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Playing Pepper 2010: Chicago Cubs

Last year before the season began, I posed five questions to a blogger for each team, so as to get to know the rest of baseball.  I focus so heavily on the Cardinals that sometimes the rest of MLB can pass me by.  That went very well, so much so that it spawned not only a postseason edition but was part of the impetus for the formation of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

So this year, I've brought Playing Pepper back, with a little bit of a twist.  Instead of five questions, I posed 10 questions, and this year every team got the same set.  Plus, tapping into those BBA connections, I sent them to every blogger representing that team in the BBA.

We'll try to do two a day in a general alphabetical order, but things may change depending on responses.

Chicago Cubs
2009 Finish: 83-78, second in the NL Central

Ah, the Cubs.  As Cardinal fans, we not-so-secretly revel in their lack of success and count the days before the inevitable fall (or earlier) implosion.  The rivalry between the two teams enlivens the season, especially when the Cardinals are on the up side.

However, the Cubs were more dangerous in the decade past than most any other and they look to stop that epic streak this year.  Brian from Bullpen Brian put partisanship aside and took on the Playing Pepper Ten.  (He also published my answers from a Cardinal point of view, if you want to take a look at them.)
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Razor Thin Margins

If Ryan Ludwick hits a fly ball, the Cards would have won three straight games against the Cubs in the ninth inning.  What a weekend series, huh?  Let's recap:

Friday (3-2 win)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  Walk-offs in your first game in the Cards/Cubs rivalry will do that.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  Don't expect the only guy that's hitless to be him, but there you have it.
Notes: John Smoltz had his second straight rough beginning to a game, then settled in.  However, when this offense isn't clicking, you really run a risk by putting them in a hole.  They can come back, but there's no guarantee that they will.  Plus, does that bode ill for Smoltz coming out of the pen in the playoffs, if he does?....Nice to see a sharp Kyle McClellan.  Having him on track could be a huge thing, especially if Ryan Franklin continues to stumble.

Saturday (2-1 win)
Hero: Brendan Ryan.  Even if he got an assist on his home run, he still drove in the only two runs of the game with three hits.
Goat: Ryan Franklin.  Before his first pitch, I was really thinking Tony LaRussa needed to leave in Chris Carpenter.  Carp threw 101 pitches and wasn't showing signs of tiring.  I'd have rather had him start the inning, at least, before moving to Franklin.  And for his blown save and ruination of Carp's great day, he gets the win.  Baseball's not always just.  LaRussa's not worried about him yet, but I'm not nearly as confident in him as I was just a month ago.
Notes: Carpenter was dealing.  Getting that win might have bumped him to the front of the Cy Young race, though there's no doubt the outing as a whole helped a lot....when your #2 and #3 hitters don't get a hit, you know it's going to be a low-scoring game.  Ryan Dempster was on almost as much as Carpenter was, which made for a memorable game.

Sunday (6-3 loss in 11)
Hero: Adam Wainwright.  If he'd gotten a better turn on the double play, he might have left the game with it tied.  Just looking at some of the games he has lost this season, with some decent run support in those games, he'd already have 20 locked up.  Another special outing that shows why you can't necessarily name the "ace" of the Cardinal staff.
Goat: Mitchell Boggs.  I hate to give it to him because the game never should have gotten there, but not only does he give up the winning home run, but puts more runners on after that.
Notes: If anyone really should get the Goat, it's Tony LaRussa.  Bunting Mark DeRosa in the ninth inning just didn't make sense on any level.  If he's successful, then they walk Pujols.  Even if he hits into a DP, that means Pujols bats.  Take your chances, see if you can't put another runner on or even put runners on the corners with nobody out.  (They'd have still walked AP, but at least then even a DP--unless it goes home--would score the winning run.)  When you have such a weapon as Pujols, you want to make sure he hits in a situation like that.  Don't give the other team a reason to take the bat out of his hands.

