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The First Drop In The Bucket

Posted on February 18, 2008 at 9:06 AM
Filed Under: Baseball | St. Louis Cardinals
Cardinal fans have known for a while that, for 2008 to be an sort of a successful season, not much can go wrong.  So it's not encouraging to read that Matt Clement won't be ready for opening day.  The first drop in the bucket?

Notice what Bernie Mikalsz says in the comments in that link:

No one, including me, should EVER under ANY circumstances believe it when the Cardinals insist during the offseason that so-and-so pitcher is mending beautifully and will be ready to go by Opening Day. This organization really has a problem being forthright about injuries.
I'm not always one to agree with Bernie, but he seems to have hit the nail on the head with this one.  I've always thought that this organization didn't really know how to deal with injuries.  They'd sit a guy for almost two weeks, thinking that rest would do it, instead of putting him on the DL.  Pitchers almost always return months after they were originally scheduled to pitch.  It's one reason I wouldn't be shocked it Carpenter didn't pitch at all this season.

I wish I could find the link, but I swear once at VEB I read an interview where someone said that the Cardinals were doing some cutting-edge things in the front office dealing with injuries.  Being up front with them, or at least getting a good handle on them, doesn't appear to be it.

People are still harping on the Pujols news.  I heard on "Mike & Mike" today Buster Olney put the Cardinals in the "ugly" category because Carpenter might not pitch until mid-season (which showed some lack of knowledge, I thought--no one expects him before then.  If he pitches in July that's a major plus) and the possibility of Pujols elbow apparently blowing out and taking the first row of fans with it.  I think some of the AP stuff is overblown--according to the PD story he's had the injury in one form since 2003--and that he'll be able to be Pujols for most of the year.

'Course, if that elbow does cause problems, we go from a drop in the bucket to the bucket being half full.


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5 Comments

5 Comments | Leave a comment

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Rockin' the Red | February 18, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply

I don't know how much I truly expected from Matt Clement in the first place, but this is certainly disheartening news. We do have Todd Wellemeyer, Brad Thompson, Mike Parisi, and Blake Hawksworth, but non of them give me comfort in the least. I think Wellemeyer will probably win the spot now, and once again we're taking another round on the starting pitcher carousel. Kyle Lohse is still available. I wonder how good he's looking to Mozeliak now.

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Cardinal70 | February 18, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply

I don't know, is it worth spending $6-7 million on a one year deal for Lohse to fill in for (hopefully) just a couple of months?

It seems like this is a good chance to let people like Garcia get a shot if necessary.

Rotation of Wainwright, Looper, Pineiro, Reyes, Wellemeyer to open the season, with Mulder and Clement hopefully ready by May or so? Tolerable, I guess.

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Ruly | February 19, 2008 1:08 AM | Reply

Olney has a tendency to be a bit melodramatic at times, and Mike Greenberg, being the mensch that he is, always buys into it. That said, if Albert's elbow does blow(I'm thinking the entire green seat section behind home plate might be casualties), well....

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Cardinal70 | February 19, 2008 9:48 AM | Reply

It probably won't be good. I admire Obie at CCH saying that it could be worse, because you could move Duncan to first and get Rasmus into the lineup, but that wouldn't really take the place of Pujols.

It's better than the contingencies if Glaus goes down, though.

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Ruly | February 19, 2008 11:10 PM | Reply

Speezer can also play first if push comes to shove, but that's a scenario I prefer not to think of at the moment...

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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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