team (tell me again why Thompson got yanked from the rotation???). With Javier Vazquez may be the best SP on the market, and if that's the case Kenny Williams is going to try to squeeze as much as he can out of the team that wants him. And with the farm system finally starting to make some noise, now doesn't seem like the time to deplete it again. I'm thinking there won't be many (if any) additions until MAYBE the off-season.
It also doesn't appear that the Cardinals will be sellers at this point. They only have a few players that seem to be a logical choice to move (Izzy probably the best trading chip they've got and they have an $8 mil option for next year on him). Plus, as weak as the Central is, no matter how bad the Cardinals seem now, the team believes they are not out of it. Especially with the Brewers losing Sheets for at least 15 days (although I'm not sure how much they're actually losing by bringing Gallardo into the rotation), and the Cubs being....well the Cubs.
And the beat goes on......

Carpenter

Gulp....bad news coming out of Florida. At least for right now Carpenter's rehab has hit a snag as he woke up the day after his last start with some swelling in his elbow. If this is anything serious, this could very well be the end of the Cardinals season. All year the sentiment has been that if the Cards were close by the time Carp got back, they would have at least a shot at winning the central. If this is a season ending problem with Carp it will more then likely be season ending for the Cardinals. Stay tuned for further news.

The Swing

Well, last night I had a chance to go watch the Cardinals Single A club, the Swing of the Quad Cities. For the first time I kept a scorecard. I highly recommend doing so at least once, it helps you focus on the game quite a bit. Although I kinda felt bad for my brother Jordan who went with me, I wasn't one for conversation during the game :). It was actually a pretty good game...for single A. Tyler Herron (1st round pick in 2005, 46th overall) took the mound for the Swing. The first inning started off great. He struck out the first two batters followed by a harmless ground ball to third. For the first 5 innings he allowed 5 hits and 2 ER with no walks. Then the 6th hit. In the 6th alone he allowed 4 hits and 3 ER. He had three 1-2-3 innings and didn't walk anybody over 5 2\3 innings. The bullpen did a tremendous job though. Overall they pitched 3 1\2 innings and throwing up zero's. No hits, walks or runs..but also no strike outs.
Offensively the boys did pretty good. Everybody got a hit and all but two worked walks (they received 9 walks altogether). Catcher Steven Hill went 2-4 with a double and 2 runs scored and 2B Jared Sweitzer went 4-4 (all singles) with a run scored. Sweitzer also made some pretty good plays at second, including a diving play up the middle to start the 7th. Christian Lopez also made a diving play at short in the bottom of the 9th. The one negative thing I saw as far as offense goes, was Tim Dorn looking ridiculous in his two strikeouts, both times on some kind of off speed pitch.
But it was a good 8-5 win for the Swing. If it wasn't for that terrible 6th inning by Herron, it would have been a very good overall win.

Why

That's my question. You have one of the best hitters in the game on your bench. You're down by one run with two on. You've got guys that can be moved around if you do actually go into extra innings. Why not put Pujols in??? There has been several times in the past few years that Cardinal fans have questioned Tony...but now all N.L. fans will be doing that...especially the team that ends up in the world series. The was was right there waiting to be won. I can understand why he wouldn't pinch hit for Hudson...they more then likely would have walked Pujols. But why not with Rowand coming up???? Instead he the only player left on the bench at the end of the game was his own player.

Pujols the Homerun King

i'm glad to see Pujols jump in the festivities and joing the HR Derby. Two concerns: he hits terribly in that park!!! AND - i hope he doesn't hurt himself like ol' Edmonds did the last time he was in the contest. Al hasn't knocked one out of the park since mid-June. maybe this will get him going!!

All-Star break

Well all things considered 40-45 isn't THAT bad...especially in the NL Central. The Brew Crew had a rough week leading up to the break....losing both series to the upstart Pirates and the Nationals. With Carp coming back 7.5 back isn't all that bad at all...the Cardinals proved last year that a 7 game lead can be lost in the blink of an eye.
Speaking of Carp, I'm sure most of you have heard that he pitched 3 scoreless innings the other day. Not very many pitches were thrown meaning he's probably got a few more starts down in the minors before he'll be brought back. But OH what a day that will be!!!
And finally...the Buehrle saga is OVER. And Mark finally gave in on his demands for a full no trade clause. The Sox will have a window in 2009 I believe it is, that they will be able to deal him, but if they do his salary will go up and I believe his option will be picked up automatically. Buehrle sold himself short in the end. 4 years $56 mil isn't shabby, but he could have gotten 5\$72 mil in the open market, didn't get his no trade clause and is signed with a team that is falling pretty fast. But one has to tip his at to him. With all those negatives he still signed the contract because it kept him in the place that he wanted to be. Chicago is where he "grew up" baseball wise. He's comfortable there and he's still pretty close to his home town of St. Louis. White Sox fans should be thanking him every start the rest of the year....that truly is a home town discount.

Odds and ends

Well the Cards are a sweep away from finishing the first half of the season just a game under .500. I know...sounds crazy but it's true. Now they have a pretty large task ahead of them to do that (they face two lefties, Lowry and Zito, and young gun Tim Lincecum), but it's fun to think about isn't it. A big thanks to the Pirates, who took 3 of 4 from the Brewers.
The Cardinals also signed Ryan Franklin to a two year extension with an option for 2010. He has done great for us this year being that 8th inning guy. But one has to wonder if he can keep it up. He's not striking out a ton of guys, and he's 34. But with the way that closers and setup guys are selling pretty high on the market this could be a good signing. There has been some small talk about the possibility of him taking over the closers roll if something happens to Izzy (i.e. trade or option not being picked up).
And finally, the Buehrle saga continues. Word has it that he was seen putting stuff into a box. Now he kinda said that it wasn't BECAUSE he was being traded...but did mention that it was to make things easier IF he gets traded. It'll be nice when this is all over. Either trade the guy or give him what he wants. Kenny Williams wants to have his cake an eat it too. The guy is willing to give you a huge home town discount, the least you could do is give him a full no trade clause. Stay tuned...hopefully there will be an end to this after that AS Break.

Carpenter

Don't look now, but the return of Carpenter is creeping up on us. Carp is set to take the mound during a competitive game for the first time since opening night. He gave the team a slight scare after he had some "slight discomfort" in his elbow on Friday, but ended up throwing some on Saturday and still has the green light to pitch tonight. Still no word on when he'll actually return...but I'm guessing shortly after the All-Star break.
Looper comes back tonight...we'll see how that goes. Basically he's already pitched the amount of innings he usually does. I know Duncan had him training to be a starter during the off-season. But still.....I guess we'll see.
Eckstein is set to come off the DL tonight too. It'll be nice to have most of the starting lineup back on the field. Now we just need to get Jimmy back out there.

Red Jockety

there was a rumor floating around today that Walt could be discussing a position for himself in the Cincinnati Reds' organization. folks have been saying that he has talked to the Reds' executive office, Bob Castellini.

however, Walt has firmly denied any discussions and is focusing his time on making some moves. after picking up Maroth and Percival, the Cardinals are evidently still on the hunt to make some moves. i think we're all but out of the running this year for Buerhle.