You can argue about that play in the ninth all day, though.  I don't know how much of a comparison you can make to the one in the sixth when the Cubs forced Brendan Ryan to throw the ball away trying to turn two.  (He should have eaten it and not done a double pump.)  I don't know if the Cub runner was as far out as Holliday was in the ninth or not.   After watching Ludwick scramble to the base after Derek Lee missed the tag, though, it was pretty heart-rending to have that kind of call decide the game.  But if it's the rules, it's the rules, and you can't argue, in my mind, terribly much about it.  It was preordained, anyway, since the ESPN guys had just finished talking about how Ludwick had the highest fly ball to ground ball ratio in the bigs.  After that, how could he NOT hit a grounder?

Coming out of the weekend, though, the Cards are still within 4 games of clinching the division.  While it was nice to think, briefly, that it was at 2, winning two out of three against Chicago is a good thing, especially with the solid pitching they faced this weekend.  It's not the ideal result, surely, and it'd been nice to see them score a bit more often, but you can take it and like it.

After working on my Top 7 prospects for Friday and getting them published, the news comes out that Wagner Mateo has some sort of vision problem and it could be to the point that he'll never play for anyone.  You can read the Future Redbirds discussion on this over here, but you have to feel pretty bad for Mateo if it is true and it is a degenerative condition.  Having vision problems at 16?  And having a dream (and a possible fortune) taken away at the same time?  That'd be pretty bad for anyone, especially someone in this situation.

Cardinals head down to Houston tonight, with the chance to clinch while they are down there.  (The Cubs get to go to their home away from home in Milwaukee, but the Brew Crew did just beat them twice last week.)  Kyle Lohse continues to try to show that he can do something for this team.  Lohse has had a season to forget, especially on the injury front, but he still has time to look sharp and take that fourth starter role.  He's had reasonable success in the past against the Houston hitters, but if he's not on the top of his game this one could be out of control fast.

Not only because of Lohse, of course, but because the Cardinals get the rare good fortune of facing Wandy Rodriguez.  On the list of Cardinal killers, Rodriguez is right up there.  After Pujols belted a home run of Jeff Suppan the last time the Cards were in Milwaukee, Rodriguez moved to the active leader in most ABs against AP without El Hombre going yard.  Heck, it was just his last game against Wandy that Pujols finally got an extra-base hit off of the guy.  If Lohse doesn't have it early, this could be a long night.

Been A Long Time

For all of those patiently waiting for a new entry, wait no longer.  I have returned!  For all of those that didn't actually realize I was gone, ignore that intro.  Lots has happened since the last entry, so I'll try to hit the highlights.  This could be a long one, so settle in.  Continue Reading

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

There's nothing quite like a sweep of the Cubs to kick off a long weekend.  Or, really, any weekend!

A Welcome Return

Chris Carpenter took the mound last night.  If you could tell that it'd been over a month since he'd pitched, you are a better observer than I am.

Carpenter kept his perfect 0.00 ERA for the season, going five scoreless while striking out four.  He was never really challenged and threw 41 strikes in his 67 pitches.  I would have liked to see him get out there for the sixth, but it's not surprising that Tony LaRussa would keep a short leash on him coming back from injury.

If Adam Wainwright shows tonight that the corrections he made that were so effective against the Brewers are permanent, having Carpenter and Wainwright back to back in a rotation should keep the Cardinals from any extensive losing streaks.  The bullpen, in theory, will get some rest on those days as well, which may help them be more effective when needed.  It's a ripple effect that could spread throughout the whole team.

Offensively, again it was a quiet night.  It's a good thing that Carpenter and Joel Pineiro have kept the Cubs off the board, otherwise there'd be some problems.  The Cards have scored only 19 runs in their last 8 games, keeping the people at On The Run from giving out 25 cent drinks since last Monday.  We'll have to give the Goat to Yadier Molina, who went 0-2 and left three men on, not including the double play he hit into.

