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One More Try

Really, is there anything to say about last night?  Sabathia was on, was dominant, and we have to be glad for the few Cardinals hits and the fact the score stayed close.

Hero?  I guess Brendan Ryan, for breaking up the no-hitter.  None of the pitchers were that great.  Looper kept it close, but could only go five innings after continually getting into trouble.  Jiminez and Izzy both went two, but gave up a run in that time span.

Goat?  Albert Pujols.  Flying out with men on first and second basically put paid on that game.

Newest rumor buzz: Roy Halladay.  Discussion on various sites agrees that a trade like that would take Colby Rasmus.  The dissension comes from whether he's worth it.  My initial reaction is no.  The Cards are going to need cheap, quality offense in the years to come and Rasmus should provide that.

The other side of the coin, though, has merit.  Rasmus may not pan out.  Halladay is pretty proven.  'Course, that's what they said about Mark Mulder.

If there was anyway to get Halladay without Rasmus (say, Anderson, Todd and Reyes), I'd have to say go for it.  Otherwise, I just don't know.

Tonight, the Cards try to avoid the sweep with Todd Wellemeyer going against Ben Sheets.  The Cardinals have been able to solve Sheets before, but it's a tough puzzle.  Albert's really liked to see him in the past.  Maybe he can stop that homerless streak tonight.  The Cards scored three runs in seven innings on him earlier in the year, which didn't give him the loss but the Cards did win the game.  He's fairly unknown to the Brewers; though they won the matchup against him this year, he got a no-decision allowing two unearned runs in six innings.

Housekeeping:  I forgot to note it last week, but CATB has passed the one-year milestone.  Over 300 posts when you combine the Wordpress version and this one.  Glad y'all are still reading and I hope you enjoy it.  If you are on Facebook, please join the CATB blog group over there.  Thanks!

Behind The Eight-Ball

The Cardinals have playing a hard nine down.  Too bad yesterday went 10 innings.

I wasn't able to watch much of the game.  Monday night is Promise Keeper night for me and between that and doing the dinner/cleaning kids routine beforehand, I only got chances to glance at the TV in the first few innings.  What I saw looked good, though.  The Cards seemed to continually put runners on and had a nice 2-0 lead early.

Of course, all it takes is one wrong pitch, which is what happened when Pineiro faced Rickie Weeks with two on.

The offense didn't do much in the middle innings, waiting until the ninth to tie it up.  Unfortunately, Albert Pujols wasn't able to come through this time in the ninth.  His homerless streak is up to 13 games.

Again, you have to give hero props to Troy Glaus for his two for four night, plus driving in those first two runs.  It's almost ridiculous how hot he is right now and I'm afraid what'll happen to the team if he comes back to earth.

Goat is pretty obvious, though when you read the PD story, it quickly becomes questionable why Ryan Franklin was out there at all.  You'd think you might go with some fresher arms in that situation, especially since Franklin hasn't exactly been dominant even at the top of his game.

So now, to hold serve in this series, the Cards are going to have to beat either Sabathia or Sheets, neither of whom are considered "gimmies".  Sure, the Cards have had some success with Sheets in the past, but he's really been pitching well lately and he's not a player you'd want to face needing a win for a split.

Before we get there, though, old friend Jeff Suppan comes off the DL to face the Cards.  His last few pre-DL starts were pretty bad, but you figure he's rested and ready to go if nothing else.  The Cardinals have had good success against Sups, though it's a little surprising that Yadier Molina, who caught him for so long, only is one for six.

St. Louis counters with Kyle Lohse, the current staff ace and one of the few pitchers on staff that anyone has any confidence in.  Lohse has done reasonably well against the Brewers in his career, though you'd expect new second baseman Ray Durham to be in the starting lineup.  Lohse did lose to the Brewers back in April, though.

I see that Friday's start is TBD.  Hopefully LaRussa doesn't try for a bullpen game.  That's not likely to have much success this year.

And if Mozeliak is crazy enough to send Jess Todd to Texas for Eddie Guardado, there might be a storming of the front office by the fans led by the Future Redbirds crew.  I can't imagine that has any chance of happening. 

Big Win in Philly

The Cardinals showed last night that the road doesn't intimidate them this year.  They've struggled away from Busch the last couple of years, but this year they can beat people anywhere.  In fact, they have the best road record in the National League, one of only two NL teams (Philadelphia is the other) with a winning record on the road.

You can't say enough about the job Joel Pineiro did last night.  He had a tough draw, going up against Cole Hamels in a launching pad, but he kept the powerful Phils off the board.  The Cards really needed a win after the weekend and all the trading activity in the division and he provided.

Tough to give anyone a Goat tag when they go up against someone like Hamels, but Troy Glaus gets it not only for his 0-4 but his double play he hit into in the ninth against Lidge.  An insurance run there would have made me feel a lot better about Ryan Franklin facing Utley, Howard and Burrell in the ninth, though it turns out it wasn't necessary.

The Cubs called the Brewers' raise in the pitching department, getting Rich Harden to add to their stable.  We all know the caveats on Harden, but if he is healthy, that gives the Cubs the 1-2 punch they've been lacking.  I've always thought that Zambrano was basically the only pitcher on that staff and they were getting by with the rest of them.  Adding Harden makes me a lot more concerned about their postseason life--they may have enough to go deeper in October, if they get there.

