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!!!