A man who could be part of the reemergence of the offense is Rick Ankiel, but he was not activated from the disabled list last night as was expected.  Ankiel is going to be reevaluated in the next day or so and hopefully will rejoin the team then, though last night was the first time I had heard anything about the oblique strain.  Not that it was surprising, just that it hadn't been mentioned.  It'd be good to see him back this weekend against the Royals.

There was a pregame interview with John Mozeliak on Fox Sports Midwest and he said something that was a little interesting, at least in my mind.  He was asked about Brett Wallace and his promotion and when we might see him in St. Louis.  Mozeliak, while saying it was premature to talk about it, did indicate that if Troy Glaus is out for the season and Wallace hits at AAA like expected, he could be in the conversation for the latter half of the year.  There's a lot of talk about Wallace around the net right now.  Future Redbirds questions the callup.  Jerry Crasnick puts him on the list of coming attractions.  Ken Rosenthal suggests he's the kind of guy Boston is looking for in return for one of their young pitchers.

Albert Pujols was ranked the top player in baseball by Sporting News.  Tell us something we don't know, why don't you.

Cards look for the ever-sweet sweep of the Cubs tonight behind Wainwright.  You have to hope that Wainwright's got whatever problems he had behind him, because the Cubs are a team that, in the past, he's struggled with.  He's been able to keep them in the yard, but they hit him at a good clip.  He's already seen the Cubs twice this year, going 1-0 in 13 innings but allowing 7 runs (5 earned).  Increased command will help as well, as he's walked five Cubs this year.

Sean Marshall goes for the Cubs and likely keeps the Cards under six runs yet again.  The Cards did get to him for three runs in five innings in his only start against them in '09, but historically the Cards are only hitting .260 against him and he's been one of the few pitchers to keep Pujols at bay.  Should be another low-scoring affair tonight as well.

A note that the UCB has its progressive game blog coming up on Saturday.  You can read more about it and see the lineup of blogs over here.

A Band-Aid On The Bleeding

Yesterday, I looked at the career numbers for the Cubs against Joel Pineiro and thought perhaps Tony's idea to flip him and Kyle Lohse should have been followed up on.  Today, I'm glad that it wasn't.

Pineiro had everything working last night, throwing a complete-game shutout at the Cubbies.  While the offense wasn't really clicking either (not surprising against Ted Lilly), it doesn't take much to win in that case.  Yadier Molina's first inning RBI single was all that was necessary, but seeing Colby Rasmus go yard again was a nice sight.  Including the washed-out bomb, he's gone deep four times in six days.  He looks like he's getting comfortable, even though his average is a little low.

The question about Rasmus is what happens to him starting tonight when Rick Ankiel is activated from the disabled list.  There's some indication that he may get to keep center field, at least for a while.  Now that he's starting to get into a groove, it'd be great to see him playing on a daily basis.  Whether that will continue after Ryan Ludwick returns or not is a different story.

Returning to Chris Duncan for the Goat last night, with an 0-3, 2 strikeout night.  Not that many people were doing stuff against Lilly, though.

Tonight could be a really big night for the Cards.  Not only should Ankiel come back, but Chris Carpenter is set to start.  Carpenter has had some troubles with the Cubs, especially Alfonso Soriano, but having him back on the hill should give the team quite a boost.   They run up against Ryan Dempster, who has faced the Cards twice already this season and has a 1-1 record and a 5.25 ERA to show for it.  Skip Schumaker will be in the lineup, as he has some great numbers against Dempster.

Don't forget it's Wednesday, which means UCB Radio Hour.  Still not sure who will be hosting, so you may have to put up with me, but there should be plenty to talk about!  Call it at 646-929-1758 between 9:30 and 10:30 Central time!

Spiriling

It's too early to panic, right?

That said, there's a lot of concern in Cardinal Nation right now.  An April that gave so much promise to the year has led to a May that's about as ugly as any month in recent memory.  A team with the largest lead in baseball now sits three games out of first.