Buehrle Extension or No Deal

funny thing is - i have a brother-in-law that works at the Sun Times - the ones that leaked that Buehrle may have signed a 4-year $50 mil dollar extension. now his competitor, Chicago Tribune, is saying that there isn't a deal yet!! it will be interesting to see how it plays out...i'd love for it all to be some sort of smoke screen so i can give him bro-in-law a hard time!

seriously though - 4/5o would be a smoking deal...and you know that if that sort of deal happened, then Mark B would have had to have talked a least a little with the Cardinal organization which i am assuming would have offered something similar. who knows. i don't think Buehrle will be a Cardinal anytime soon if he does this extension.

it will be interesting to see what the White Sox look like in a month - and even over the next year or so.

Some good new amongst all the injuries: Molina has been cleared to return!! and word on the street is that Scott Rolen is feeling better and will not have an MRI....yet!

Injury update

Well the Post Dispatch had an encouraging article that you can read here. They talk about the chances of Carp maybe even going on a rehab assignment this week!!! Hang in there boys!!! This team has all the tools to win the Central if healthy...and as of right now that's a big if.

Meanwhile I guess Maroth looked good last night, I myself didn't get a chance to watch it but come on....one run on two hits to that offense!!! Where was OUR offense?!?! Getting 6 hits but only one run off of our castoff Jorge Sosa. Tonight is Oliver Perez...a lefty that gave us fits in game 7 last year. This is a guy that can shut any team down when he's on....or can get lit up when he's off....there isn't much in between. Meanwhile Wellemeyer comes in tonight with a few questions regarding the health of his wrist. At least we only used three pitchers last night...well basically two since Springer only faced Green. So oiur pen could get used up tonight. We need to string together some wins here before the all-star break.

Something on Buehrle now....the chatter around the league is that the Cards have offered Anthony Reyes and John Rodriguez, plus an unnamed minor-league prospect. Not sure what that unnamed minor-leaguer is....but as long as it's not Rasmus I might say do this. J-Rod won't see any playing time up here unless someone gets injured and he's playing pretty well down in AAA. Reyes....I'm on the verge of being done with him. He's got talent but can't put this together. Imagine how different the starting rotation could look even by seasons end if this were to go through...Carp, Mulder, Buehrle, Maroth and Wainwright. Total 180 from where we started the year (especially if Mulder is healthy and on)

Another pitcher

Well we got another project for Duncan to work on. According to Ken Rosenthal the Cards have aquired Mike Maroth from the Tigers...what we gave up is not yet known. He's best known for his 21 loss season back in 2003. But since then he's been OK at best....he should be a decent #4 or #5...Actually the way this staff is shaping up he'll be our #2 or better!! Decent signing as long as we didn't give up too much. He's a lefty to boot. Go get 'em Dunc!!

Edit: According to stlcardinals.com the deal isn't done yet. They do say that it's close to being done and that he could start for us as early as tomorrow. As long as this deal goes through, you can bet that he'll be in there either Sat or Sunday to push Wells out of the rotation.

Edit part II: This is what Scout Inc. has to say about him.....sounds like Duncan could help him. Scary that his fast ball reaches 86

"Maroth does not have an overpowering arm, and his typical fastball sits at 86 MPH. What he does is throw four pitches -- two- and four-seam fastballs, a curveball and a change --each of which he commands well. His changeup and two-seamer are his best offerings. He uses his changeup as an out pitch. The key for him is getting ahead early in the count with his fastball so he can set up his change. He uses his two-seamer as a cutter to work inside against righthanded hitters. Maroth locates the ball well early in the count. He throws strikes, but does not throw the ball over the heart of the plate often. He also has an exceptional mental makeup. Losing 21 games in 2003 only made him a better pitcher, and he bounces back quickly from bad outings."

Speaking of Jocketty

Well the pot has been stirring about Walt recently and whether or not he'll still be in St. Louis after this year. A while back there were stories about there being big differences in the front office since this Jeff Luhnow guy, who was hand picked by DeWitt, and Tony and Walt. Now those stories are coming back out in the form of "Jocketty's immanent departure and what not. I won't go into it fully, but you can read for yourself over at Vivaelbirdos.com.
We as Cardinal fans will look at Jocketty and blame him for the lack of moves in the past few off-seasons. It make sense really...he's the one making the deals so he's the one to blame right??? But if you look at the numbers you will realize that Walt probably has done his best with what he's been given. In 2005 the Cardinals had the 6th highest payroll, this year they've dropped down to 11th. AFTER WINNING A WORLD SERIES!!!! I'm not one that likes to call out the owners as being cheap. But they have one of the best GM's in all of baseball but refuse to give him the resources that he needs to keep up with the times...what do they expect is going to happen?
If Walt leaves after this year, the Cardinals will be in for some long years ahead.

Rumor Mill

i love it when trade talks start flying. Burhle to Cards. Zambrano to Cards. Milton Bradley to Cards. Griffey to Cubs. Helton to Yankees. Angels getting in on the a Teixeira bidding war.

it's what makes baseball that much more exciting. so few ever happen, but fans have so much to hope for...even if their team likes the farm to trade or the money to offer.

The Cards won't do anything major - they never do. We have too much coming up for us on the upside with Mulder and Carpenter rehabbing. Rolen will stay put and Jockety will play it conservative...playing the field Izzy-style: load the bases and make things exciting, and then shut things down before any action starts.

Another interesting signing

Well I was wondering if the Cards would jump on the Ohka bandwagon.....and they have. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Cardinals have signed the Veteran Tomo Ohka to a minor league contract. That Memphis team is getting quite a few Vets coming into town. In no way am I jumping for joy with this signing...but I can't see how it would hurt us. He makes two starts down in AAA, if they like him they bring him up if not he has the choice to pursue other options or stay with the Cards. The way our rotation is looking right now he was pitching about as "well" as our other starters. This is how desperate we are:(

What an odd week!!

So who would have thought that we would have lost two out of three to the Royals. Followed by a real drubbing to the A's. Followed by two wins in a row at the hands of the A's, actually outscoring them in the series 28-26!!! We've said it before but the offense has really turned it on in the past month or so. IF ONLY we could get a few quality starts here and there to help out the bullpen!!! As bad as things have seemed lately, this season is by no means lost. The Brewers have finally come down to earth with both their pitching and hitting (although it will be interesting to see this Gallardo pitch tonight, if anybody is going or is able to watch it on TV let us know what you think of him). I'm getting tired of hearing myself say it, but if we're within reach of the Central lead when Carp comes back, we could have a shot at making the playoffs.
I guess Buster Olney was on the radio today talking Buerhle to the Cards again. I would love to see it, just not sure if we have enough to get him in a trade nor do I think we'll be able to afford him in the off-season. It's been wide spread that he may be willing to accept LESS to come here. But will the front office shoot him an offer a lot lower then what he is even expecting (i.e. Suppan). Or..will they make a run at the big fish this year...Carlos Zambrano. Word last week was that he was joking with reports about a gift he received from Yadi saying "It's a gift from my future catcher." Personally this is a guy I hate as a Cub but would love as a Cardinal. It would be very interesting to see if Duncan could work with his attitude or not. Either way...he'll be asking way to much for our liking and Walt has made it known that he won't pay somebody more then Carp.
Anywho, the Royals are back in town and I would hope we would be able to take at least two of three from them. Come on boy's!!!!

