Speaking Too Soon?

Brian, the head honcho here at Blogs By Fans, got me hooked up with an interesting activity: an e-mail round table about the Cardinals and their chances in 2008.  I was the least of the luminaries, sharing time with Dan from Get Up, Baby! and Erik from Future Redbirds.  You can see the results at skyking162's site as well as Home Run Derby.

And then, after you read that and see that I spent a good portion of time defending the Cardinal pitching staff, they turn around and stab me in the back.  20-6? 12-5?  At least Joel Pineiro had a good start on Friday.

So it's time to look for silver linings in the cloud of runs.  Let's start with Saturday.

On the pitching side, there really weren't many good things.  You don't like to see Braden Looper get lit up like that.  I think that Looper was a bit lucky last year and while the argument is that he'll be stronger and more accustomed to starting in year 2, there's still that nagging thought that he'll blow up and just get raked.  Outings like that strengthen that thought.  Blake Hawksworth has an ugly line (three earned runs in two innings) but apparently he finished up strong.  The fielding was a bit shaky as well, as Cesar Izturis--who is basically only on this team for his glove--made two errors.  He's made four this spring, which doesn't apparently worry LaRussa any, but seems a little ominous to me.

Offensively, Brian Barton is finally making his push for the team.  Two for three on Saturday, after Colby Rasmus went one for two.  Troy Glaus had a couple of hits and Adam Kennedy--yes, that Adam Kennedy--went two for three to get his average to .250.

Sunday was a little better.  At least you could blame the start on the fact that the Cardinals ran out a guy that was drafted last year on about an hour's worth of notice when Anthony Reyes came down sick.  There were some positive things that came out of Clayton Mortenson's outing (a perfect second inning, for one) and it's not surprising that he struggled against a pretty solid major league offense.  You hate to see Jason Isringhausen give up three runs in an inning, but you have to figure that he's just out there getting work in and that shouldn't carry over to the regular season.

Ron Flores had a tough outing and then was reassigned to the minor league camp, along with infielder Brian Barden (probably just to alleviate the Barton/Barden confusion) and Amaury Marti, who grabbed a baseball with one hand, hit it with the other, and traveled the distance between the camps riding that blast.

Offensively Sunday, Barton went one for two, which got him up to .391 and earned him some press.  Rick Ankiel went 2-3, which got him up to over .400 for the spring.  I hadn't tracked Ankiel as much this spring, so I wasn't aware his average was so high.  He stole a base as well, which would be a welcome addition to his game.  Colby went 0-3 with a walk, but his strikeout numbers are starting to creep up.  I know in general an out is an out, but a little more time in the minors might help him get on track with pitch recognition, etc.  Not that he needs much of it.

Lots of coverage for today's game against the Braves.  It'll be on XM 177 as well as FSN.  (I hope it'll be in my area as well, but I'm not sure we get the ST games.)  (EDIT: Read my schedule wrong.  Yesterday's game was on XM.  No radio today, that I know of.)  Adam Wainwright goes to the hill and keep an eye on Bird Land for the starting lineups.


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