It was a terrible night all the way around, but most especially from the pitching staff.  11 walks?  Seriously?  I can understand being careful to the batters, but that's really beyond the pale.  It's not like it was in Sunday's game, either, where the starter gave up six or so.  Kyle Lohse didn't look good and Tony LaRussa admitted he probably shouldn't have pitched him, but he walked only three in four innings.  Not a good rate, but when you compare it to Chris Perez (three in one inning), Jason Motte (three in one inning) and Dennys Reyes (two in 0.2 innings), it's positively Madduxian.

Not really sure who to give the Goat to.  Chris Duncan, for striking out with two on and two out in the seventh is a strong contender.  Last week, I did a little looking at some batting lines when the hitter has a full count.  At that time, Duncan was one of the best at it, with a .333 average and 8 walks against only three strikeouts.  Unfortunately, he just couldn't come through last night.

I think, though, it has to go to Motte, because you can make the argument that Lohse's start was at least in part to coming back out of rhythem.  Pitching on Friday, then on Monday has to at least mess with your preparation.  And the Cardinals were still in the game, to some degree, before Motte's appearance really sealed the deal (though the Cards rallied some later on).

Heroically, let's go with the rookie Colby Rasmus.  One for three, but the hit was a two-run homer and he also walked.  One of the few bright spots (along with Skip Schumaker) in the offense lately.

So, is it time to panic?  There are things to be optimistic about, starting with Chris Carpenter's return on Wednesday.  With Carp and Adam Wainwright scheduled for this coming series with the Cubs, the offense shouldn't have to score too many runs for the Cardinals to win the series.  Rick Ankiel should, in theory at least (I've not heard anything definitive) be back in time for the Royals.  Ryan Ludwick could be back before the team heads to San Francisco.

I think we have to withhold some judgement until those guys get back.  This team obviously has the talent to do well if the pitching and hitting can get together.  It is a little troubling, though, that May was thought of as an easier month for the Cardinals and has been so traumatic.  June is going to have to start off strong, with home games against Cincinnati and Colorado before a trip to Florida, or John Mozeliak may have to find that panic button.

In other news, Khalil Greene is mentally not doing so well.  You hate to read stories like this, especially because once he gets into that state, it's going to be very hard to get him out of it.  LaRussa's idea of taking him out of the starting role and helping him just relax may be what is needed.  It definitely can't hurt either him or Tyler Greene, who probably appreciates the extra ABs.  It may also help the Cardinals determine what they need to do at shortstop next year.  If Tyler looks like he can handle the role, it'd be a boost for 2010.

The Cubs come into Busch tonight for a three game set.  It's the third time already the Cardinals have seen the little bears, which may or may not bode well for them.  Ted Lilly gets the first assignment and he's been historically tough on the Birds.  Albert Pujols has done OK against him, but that's about it.  We'll have to see if Pujols can break out of this little slump he's been in recently and provide some offense.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cards.  I'm not sure exactly what went into the decision to send Lohse out there last night instead of Pineiro, but it must have been something very potent, because when you look at Pineiro's numbers against these Cub hitters, you wouldn't necessarily choose to have him face them.  Alfonso Soriano especially has done a number on Pineiro, with three home runs.  It may be another long night for the Redbirds.

Ending On A Down Note

There are two games I need to write about.  One was a great game, one not so much.  Depends on your perspective which was which, but most of you are Cardinal fans, so Saturday was a blast and Sunday was a day to turn off the game early.

Saturday, anything else that happened was overshadowed by one swing of Albert Pujols's bat.  One of the best parts of that slam? Check out the reaction of the Cubs' catcher as soon as AP puts the ball into orbit.  It was almost like "Why do we bother?"