Embarrassing

That's the best way to describe that last series. You have to give the Royals credit....they did just come off of beating the Phillies two out of three. But as a fellow Cards fan just said "With how terrible our pitching is, it's amazing that we're as close as we are."
Last nights game exploited, more then any other game this year, how terrible our starting pitching is. We have four guys that should be in the bullpen (I'm including Wells in there) leaving only one guy in our starting five that should be there and right now he's only a #3 or #4 starter at best. And the fact that our starters can't make it past the 5th inning is KILLING our bullpen. We USED to have one of the better pens in the NL. But as last night showed, those arms are tired. Walt and Co. know this too....so what to they do, go and sign Percival instead of finding another SP (to my knowledge Ohka is still out there....he's GOTTA be better then what we have right now).
Last night was horrible in so many ways. You can't walk 7 batters, allow 6 of them to score, and expect to win. It's just not going to happen. One of my biggest fears about games like last night. Is that it's already taken it's toll on the pen. But if the offense continues to do well, yet has nothing to show for it, the same things could easily happen to the bats. Any other night, if you tell me that the Cardinals scored 8 runs on 11 hits, I'm going to say that they won or at least it was a close game. But 17-8?!?!?! To one of the worst teams in baseball.
The sad part about all this though....I don't see much changing. At least not until Carp gets back. Wells probably needs to be moved to the pen and Jimenez needs to be sent back down and bring Reyes back who has pitched pretty well down in AAA, but I'm not sure how soon that's going to happen. As viva el birdos points out, Wells was Tony and Duncan's choice. Not Walt's or the front office, their hand picked choice to be their #2 guy.
Anywho, next up is some guy that we traded away a few years back. Man wouldn't he look good sporting those birds on the bat right now!!!!

Percival

Here's a good article about the Percival signing. Turns out that the Cardinals were the first team to see him pitch due to Percival's relationship with Adam Kennedy. The article mentions that he was offered several guaranteed MAJOR league contracts but decided to go with the Cardinals in large part because of the friends he has on this team (Kennedy, Spiezio, Eckstein and Edmonds). Nobody knows what we got with this signing, but it's encouraging to know that he's isn't in a hurry to get back in the majors, just to get on the mound in a game and work his way back up.

Weekend

Well that actually wasn't TOO bad of a weekend, even though the Cards lost 2 out of 3. The worst part of it was them losing a 4-0 lead in the first game. But at least they won a game against the hottest team in baseball.
Next up is the Royals. Not sure what to expect from this series. The Royals have played decent ball lately and clobbered the Phillies yesterday. But with 6 out of the next 9 games against the Royals, it would be nice to see the Cards win at least 4 out of those 6...if not more.
I've said it before but it's really nice to see the bats have come alive. Come Wed it will be a month since the Cardinals were last shut out and only twice during that same span have they been held to only one run. Eckstein is above .300 which is crazy to me. I know he's been doing pretty well lately but had no idea it was that hot. But really he had one bad month (April). May he hit .338 and .419 in July. Keep it up lil' buddy.

Cards add some relief

The Cardinals signed Troy Percival to a minor league contract.

He joins ex-Angel teammates, Eckstein, Kennedy, and Spezio as members of the formal 2002 World Champs to come to St. Louis. He's a 37-year old closer that hasn't pitched since 2005 - he tried to pitch last year but couldn't get over some forearm issues.

He's most recent served as a pitching coach for the Angels, but decided he felt good enough to give the majors a shot. I hope La Russa doesn't bring him up and slide Franklin into the rotation. Ryan's been pitching well for us and I hope they don't mess with that.

I won't go as far as saying this is a waste of money (who knows - maybe he'll get in shape and we can trade him off or sign him for cheap for next year), but it just feels like Jockety is scraping anything he can muster from garage sales. You can buy all the brick brack you want for $0.25, but when you get home - what do you do with all the junk?

Draft and more

Well the easy schedule takes a break this weekend. The Cards went 10-6 during that easy stretch. We at least finished about .500 but losing that Washington series stung a little. We're also welcoming into town one of the hottest teams in baseball this weekend in the Angels. I will say that I am a National League guy through and through. But the AL the three teams that I like following more then pretty much anybody else in the NL (Twins, Angels and Indians) I can't really explain the Angels. The Indians I've always enjoyed for some reason. And the I've always liked the Twins since my grandparents own a cabin up in MN that my family went to for every summer vacation. So for me this series is one of the more exciting series' for me this year.

Now onto the draft. I really don't know what to think of this. Our #1 pick was used on an "average" player. No spectacular tools with this guy.....he's a hard working player. He fits the mold for St. Louis...but still there were better players available from what I hear. And just reading up on some of the other picks....it's no wonder why Tony and Walt aren't too fond of this Luhnow guy...since he's the one doing most of the picks i believe.

Anywho...one website that I LOVE these days is http://futureredbirds.com/. Right now there is a list of some of the guys we've drafted and some reports on them. Most days though it updates you on how our minor league teams do each day. It also gives the good bad and ugly of the players on those teams. Check it out.

Draft Day

Cameron and i were able to catch bits and pieces of the draft today. Matt Wieters ended up going at number 5 to the Orioles and it seemed certain that we would get yet another pitcher. However, Walt went and grabbed a shortstop: Peter Kozma - a high schooler out of Owasso, Oklahoma. EPSN compared him to a very young Michael Young, but many have said he plays to be just an average player. He had a decent Senior year and is said to have above average speed.

2nd round: David Kopp RHP from Clemson
Jess Todd RHP from Arkansas

3rd round: Daniel Descaso 3B UC Davis (i think they were making a run to the CWS)

4th round: Kyle Russell OF from Texas

Wilson will have surgery

Preston Wilson will have surgery on his knee - he's been benched since the first week in May. Evidently, he tweaked it in Spring Training but said he played through it because he didn't think he would make the team had he not been on the field.

Not much of a loss here - I've never been a big fan of Wilson.

In other news, Chris Carpenter threw the ball today in his first step to come back from surgery. Mark Mulder also took the mound at Busch stadium today and is making some progress.

The Cards are playing well enough to stay in second place in a very weak, soap opera-ish division (yes, we're laughing at you Lou and Zambrano). It's not out of the question for us to pull this thing off - especially if we can hold on close to the Brew Crew and then get Mulder/Carp back.

Possible Transactions

So will Izzy go to the Cubs (there's been some talking going on at MLBTradeRumors) - his value may be getting as high as it will be before he starts to slip again.

What about Jermaine Dye going to the Yankees for Bobby Abreu...or the Yanks backing out of their deal with Clemens?

I still think the Cubs will unload Zambrano - i don't see them signing him, and they may as well unload him while they can. they have some promise in their younger pitchers and i've heard they'd like to add another big bat and they can do that by unloading Big Z's paycheck. what if they grabbed A-Rod and dropped him in at Shortstop?! that would make for a huge batting order, but a hodge podge of personalities.

and i've yet to hear any serious ramblings on the Card's unloading Scott Rolen. i like the guy - but i'd be interested to see what we might get if we shopped him.

as usual, there are big names being thrown around all over the web - we'll see if anyone actually makes a move.

