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Another Cavalry Brigade?

Posted on June 28, 2011 at 7:06 AM
Filed Under: Baltimore Orioles | St. Louis Cardinals
The Cards are out on the East Coast, doing that whole interleague play thing and matching up with the former St. Louis Browns.  Beginning tonight, there will be a couple of familiar faces in the lineup as well.

David Freese and Nick Punto were activated yesterday, with Pete Kozma and Andrew Brown being sent back to Memphis.  I believe that continues to keep the Cardinals at 13 pitchers, but extra bats probably aren't as necessary in American League games since you won't be using pinch-hitters for pitchers.  Couple that with the way that the pitching has been going and you won't get an argument from me on that makeup.

No word yet on whether both players will be in the lineup or, if so, where they'll be.  You'd expect Freese will be in there, but will they let him DH to continue his recovery or throw him straight into playing third?  Likewise, will Punto play second base or will they keep him on the bench?  Should see the lineup on Twitter this afternoon and it'll be really interesting how they go about it. I'd like to see them put Freese at third and put Lance Berkman at DH, leaving a chance for Mark Hamilton to get a start.  Hamilton's never going to hit unless you let him get a lot of at bats--I'm hearing echos of the argument I heard for Tyler Greene there--and the Cards should at least find out if they have a trade chip in him.

Getting those guys back should help spark the team somewhat.  I mean, it's not Adam Wainwright or Albert Pujols returning, but after taking so many hits to the team, it's good to have people coming off the DL instead of going on it.  Right now, something is needed to spark this team and hopefully these guys can be it.

Speaking of Wainwright, did you see that he hopes to be on the roster in September and pitch in the postseason?  Even though he says it's a "modest goal", you know that it's not going to happen.  They could activate him in September, perhaps, and not use him, but there's no way that he'd be on the postseason roster.  They aren't going to risk his recovery for the few innings he could give them in October.  Still, it's always good to see Wainwright news.  Waino comes off as a great guy and I look forward to seeing him back on the mound in 2012.

Not going to be a lot of data points with these two teams not facing each other much, but here's what Kyle Lohse has done against the Orioles:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Derrek Lee 24 23 9 3 0 2 5 1 7 .391 .417 .783 1.199 0 0 0
Vladimir Guerrero 12 10 3 2 0 1 6 1 2 .300 .333 .800 1.133 0 0 0
Luke Scott 12 11 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .273 .333 .273 .606 0 0 0
J.J. Hardy 10 9 3 2 0 0 1 0 1 .333 .400 .556 .956 0 1 0
Mark Reynolds 6 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 .200 .333 .200 .533 0 0 1
Nick Markakis 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 65 59 19 7 0 3 12 4 14 .322 .369 .593 .962 0 1 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/28/2011.

Gotta figure Derrek Lee is giving some scouting reports during this series, especially on Lohse. 

Zach Britton is a young gun that the Orioles are high on. He's not faced anyone currently wearing Cardinal red, however.

We'll see if the Cardinals can snap out of this tailspin and stay in contention in the NL Central.  It's hard to believe that there's a possibility they could be tied with Pittsburgh after today's action.  Hopefully they can win and avoid that!

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Heroes
Matt Carpenter (4)
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Rafael Furcal (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Yadier Molina (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
David Freese (2)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 10
Happy Flight %: 70%

Through 5/15

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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