While that was the biggest thing to come out of Saturday, there were other highlights.  Mitchell Boggs did a little better job as a Chris Carpenter substitute than PJ Walters did on his first attempt.  Getting into the sixth with no earned runs is the best way to keep your slot in the rotation, which Boggs did as he's starting again on Thursday.

Khalil Greene had two hits, including a double, and Brian Barden continued to tear up my early season bashing of him, tallying three hits.  And while he only had one hit, Colby Rasmus did a good job of not being too aggressive with two on and two out, drawing the walk that helped set up the grand slam.

After a game like that, you hate to put a Goat up, but every game has to have one.  Blaine Boyer's Cardinal debut wasn't anything exciting, as he gave up an unearned run in his outing.  Chris Duncan went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, but he did draw a walk.  So the title goes to Brendan Ryan, who was 0 for 4 from the leadoff slot.

Probably the less said about Sunday's game, the better.  I know the Cards won two out of three from the Cubbies and you are greedy if you expect more, but that was such a terrible game from the start.  You know that if Rich Harden is on, getting three runs is going to be tough, so you are in for it from the very beginning.  The Cards had won nine in a row at home, were going for the perfect homestand, then the bottom falls out.

Yadier Molina continued his hot hitting as he was the only Cardinal with two hits in the game, including a home run that got the Redbirds on the board.  Couple that with his defense and there's no way, at least right now, he's not representing the Cardinals at the All-Star Game, is there?

Other than Yadi, Rick Ankiel's bomb and maybe Pujols's three walks and a HBP (that really wasn't necessarily, in my book, though the manager didn't have a big beef with it), there wasn't much positive going on.

Which means coming up with a Goat is at least easier from the point of view that there are plenty of options.  Todd Wellemeyer has a lot of people concerned right now.  He seemed to come back at the end of his outing and start looking better, but we thought that after his strong Arizona start as well.  The Cardinals really need Wellemeyer to be back to his form last year, especially with Carpenter out.  If he gets on a roll, this rotation is so much more dangerous.

However, I think the Goat goes to Khalil Greene.  No hits in four trips and an error that allowed runs to score.  Not a day he was hoping for.  It makes you also wonder exactly where the slick-fielding Greene is, since he now has five errors and leads the league.

Still, the Cardinals wrap up the third week of the season leading the NL Central with a 13-6 mark.  Tony LaRussa has to get a good chunk of the credit, as his mixing and matching, plus his managerial style, seem to be getting everything they can out of the players they have.

It was expected that April would be the toughest part of the early schedule and May would be where the team could kick in the jets.  When you look at the teams on the schedule for May (Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cinncinati, Milwaukee, Kansas City, San Francisco) there's not a whole lot of reason to think that things have changed.  A three game set starting tonight with the Braves and the schedule seems to ease up.  Which could be bad news for the rest of the division.

Taking a look at tonight's starters, Joel Pineiro, who is coming off the strong outing against the Mets, goes up against Jair Jurrjens, who has had a strong outing against just about everyone.  Pineiro hasn't had a lot of success against Braves' hitters, while Jurrjens has hardly seen Cardinal ones.  If everyone's on, though, it should be a pretty good pitching duel.

The CardsClubhouse Bird's Eye View and YNOT are both up, so check them out and enjoy the game!

"Perfect Player" Keys Cardinal Victory

As Cardinal fans, we've seen Albert Pujols for the last eight-plus years.  We've seen him do astounding things at the plate, whether it's walk-off shots or multi-homer games.  We've seen him be aggressive on the bases, famously scoring from second on an infield grounder last year in Colorado.  Now, apparently, we are seeing the evolution of him from Ted Williams to Rickey Henderson.

Albert Pujols Reads This Blog!

With an afternoon game tomorrow and before I check on how he's done against Livan Hernandez, I predict he puts one over the wall in the series finale.--C70 At The Bat, April 22.