Injury update

Well a glimmer of good news today. Mulder will hopefully start throwing off a mound this week. However, there's still no time table for a return. More then likely it won't be until August. With that said, if the Cards are able to hang in there in the TERRIBLE NL Central, we could get a HUGE boost come August with Mulder and Carp set to come back. Carp shouldn't have that hard of a time coming back since it wasn't a huge surgery. Mulder, however, is a crap shoot. Those two months he would be back could be nothing short of bullpen duty since he's coming back from shoulder surgery.
Also, Preston Wilson is all but set to have knee surgery. As far as I'm concerned it's not a big deal at all. We have guys on our roster right now that are doing just what PW would be doing and J-Rod is having himself a good ol' time down in AAA, hitting 4 HR's in his last 3 games.
Duncan COULD be coming back as soon as Tuesday after suffering a staff infection. I'm not to hopeful for that...I'm think it will be more towards the end of the week. But at least as of right now it doesn't appear he'll have to hit the DL.
Rolen also could end up back in the lineup as soon as Tuesday. It might also be more likely that he'll come back later on. The team isn't going to push him back into the lineup.
Not any real news in regards to Carpenter. At this point I'm hoping that no news is good news.

In other news keep your eyes on the first year draft that's this Thursday. Not sure what to expect here. Keith Law from ESPN supposedly has a mock draft up that has the Cardinals getting Matt Wieters. Wouldn't mind this at all since Wieters is a possible top 5 pick. So why would he drop to the Cardinals at 18??? Two words...Scott Boras. The team hasn't been afraid to draft Boras clients in the past. However it's yet to be seen how damaged the Cardinal\Boras relationship is after the whole Weaver fiasco. I don't know nearly as much about the college\high school prospects as I wish I did so I won't even try to speculate as far as the draft goes. But it's good to see the MLB draft getting more publicity.

Welcome back Jimmy and Scott

Well that thin air up there in Colorado sure did Jimmy and Scotty well!!! Jimmy has raised his average .020 points and hit 4 of his 5 hr's this year, and maybe even better news is that he's pulling the ball a lot more.
Rolen on the other hand has raised his average .050 points and is currently riding a seven game hitting streak. Not much as far as hr power yet...but those three doubles in the last two games sure helped his team out!!
Pujols has also has also brought his average up to where he's flirting with .300 FINALLY!!!
If those three guys can stay consistant, the Cardinals may still have a DECENT shot at winning the Central. Babyface Thompson has been a pleasant surprise but will he cool down like Looper has??? And how much can the pitching staff REALLY rely on Wellemeyer??? A lot of questions yet to be answered. But at least the boys are scoring runs!!

In other news, the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control has said that Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood restaurant was not at fault for Hancock's death. Not sure if this means his family will remove the restaurant from the lawsuit or not but it can't help their cause at all.

Injuries and the Draft

Well - Molina has a fractured wrist and will be out 4-6 weeks on the DL. This hurts our defense quite a bit, but we'll see how things take shape with Bennett taking on much of the work behind the plate - he's typically been a more steady offensive optionin the past. but we'll certainly miss Molina's hot early-season bat.

Meanwhile Duncan is day-to-day with a swollen left knee.

Maybe we should call up Colby Rasmus for a bit!! Shoot, the guy has 35 RBI, he's hitting .296 with 10 homers and 20 doubles.

So in a year i think will just be a re-tooling year, we will be picking 18th overall in the draft. we usually grab a pitcher with our first pick, but it will be interesting to see who is around come pick number 18.

I'm back...and so are the lazy bats

Well the Cardinals seem to have found their sleeping bats again. Not only sleeping bats but lazy pitching!! In their current 3 game losing streak they have been outscored 21-7!! Now we have a Royal's castoff starting on the mound tomorrow. I will say one thing for Wellemeyer, the guy throws hard. And he has been throwing strikes...almost TOO well. I haven't actually been able to WATCH him throw yet, but in watching GameDay, it seems like he's throwing hard and right down the middle. That should work out well for him there in Colorado (well, work out well for the Rockies hitters I should say).
Somewhat good news. Mulder could begin throwing off of flat ground soon. He also said that he's feeling no pain in his shoulder, which is great news. Think about this guys and gals. If the Cards can hang close to the Brewers, come July we get Mulder back and August we could get Carp back. With both those guys healthy, our rotation could actually look solid going into Sept. and the Cardinals showed last fall that even a 7 game lead isn't too much to overcome.

Rotation Shuffling

The good news is that we have won 4 of our last 5 games. The bad news is that Anthony Reyes is still winless and the Cards have decided to option him to AAA Memphis. We'll bring up Troy Cate in his stead.

What's more, Todd Wellemeyer will be moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation. Wellemeyer will start on Wednesday against the Rockies in Colorado. Todd has pitched well for us over 6 2/3 innings...but this is awfully scary.

Another year when our offense is clicking our pitching struggles and when the pitching is on the offense can get things going.

The Bluejays received good news when it was announced Roy Halladay will come back 2-3 weeks early and start this next week. Sure would be nice to have our Ace back in the rotation.

Good start

Now that's what I'm talking about. The Cardinals took care of a team that in all respects they should have and have another such team this weekend. One of the more encouraging things about that series was that they beat two young lefties, one that has been doing pretty well all year. They have another lefty on tap for tonight. If there were any team that Reyes SHOULD get his first win of the season off of...this is it. I said in an earlier post that the Cards needed to at least go .500 during the next 13 games. So far they're 3 for 3, almost half way there and we're just getting started..keep it up boys!!!!!

Hancock's Family Sues

The St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting the Hancock's family is trying to sue the restaurant of Mike Shannon's. They are claiming that the bartender's continued to serve Josh liqour after he was clearly intoxicating...in fact, they take it as far as saying that "The intoxication of Joshua Morgan Hancock...was involuntary." Not sure how that works.

Heather Ratcliffe of the Dispatch reported that beyond the restaurant, "the defendants named in the suit are Eddie's Towing and its driver, Jacob E. Hargrove, and the driver of the car Hargrove stopped to help, Justin Tolar, of Collinsville." The report went on to say that Tolar was negligent in allowing his car to hit the wall and ubstruct a lane of traffice and that Hargrove did not provide adequate warning.

What a mess.

Noteworthy

Eckstein was back in the leadoff spot and went 3-5 in the 9-4 win last night over the visiting Pirates. Like Cam said, this as good a chance as we are going to get to make up some ground on the rest of the National League Central. We can't just string together a couple series', we have to get out of one or two of them with a sweep if possible.

Chris Duncan hit just the fifth homerun for the Card's this month - now that we're starting to pull through with some hits, we need our power hitters to start swinging for the fences a bit. i remember last year toward then end when Pujols was having some hamstring issues - i'm wondering if he is have some lingering affects from that...just isn't getting his power behind the bat.

and good ol' Yadi raised his hitting streak to 14-games and word on the street is that he is finaling garnishing some All-Star votes. meanwhile Juan is batting cleanup while he's hitting .280...might as well keep him there until Edmonds or Rolen prove they're still worth something.

And this just in: Eckstein HOMERS in the first against Ian Snell. C'mon baby!

Starting off right

Well this is where we have to make our run. We won't have an easier two week stretch the rest of the year. For once the Pirates aren't sending out every lefty pitcher they have at us. We have the Nationals coming into town, then we go to Colorado and Houston followed by Cincy. If we even come out of the next two weeks .500, I think we'll be in serious trouble for the season. During that same time the Brewers face the Dodgers, Padres, Braves, Marlins and the Cubs. Not a TOUGH schedule but by no means as easy as the Cards have it. The bats have come around finally, they've started getting hits and scoring runs. Pujols seems to be getting his feet back under him. Eckstein and Kennedy while not doing great are doing a serviceable job leading off. And go figure, Molina is leading the team in batting average. Now we just have to have starters give up less then 7 ER in an outing!! Come on guys...get some spunk back!!!