So what do the Cardinals do now?  Both of the top competitors have added aces.  I know Mozeliak is going to say things like "no need to do anything," "nothing on the burners", "the calvery will be like a trade," but is that really true?  I know that Wainwright will be back sometime in August, which does give a boost, but that's just getting the team back to health.  If Carpenter does make it back this year, he's not going to be able to provide significant innings, so as nice as it'll be to see him on the mound, will he really be the difference maker if he's going two times a week out of the pen?

I'd like to see the Cards make a run at Erik Bedard, if they can get him at a reasonable price.  These last couple of trades may make that unlikely, since both the Brewers and the Cubs gave up some good talent and, more notably, a good number of bodies, but the flip side of that is that two of the teams most likely to be in any Bedard derby are now out.  I'm not sure any AL team will be that excited to get him after his Seattle showing, which may mean the Cards just need to compete with Philadelphia, the Mets, or teams like that to get him if Seattle puts him on the market (and they'd probably be crazy not to.)

If a package that didn't really damage the farm system (i.e., no Colby Rasmus, Jamie Garcia, Jess Todd) was put together, I'd be in favor of it.  A couple of days ago Larry at VEB mentioned moving Mitchell Boggs or Clayton Mortenson would not be a bad thing if they could get value.  If Anthony Reyes or Chris Duncan had value, I'd suggest some sort of modification on the Santana deal I proposed last winter, but that's wishful thinking.  If the price is dropped because of the reduction of teams, I'd think the Cardinals might be able to be in contention for someone like Bedard.  If it hasn't, though, then they should go ahead and pass.  Anything that happens this year is gravy, since this team is really designed for 2009 and beyond.

Of course, tonight's game might go a long way toward showing whether any kind of deal is really necessary.  Mark Mulder takes the mound against rookie J.A. Happ.  If Mulder can be somewhat effective, it might lead to hope that he can be a part of a second half surge.  I don't expect he'll get past the fifth, just because he's not thrown that much lately, but if he could give five innings and just a couple of runs, there'd be a lot more optimism in Cardinal Nation.  Whether that'll happen or not is a different story.

And, before I forget, it's XM Radio ad time!  XM will be all over the All-Star stuff.  Shows will be hosted from New York, the Futures Game (featuring four Cardinals, don't forget!) will be on XM 175 on Sunday, then the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game itself will be on XM 176 on their respective days.  If you want to stay up on what's going on with the All-Stars, tune in to your XM!

Speaking of the All-Stars, I see where AP is saying he'll do the Home Run Derby if asked.  Last time it didn't affect his swing (I think he hit more homers after the break!) so I'm all for that.  I love seeing Cardinals do anything during the All-Star festivities.  Seeing all the different jerseys (well, that's only in the game now, so they can make more money on All-Star sales) on the same field is really neat.

Just keep an eye on Philadelphia tonight.  A big part of the rest of the season could be riding on it.

Good Start, Lousy Finish

Another one of those "get a lead, but don't add to it" games for the Cards, as they get ahead 3-1 but lose 7-4.  Not really the way to start off a month.

You have to wonder what that stellar, Pitcher of the Month May did to Todd Wellemeyer.  Since the end of May, Wellemeyer has a 6.60 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP.  His strikeout rate has stayed fairly strong--his K/9 rate is 6.12--but last night his inability to finish off batters killed him.

Heroishly, even though Rick Ankiel had a nice two-run HR, for his work saving the bullpen (and doing it very effectively), I'll award it to Brad Thompson.  Four innings and only two hits, though one was a David Wright long ball.  Thompson may be increasing his trade value as well.

Speaking of trade, I got to hear some of the FSN interview with John Mozeliak last night.  Mozeliak is probably playing cards close to the vest, but it doesn't sound to me like he feels there's much reason to do any dealing, which is understandable.  Hopefully he keeps that mentality and doesn't overpay to make a run this year.  Of course, he also says he's not been in touch with the Rockies, reports about the Cards asking about Brian Fuentes and Matt Holliday to the contrary.  If he's going to bring someone in, a guy like Holliday (who won't be a free agent until the end of '09) wouldn't be a bad choice.

For a farm system that's lately been considered fallow, the Cardinals look to have a stranglehold on the Futures game this year.  Colby Rasmus has been added to the roster, which already includes Jamie Garcia, Bryan Anderson and Jess Todd.  Cardinal fans may have more reason to watch that game than the All-Star Game this year!  For more, of course, head to Future Redbirds.

Joel Pineiro goes for the Cardinals tonight and they could use a strong start out of him to get the taste of last night's game out of their collective mouths.  The Mets haven't seen him all that often, though Delgado has done a pretty good job against him in the past, something St. Louis doesn't want to see after not being able to retire him last night.

Pineiro goes against Pedro.  Not surprisingly, the Redbirds haven't done much against him.  Even Pujols is just 2 for 10.  Still, Martinez isn't the Pedro of old, sporting a 7.12 ERA this season in just over 30 innings.  He's only had one really decent outing (1 ER in 6 IP against Texas) and in his last two starts he's allowed a total of 12 earned runs.

Still, knowing the Cardinal luck, he'll find his old form tonight.  Hopefully Pineiro can match him.

Also on the Network: √ Kevin Curtis Out With Sports Hernia [Depressed Fan] √ Trying to Find the Bright Spots [Arin It Out] √ You Have GOT To Be Kidding [C70 At The Bat] √ Fantasy Football Anyone? [Depressed Fan] √ Damon's Miscue Sinks Yankees [Green Pinstripes] √ Two F'ing Hands. [Depressed Fan] √ More Newbies, Please [El Lefty Malo] √ Shea Stadium Seats: This Explains Everything! [Loge 13]