So what happened? What do you think happened? [snip] There are things we do not know about Pujols, things we cannot know, but the question really is this: How much fun is it if you cannot believe?--Joe Posanski, SI

Extremely nice of Albert Pujols to check out my blog and decide, you know, let's get that home run out of the way early and tack on another one to boot. When Pujols gets into one of his grooves, all you can do is get out of his way.  His second multi-homer game and April isn't over yet?  It reminds me some of '06 when he came out on fire.  Now knock on wood history doesn't repeat itself (at least in the fact that he hit the DL that year).

Pujols was obviously the star of the show.  Not only does he smash the two homers, he drives in three runs, scores four times, and tosses in a stolen base.  He must be getting some amazing reads because that's the second time this week that he's gotten a steal and he seems to be making it not even close.  I don't know if he's picked up some mannerisms that are allowing him to get great jumps or what, but he's looking like a speed demon out there.

There's only one disturbing aspect of Pujols's game right now--he made his fourth error of the season today, which is very unlike him.  He's a stellar fielder, as we know, so I don't know exactly why his glove has been a little less golden this season.  Hopefully he can straighten that out.

Of course, in a 12 run game, there are probably a lot of people that could get into the Hero discussion.  Rick Ankiel is one of them, with an amazing catch and a home run of his own.  Rick is a streaky guy, but he may be starting to find a little bit of rhythm.  I know I was down on him recently for an 0-fer after the talk with Tony LaRussa, but if he can start putting a few games like this together, this season is going to become even more fun.

The other name that pops out of the agate type that is the boxscore is Colby Rasmus.  The rookie seems to be getting his legs underneath him at the major league level, as he went three for five and raised his average up to .310 and his OBP up to .408, which is great if he's going to be hitting in that #2 slot much.  Getting on in front of Albert is a great thing, as we saw with Pujols's second homer today.

Jason LaRue also had three hits.  It's not like he's going to take Yadier Molina's job anytime soon, but it's always good to see the backup contribute.

The pitching was better than you'd expect from seeing 8 runs on the board.  Kyle Lohse started and went five innings, allowing two runs, but only one was earned.  He did throw 90 pitches in that outing, which was not at all what you'd want to see, and had to leave the game after apparently jamming his knee.  Hopefully it's not serious, as the rotation doesn't need any more holes in it.

The real bad day came from PJ Walters, who allowed six runs (five earned) in a little over two innings to make this game appear a little closer than it really was.  If this outing is any indication, it's a good thing Mitchell Boggs is scheduled for the middle game against the Cubs.  The rest of the bullpen did their job in small doses and should still be ready to go for the Cubs series.

I've got another early day tomorrow, so let's quickly look at the pitching matchups for the first game against Chicago.  Adam Wainwright goes for the Redbirds.  Wainwright was moved around in the rotation after the rainout in part to make sure he went against St. Louis's traditional rival.  That said, he's had trouble with some of the Cub hitters in the past and he's 2-3 with a 6.08 ERA in 16 games (7 starts) against the little bears.  You have to hope we see the '08 version of Wainwright, who was 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA against Chicago.

The Cubs counter with Ryan Dempster.  The Cardinals have held their own against Dempster, who has been able to tame Pujols somewhat (.250 average) even if he's not completely corraled him (2 HR).  LaRue has hit him well, but there's no chance he'll play on back to back days, I don't think.

Should be a fun weekend of a great rivalry.  If the Cards can take two of three, they stay in first and send a bit of a message to the rest of the divisions.

I'm done predicting, though.  Don't want to stress Albert out.  

Also on the Network: √ Subtle Shifts [C70 At The Bat] √ March Madness 2K10 Open Thread [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ No Love for Aubrey Huff's Glove [El Lefty Malo] √ A Bit Of Shea In WWE's Hall Of Fame [Loge 13] √ Off Day Miscellany [C70 At The Bat] √ Playing Pepper 2010: San Diego Padres [C70 At The Bat] √ Joe Alexander Joins Club Trillion [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Camp Cuts, Quickly [El Lefty Malo]