For those of you wondering

Well for those of us wondering if the Cardinals would look at Jeff Weaver again, since the Cardinals starting pitching has been so awful lately and Weaver has been even worse, I think we've found our answer. Walt Jocketty was recently interviewed by the LA Times and was asked that question. His response in short, "He had his opportunity. He chose to go to Seattle."
Part of me is saying the same thing. We were going to give him a two year contract since he said he wanted stability, and what did he do? He went and signed a one year deal with the Mariners, a team in the same division that rocked him last year. Then he went on to say that he didn't think that Duncan had really helped him that much. So with Walt's blood boiling over still....I don't think we'll see Weaver in the birds on the bat any time soon.
But then there's the other side of me. The one that says "Well Dunc was able to do it once...why couldn't he do it again?" The rolls have seemingly switched again. The offense is actually scoring runs and getting hits. Why not take a flier on him??? Ah well...that's why Walt gets paid the big bucks right???

Anywho, rough weekend for the Birds. We all knew it was going to be tough. And in reality, the first game was the only HORRIBLE game all around for the team. At least they made the final two interesting. And if it wasn't for that stupid fan on Saturday, the Cards might have had a chance to win that game. At the very least it would have been tied! Except for Friday's BLOW out and the starting pitching, I was somewhat happy with the guys this weekend. Until yesterday they continued getting double digit hits in the game. It's been more then a week now since they've been shut out. Starting pitching is just killing us. The same thing that happened last year before the trade deadline. Duncan's got his work cut out for him that's for sure.

The Cardinals need to use the next few weeks to make a run at getting close to the Brewers. The Brewers went 3-7 in their last 10 and still didn't lose any ground to the Cardinals. As long as the bats can stay active I think the next couple of weeks could be good for the Birds. Come on Dunc, work your magic!

Rolen Rumor

MLBTradeRumors has started a thread about a possible trade of Scott Rolen to the Dodgers.

They're saying that the trade would be Rolen for Wilson Betemit and either Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier.

Of course, this deal is a merely a rumor...and any trade would need to be okayed by Rolen. But this would at least give us some youth and free up a ton of salary (Rolen is due $12m/yr through 2010).

The Dodgers are hoping La Roche is their future third baseman, so I'm not sure they'll do this...but if they do, i think it would help the Cards out rather well. Rolen is a little injury prone, won't be worth the $12m after this year, and i would love to have Andre Ethier.

Free up some cash to go get ol' Miguel Cabrera!! The mere fact that there are some rumors like this floating around is reason to worry about the future of this year. I've sort of felt like this could end up being a re-tooling year after we started losing out on every top pitching free agent this off season.

What would you guys think about a trade like this??

Upper Management and Pitching Struggles

I've been wondering about our entire leadership core this season. As Cam and I have talked about, maybe we need a change with our hitting coach. As the season wears on and our record continues to wain, I've wondered about what will happen with La Russa with this being his contract year. At 62 years-old, La Russa may very well be on his way out. Question is, who replaces him? And what happens with Walt Jockety after his contract is up in 2008? Personally, I'd like to see La Russa re-sign, but I do have some concerns about his age and the stress he has taken on over the last year. If he's on a downward slope in his managing career, should we get out now?

On another note, Wainwright admits he has struggled with some elbow issues all year. La Russa and pitching Duncan admitted on Wednesday that Wainwright has been pitching with elbow discomfort for much of the season.

Adam went 2.1 innings before being lifted from the game, but he did say that it was the first time his arm felt strong all season...doesn't that make you feel confident? La Russa says there are major problems with Wainwright's pitching right now, but it isn't health-related.

(Rick Ankiel was placed on the 7-day disabled list with a mild achilles tendon injury.)

Minors and Majors

Colby Rasmus is doing well in the minors with the following line: .292/.378/.562 while Rick Ankiel is .281/.318/.579 with 9 homers.

It will be interesting to see how Encarnacion responds after being inserted into the lineup - hopefully he can be somewhat close to "everyday" and his teammates can feel a little more confident.

Looper is pitching very well and Anthony Reyes isn't looking too bad either...it's just a shame we can't score any runs when he is on the mound. It hasn't happened yet, but if the offense doesn't come around when Reyes is pitching there will be a game very soon where he just crumbles.

the St. Louis Dispatch reported that Pujols was frustrated (obviously) with his current season...hitting .239 and homer-less since late April. the interview McRae...who didn't have much to say (come on - what do you say to help one of the greatest hitters in history...especially if you're Hal Mcrae)

i can't help but think of A-Rod...that guy has gone through some major slumps, but look what he's doing now. all you Cardinal fans and fantasy-owners of Pujols...don't worry. the ol' boy will bring it around.

Almost at .500

Watch it boys....you're flirting with .500. I must say it was awfully nice listening to Vin Scully last night...especially since the Cardinals bats seemed to fall in love with any pitch that Tomko tossed. Seriously though, Vin Scully is one of the broadcasters that I could listen to any time!! A man with a ton of knowledge of the game (for instance, last night Vin informed me that Pujols actually uses a lighter bat against right handers then left handers..or the other way around. Either way...how many of us knew that?) and describes the game like few others.
But on to the past few games. There are some good things that have come out of this west coast swing so far. The bats seem to be very slowly waking up. They're not totally back though...as games one and three with the Padres showed (although the bats can't totally take the blame for the first game..Peavy is on fire). But at least they are getting better swings in. Last night was a split game. They killed Tomko (except Pujols who is struggling more now then his entire career combined) but then only got what 4 hits after Brett was yanked. They go back to facing decent pitchers the next two nights, Wolf being a lefty also. Then off to Detroit where the Cards got ROCKED last year in inter-league play and are set up to again this year. So this next week is key....winning at least one game in that Detroit series would be pretty nice...that's all I ask right now....just one win in Detroit!!! Well one win and Pujols to actually stop popping it up. I think his struggles may be more frustrating the the team as a hole. Seems like every time that he is up he just pops it up to an infielder or something. Perfect example was last night....Kennedy and Duncan both singled to start the game, all he has to do is either have a fly to the OF or even a ground ball double play would score a run, but instead he pops it up the second. I thought for sure we were screwed when that happened with Jimmy ballgame up there, but luck bounced our way for once with Edmonds' "double" but we'll take it. Babyface Thompson has done a decent roll in his two starts so did Wells, so I'm not holding my breath. Thankfully after this rough week, we get quite a bit easier with the Pirates and Nationals coming into town.

Arm problems

Ahhh...such is the life of a MLB pitcher. So far this week two of the top pitchers in the game (Carpenter and BJ Ryan) have required surgery, Ryan's ending his season, while many other pitchers have found themselves on the DL do to sore arms, (Flash Gordon, King Felix, Rich Harden, Joel Zumaya just to name a few). A perfect example why giving these huge contracts are nothing short of insane!!! It also makes me wonder, with the frequency of injuries lately, it has to bring up the question of how prevalent are\were steroids in baseball. It seems like just as of the past few years, after MLB started to crack down on performance enhancers, that we have seen an on-slaught of injuries. In no way am I saying that all these injuries are due to steroids or anything. A perfect example is Carp's injury, one that was probably cause by the continued stress that he has put on his arm causing the bone spur. But it's just something for you to think about as you ponder who to pick up as you put Zumaya on the DL.

Two in a row

For only the third time this year, the Cardinals won back to back games!! The bats came alive with 13 hits and the arms did a good job of calming any rallies that the Rockies tried. This could be one of the toughest weeks (schedule wise) coming up. The good news is that they finish with a fairly easy schedule while the Cubs and Brewers both have brutal schedules in the next few weeks. The Brewers have been playing decent ball, but they've also caught teams at the right time or teams that just aren't that good. This next month will show us if they are for real. So the last few weeks of May will be key for the Cards to make their move back towards the top.
Tony will have a interesting decision to make when Juan comes back. Ryan Ludwick is showing so far that he belongs in the bigs. Skip is the best defensive OF we have on the team. And Tony loves his veteran boys in So and P Dub. So who does he move to activate Encarnacion? Personally I say cut either So or Wilson and keep the young guys up. However, I'm sure that either Ludwick or Skip will be sent down as long as they have options.

Welcome to May

Well it's another month and the Cardinals continue to find ways to lose games. Yet another game lost when an opposing team throws a lefty at us. Yet another game where we scored three or fewer runs, bringing the total to 23 out of 30. So I ask again, what is it going to take before the front office makes a move at hitting coach???? We're starting to look like the Astro's of recent years (not scoring runs for the pitchers) with one huge difference, we don't have the quality pitching that they did. I don't know, maybe after they heard about Carp everybody in the front office threw up their hands and gave up the season. Maybe that's why McRae is still sitting in that dugout who knows.
You figure that if anything could have sparked that clubhouse it could have been the death of one of their teammates. But NOTHING has changed, and I mean nothing. They didn't play any worse, which was something that could have been expected given the circumstances, and we all know they sure haven't played any better since Hancock's death. I guess as St. Louis Cardinal fans there are a few things to hold on to here. One, they play in the N.L. Central where anything can happen. Two, as long as they can stay close by July and August we could get two quality pitchers back in the rotation for the stretch run (granted you never know what you're going to get from Carp and especially Mulder but still) and finally....we sucked just as bad the second half of last year and look where that got us:)
Meanwhile, Brad "babyface" Thompson gets his first start tonight...gulp.

We've seen better days

As if things weren't rough enough for the struggling Card's, it has been officially announced that our Ace - our only true, veteran pitcher is having surgery on his elbow and will be out for at least 3 months. Thompson will pick up the next start in the rotation in his absence.

Speizio was the next victim to be thrust into the lead-off spot - and at least he was able to produce a hit. Pujols ended his 12-game hitting streak and Rolen continues to struggle and was moved out of the clean-up spot to give Edmonds a stab at some production. And what did he do with the opportunity? You guessed it, went 0-4. The struggling Card's lost 13-0 after playing a strong game behind Adam Wainwright just last night and grabbing their first win in six games. Kip Well's retired nine in a row this afternoon after giving up his first run, but was run off after pitching 4.1 innings and allowing seven runs total. We can't blame Well's entirely on this one - I mean, when was the last time the poor guy got on the mound with the lead?

I never thought I'd say our one-two punch would be Duncan-Pujols.

With Carpenter officially going down for the count, and as much as we are struggling - I'd say that if we don't start turning things around within the next 3-4 weeks, Walt is going to have to bring out the magic and see what he can come up with. With the lineup we have right now, we can't/shouldn't be last in the league in runs scored...especially with the rotation we have.

And who's Matt Albers?! And when can we play the Royals or Nationals?

Saw this coming

Just saw this on ESPN's website about Hancock's accident. I think we all saw this coming but still just sad.

Rough week

Well this has to be one of the toughest weeks that most of the Cardinals players have ever been through, culminating yesterday during the memorial service. Any of us who have been through such a tragic and sudden death like this know how difficult it can be to "move on" as they say.
As some of you may remember, when Kyle died the team struggled for a while after that. Then something clicked and they started to roll finishing with a 97-65 record. Now by no means do I expect this team to finish that well. But, in a way this CAN be the start of a new season for this team. Carp should be coming back soon. They could get their everyday right fielder back in the next week, which hopefully will bring some stability back to the roster. In no way do I think Encarnacion is the answer to all the Cardinals problems. But he is an everyday starter...something that can't be said about P-dub, So or Spiezio. This team has enough talent to win the N.L. Central, which doesn't mean much, but as the boys proved last October, the regular season doesn't mean anything as long as you get to the playoffs.
They've got a long road ahead of them in many different ways. But playing as sluggish as they have for the first month will only make things worse. Nobody is asking them to forget about Hancock, that would be an impossible task. But Hancock was a St. Louis Cardinal. And as cheesy as it sounds, I'm sure he would expect nothing less from them, then to pick each other up and start playing like they all know they can. There is simply too much talent on this team to be in the basement of the N.L. Central let alone baseball as well.

Second Base

I've been keeping an eye on Adam Kennedy this season to see how much more he adds to our defense and all around gameplay. And so far I haven't been to impressed.

While he has made some acrobatic grabs this season, he has looked very sluggish in his throwing - after Looper struggled in the fifth inning tonight, Kennedy dribbled a routine toss to first to get Jenkins out and added to the momentum for the Brewers and giving room for Estrada to add an additional run. Even some of his flips over to Eckstein have been lazy and almost cost some plays.

What's worse - he's made some elementary mistakes in his baserunning this year and has already been tossed out a couple of times off of pick-offs as well as trying to stretch a single into a double.

At least Ronnie Belliard is hitting .307!! Let's hope Kennedy starts to sharpen things up and being to earn his keep now that we've offered a second baseman more than a 1-year contract.

Ex-Cardinal Pitchers

The St. Louis Cardinals have faced two of the three starting pitchers that they lost to free agency this past winter a total of 4 times this year and have very little to show for it. Last night, as Justin pointed out, Supp went the distance for his second win against his former team in as many tries. Total Supp has thrown 15 1\3 innings, allowing 3 ER, striking out 10 while only walking 1 and allowing 14 hits. Now I think most Cardinal fans were sorry to see Supp go, and aren't TOO surprised to see him doing so well. And if it was just him doing so well against us it wouldn't be THAT bad. We knew he was a solid pitcher, just didn't want to over pay for him.
However, Marquis has done almost as well against us. He too has two wins against us. He's thrown 13 2\3's innings, allowing 3 ER, 5 K's, 3 walks and 12 hits. And over all he's having a great year so far. Most Cardinal fans will also agree that we knew Jason was a solid pitcher whose main problem was between the ears but nobody expects him to keep this up...even the most faithful Cub fan.
This will be one of, if not THE most difficult week of the year. So in many ways we, as fans, need to give the boys a pass this week. As been said by many bloggers already, the players can say all they want that things change when they step on the field, or that they still have to play like any other day all they want. It's not that easy to move on when you lose a close friend or family member like this. These guys are human.
With that said, something has to change, and soon. This team has struggled all year with creating runs (except a few offensive outbursts here and there) so this is not a knee jerk reaction after last night's loss. Again, that was a tough game to play in so close the Hancock's death. And if the struggles we're seeing were limited we wouldn't have that much to complain about. But, like I said, they're just not creating runs. If you take out the three double digit Sunday's, the Cardinals have scored 50 runs through 21 games in April (again taking out those three blow out games). That's only an average of 2.3 runs a game. That's just ridiculous. Last April they scored 99 runs in April (taking out the one double digit outburst on opening day). That's an average of 4.1 runs a game, almost DOUBLE what the Cardinals are doing this year!!! I don't know if we're missing Encarnacion THAT much or what but something has to give. Pujols is starting to come around like we all knew he would. But aside from those two games last week where it looked like the old Rolen was back, not much else has changed in the starting lineup.
The good news is that even struggling this much, the Cardinals are only 5.5 games back in a poor division. Most will agree that there's little chance of any team running away with the NL Central this year. This team is too good to continue to struggle like this. Hopefully sometime soon they'll kick it into gear and run off a nice winning streak. They've got the talent...and hopefully Carp will be back soon to help!!!

Cardinals Struggles Continue

Cards get one run as Jeff Suppan pitched a complete game on the last day of April - it was his first since July28, 2003 for the Cardinals. The Brewers went to 16-9 and are looking like a solid team throught the first month of baseball.

Here's an interesting fact - the Cardinal's have the worst OBP in right field in all of majors and are 27th overall in Center field.

Wells picked up his fifth loss and raised his ERA to 5.65

Cardinal Nation Mourns

Josh Hancock, 29, was killed in a car accident early Sunday morning in St. Louis. His Explorer ran into the rear end of a stopped tow truck. He died at the scene.

After joining the Cardinals in 2006, Hancock had pitched a 4.05 ERA last season and posted a 3.55 ERA through yesterday, when he pitched 3 innings in relief of Reyes.

The Associated Press interviewed Jason Isringhausen and reported that,

"Three days before his death, the Cardinals got a scare that some teammates said reminded them of Kile's death -- Hancock overslept and showed up late for a day game in St. Louis. Hancock told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he thought the starting time was later and didn't get up until the "20th call" from anxious teammates.
'We were all a little nervous,' closer Jason Isringausen said earlier this week. 'We don't care if you're late. That happens. We want to know that you're OK.' "

Tonight's game against the Cubs has been postponed.

Improvements

So our offense if finally beginning to click. Pujols is getting more hits and starting to add some home runs to the stats. Rolen is hitting well and Duncan seems to be finding his hits (in spite of missing a start because he hit his head while skipping some stairs while leaving his apartment...dumb ol' dunc). even izzy is starting to pitch some solid innings.

carp is looking to try to get back onto the mound on saturday. we'll see how his elbow feels after making some throws.

Braden Looper - Dave Duncan, you are a genius (for now).

Dreaming again!!!!!

There has been one player in particular that I have long dreamed of having on the Cardinals roster, knowing full well that they would never be able to A: trade for him or B: afford him. Miguel Cabrera has mentioned in this article, that IF he were traded, that he would like to play with his "hero." There are some good one two punches in baseball, A-Rod and Jeter, A-Ram and D-Lee, Big Papi and Manny. But if my dream were to ever come true, it would make them the most feared tandem in baseball. Not just because their talent would exceed any of the others, but because they are both fairly young (Pujols at 27 and Cabrera at 24). It would take a ton to get Cabrera away from Florida, and a ton the Cardinals don't have. And if going to demand to stick with playing the hot corner that could cause a problem too...unless Rolen was included in the deal. They have also said several times that he is the player they want to build around which would make it seem like they would probably ask for our whole farm system. However, the Marlins biggest problem is that by next year he could be making up to half of that teams payroll. Only time will tell if Cabrera actually gets traded. And I know that Cabrera has been a dream of Walt's too....so I'm sure that if he hits the market the Cardinals will at least TRY to pick him up. Try being the key word there!

Rings and Cubs

In case you weren't able to go to the April 3rd game, you can always go and grab this beauty for a cool $3,750!!!! A nice addition to any Cardinal fans collection.
Meanwhile, Prior is going back under the knife. This is supposed to be just an "exploratory surgery" but could turn into something more if they find something that needs fixed. Don't think this will affect ANYBODIES fantasy team but I'm sure it further sours the opinion most Cub fans have of him right now. The Cubs also put Wade Miller on the DL due to back spasms. Usually someone doesn't go on the DL for back spasms, especially since Miller just pitched on Sunday. Makes me wonder if there isn't something more going on here. On a positive note for the Cubs, Rich Hill has been phenomenal so far this year. This can't continue but the guy has a 3-0 record with a minuscule .41 ERA. He's a guy I was hoping would fly under the radar during my drafts that I could pick up cheap....but I guess others had their eye on him too. If he's a free agent in your league pick him up. Like I said he won't continue these numbers but at least should be a solid pitcher....as long as he stays away from Prior and Wood.

Can we keep the momentum?

Finally, some offense. rolen went 4-5 and was a double away from the cycle. pujols had a three-run homerun to put the game away. duncan continues to find hits. and we walk away with a 12-9 win over the cubs and take the series in spite of izzy. just like last year, our offense comes on when our pitching is atrocious. rolen, pujols, edmonds, and duncan all homered. pujols pulled his BA up to .229 while rolen has his up to .268...keep it going guys!

we could have used some better defense in right field today spezio made a few mistakes and wilson couldn't quite make it to a bloop single by derosa that nearly lost the game for us. adam kennedy made a serious baserunning mistake and was picked off at first - luckily we were able to put a couple of runs on the board that inning. la russa was visibly upset with the baserunning of kennedy.

soriano chipped in for the cubs and had a pinch-hit double.

i never thought i'd be so excited to see that encarnacion is nearing his return. hi has a pair of homeruns during a couple of in 3 extended spring training games in florida.

word is that Chris Carpenter will begin his first throwing session on Tuesday. let's keep our fingers crossed on this one.


Bring on Harang

Can we get some help?!

That's gotta be what the pitchers are thinking right now. Heck, Wells was our only offense yesterday as he scored the only two runs the Cards had against yet another young lefty. Then today as the game heads into the bottom of the 3rd against the Cubs, the Cards have three hits, one of them coming from LOOPER!! I guess one could always be happy with the fact that Pujols is finally above the Mendoza line.
But as I sit here looking at game day, outside of Duncan the best batting average in the starting line up is .250 from Yadi....250!!!!. That's nothing short of ridiculous. I never thought I would be almost joyous to hear Juancion is back on the field....in fact he hit a HR in his debut last night. Like I said in my post a few days ago...something has to be done. You can't win games when you have one starter hitting over .250!! Let's hope the Cards start the season series against the Cubs better then they did last year. And the Cards get their first crack at Marquis tomorrow...maybe that will be the ticket to get the bats back into things!!!

Spring Weather Woes

the cold weather has brought on some slumps and injuries in some of major league baseball's finest athletes. we all know about chris carpenter, but here's a list of some others either on the DL or severely slumping (in no particular order):

BJ Ryan - DL for 4-6 weeks (elbow)
Albert Pujols - batting .160
Lance Berkman - batting .184
Jason Schmidt - DL
Mark Teixeira - batting .217
Scott Podsednick - DL
Troy Glaus - DL
Manny Ramirez - batting .205
Mike Mussina - DL
Hideki Matsui - DL
Ramon Hernandez - DL
Ryan Howard - batting .238 and one dinger
Scott Rolen - batting .211
Nick Johnson - DL

this is just a quick list. feel free to add to leave some comments and add to the list.

Who is at fault here?

The offense is horrible right now. They haven't been able to hit left handed pitching for the past few years, let alone a young lefty pitcher like they faced today against the Pirates. You have to give the Pirates credit. Their starting pitchers have looked decent this year, especially Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny. They also took advantage of mistakes by the Cardinal pitchers and defense, something that the Pirates seemingly haven't been able to do in the past few years.
With that said the Cardinal offense has self-destructed the whole year. They've hit into some 18 double plays already this year, hitting into three today. The hitters have been extremely anxious at the plate, and perhaps none more so then Pujols. Cardinal fans know that the offense isn't this bad. But with the struggles that the offense has had the past few years, I wonder how effective of a hitting coach that Hal McRae has been. A lot of things have changed since the power filled 2004 lineup. Larry Walker and Reggie Sanders are no longer with the team, Rolen and Edmonds have both suffered big injuries. You can't put sole blame on him, but it makes one wonder why such the drastic change since McRae has taken over. It will always boil down to the players being the ones that actually takes the swings. But it is the job of the hitting coach to fix problems with the swing of his players among other things. Would the Cardinals be just in dumping McRae this early in the season? In my mind it has to at least be considered. You hate to see a coach take the fall when the players are struggling. Something has to be done though and that might be the cheapest and easiest solution. How 'bout some talk on this. What do you guys think???

Suppan gets his ring

If there is one player from last years team that will be missed more, it's Jeff Suppan. Not only is he a good middle to end of the rotation guy, he's just a great all around guy. It was nice to see him get a warm welcome by his old team on Friday night.
Suppan did a great job while with the Cardinals, and he won some huge playoff games for us. With that said, I don't know that he is worth the 4 years $42 mil that the Brewers gave him. It'll be interesting to watch him this year to see how he fares with an defense behind him that isn't nearly as good at the Cardinals. Either way....best of luck to ya Supp!!

On a side note, Pujols finally had a decent game yesterday going 2-5 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI!!! Keep it up buddy we need ya.
Which brings us to yet another side note, is Chris Duncan for real?!?! I'm still going to have to say no for right now simply because he's not very good against lefties. But for crying out loud he's having himself a pretty solid season up to this point. Again....keep it up buddy, we need ya!!!

It's All in the Numbers

As it stands right now, the Card's are producing just 2.89 runs per game and relying heavily on what was supposed to be a very questionable pitching staff. as i look around the web and through different articles, everyone is talking about our pitching and trying their hardest ignore the fact that Albert Pujols is hitting just .176 with one homerun in 34 at-bats, meanwhile Chris Duncan is batting .320 with two homeruns in 25 at-bats and getting us out of 9th inning jams and helping us sweep a young and eager Pirates team.

i'm still wondering what's going to happen before the trade deadline. even with Carpenter on the DL and a serious question at least for the next 2 weeks, possibly 2-3 months if he needs surgery...i'm thinking we might need to find some offense somewhere. this isn't the only time we'll have rolen out and pujols struggling and we have to be able to survive and produce when those guys are injured or slumping and we can't always count on Edmonds to pick up the slack.

right now we are batting right at .272, which is where we typically have hovered at each year since 2001. we batted .278 during 2004, but if we can continue to stay around .270 and bring some more runs home instead of hit into DP's, i think we'll be in decent shape...especially when you compare it to the fact that the Astros batting average over the last seven years has been around .257 and the Cubs sit around .263

Rolen Sits and Carp on DL

Scott Spiezio took Rolen's place at third as he was scratched just 2 hours before the first pitch due to back spasms. Rolen said he tried heat and ice on his back, but never could get it loose before the game and with the cold temperatures, he decided to sit this one out and get ready for the series finale. Spiezio had a game-tying single to bring in Eckstein and Duncan.

Carpenter has been diagnosed with "moderate arthritis and a mild impingement" in his right elbow. They are hoping that they can give him a couple weeks to rest and get him back on the mound, but if rest doesn't take care of the situation they there could be a possibility of season-ending surgery. Randy Kiesler threw a solid outing against the Pirates.

Keisler named as starter for Tuesday

Randy Keisler has been named the starter against the Pirates on Tuesday. Keisler will be taking Carpenters spot in the rotation, at least for now. This means that Carp will likely be heading to the DL, retroactive to his last start back on opening night. We'll post any news on Carp as it comes in.

Edit: Kinda vague for now Carpenter has arthritis and a mild elbow "impingement" Not sure if this should make us feel better or not. So he'll just have to rest and have some therapy for a few days. He'll be put on the DL.

Carpenter Update

He's still feeling some discomfort. After being scheduled to start on Tuesday, La Russa announced that Carpenter will sit out another start.

After throwing a couple off a mound and flat ground, Carp did look good, but informed La Russa that he was still a little sore when he got to Minute Maid park. Evidently there is still some swelling in the elbow as well and La Russa and Paletta will discuss all scenarios, including a possibility of moving Carpenter to the DL.

The good news from today as the Kip Wells is looking very solid after his second start and his first Cardinal win of the season. He pitched a one-hit, no-run seven innings against the Astros. The 29-year old right hander looks healthy and poised to have a solid year under Duncan's direction.

No longer at the bottom

the Card's racked up their first win of the season. Waintwright had the best outing of any starter and allowed just one run on five hits. he also had a double to drive in taguchi in the third inning.

chris duncan went 3 for 4 including a two-run homerun in the third inning and an rbi ground rule double.

if there was any bad news for the day, it was that despite picking up a save, izzy did allow a run.

next step - let's get carp back in the rotation and hope that reyes can stave off oswalt and get us another win.

New Logo

credit to Chad Gramling for putting together a nice little title logo and that add to his blog. check out his site at CGBB.

we'll be putting together a Cardinal outlook for view both on our site as well as Chad's. it's a great site to get some fan info on many different major league teams.

thanks again, Chad!!

We really are better than this...

Carpenter has said that he plans to make his next start on Tuesday. Let's hope Wainy can get us our first W and put the Astros down to the bottom of the heap.

in response to the media's questions of our quiet bats, La Russa just kept saying, "We're better than this."

he's right. we'll come around. the mets gave us a struggle throughout spring training as well, but i just keep telling myself that in a rivalry, one team typically takes the wins during the season and then the other team wins when it matters.

The Cardinals became the first defending world champions to start a season 0-3 since the Baltimore Orioles of 1984 who started out 0-4.

Cardinal Woes

Although Looper gave up three runs, he pitched well. He was able to locate his pitches and throw with some authority. Josh Hancock pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up two home runs.

Let's hope Carp can get back in the lineup soon because we need all the defense we can get while our bats are absolutely silent and hitting into double-plays just about every other inning. Izzy looked sharp in his first inning of work this season.

But at least we have Jimmy Edmonds playing everyday and Duncan making some good plays in the outfield and had a hit in an otherwise quiet night. Too bad Preston Wilson can't say the same - he misjudged a couple of hits, one of which led to two more runs.

Fantasy News after Day Two

Rumor has it that Carpenter had some inflammation in his elbow and will sit out his next start.


Wells had a solid outing in the first 5 innings and then began to struggled a bit in the sixth, but the Birds are having a hard time putting some runs on the board. Duncan actually had a catch in the sixth inning.


Miguel Cabrera tacked on another couple of hits for the Marlins who have really poured on some offense to begin the season. Barry Zito has already started to prove that he was overpaid as he took a loss in his first outing. Ben Sheets already wrung up a complete game on day one. And our old boy, Edgar Renteria hit two homeruns on Monday.

My take on Yadier Molina - he hits .258