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Trust The Man

"Mostly the catcher had just a huge game," La Russa concluded. "Star of the game for me."

Obviously, TLR meant to say Hero instead of Star, but there's no denying that Yadier Molina had the big game last night.  The go-ahead home run would have been enough, but then to throw out both runners, plus his explicit guidance of the pitching staff and there's no debate.  It's great to see Yadi have an all-around game and get some recognition for the work he does behind the plate.

Our goat has to go to Albert Pujols, unfortunately.  Three strikeouts and a walk are not what you typically expect from Pujols, though it is notable that this is the first year since his rookie year of 2001 that he has had two three-strikeout games.  Hopefully that'll focus him and get him on a tear.

Very nice to see the team put the Chicago series behind them and come out against a tough pitcher and start off with a win.  I was very worried about Joel Pineiro going, especially when he gave up yet another lead early in the ball game.  Doing a rough skim through his game log, I come up with 13 leads that he's blown over his 19 starts.  Most of those have been of the one-run variety, but over half have ranged from two to four runs.  He's not exactly a confidence builder.  (I'll try to do the same work on the other starters for comparison soon.)

There was another quote from LaRussa that bugged me just a little, though.

"McClellan pitched out of a horrific inning. Young pitcher (Perez) stumbled a bit."

First part of that is true, reading the game description.  McClellan, with Molina's help, did get out of a jam not of his own creation.  To be able to strand a runner at third (especially the leadoff guy) with no outs is a great pitching performance.  I've got no qualms with that.

But saying Perez stumbled a bit seems a little misleading and perhaps an indication of his mindset.  Perez did walk the leadoff batter, true.  But then, after Molina's help, he struck out the next two guys.  Even if Uggla doesn't try to steal, there's a strong chance he gets out of that inning anyway.  It wasn't like there were runners on first and second, no outs like some of our other relievers have been known to do.  Or that people were hitting him all over the year.  Basically, if you can't realize that Perez's outing was one of the more "clean" saves this bullpen has had this year, there's something wrong.  Apparently, LaRussa's not ready, really, to trust Perez in that role.

As you all know by now, Carpenter is on his way back to St. Louis for evaluation.  When I first heard that, I was pretty concerned, but watching Derrick Goold on the FSN broadcast last night, he made a point that relieved my mind, at least.  It does make sense that, given how much is invested in Carpenter, they make sure that throwing isn't going to cause more problems before he throws.  If he's fine, great.  If he needs rest, well, so be it.  It's not worth risking a promising '09 for the thin reed of '08.

The apparent future closer (at least for this year) had a better outing this time in Memphis.  I expect one of the new blogs on the roll, That's A Winner, will have more on that soon as the author there is a Memphis resident.  You'd still like to see a little better numbers in the stat line, but I realize it's more about working on things than winning games during rehab.  And, as someone pointed out after his first outing, statistically he already looks like he'll fit into the bullpen!

Good to see Rick Ankiel back out on the field.  I was starting to think they'd have to DL him to get Brian Barton back on the 25-man roster today.  I'd much rather see Rick patrolling the outfield than out for a few days!  What move they are going to make for Barton is an interesting question.  Mather's been hitting pretty well lately, as we saw by him getting two Hero awards in yesterday's wrapup, but he still has options and that's big with this crew.  He might go down for two weeks and come back up on September 1.  There's really no one else unless they wanted to cut Kennedy, but that's a lot of money to be paying him, especially since he's under contract for next year.

The Cardinals try to keep the momentum going tonight when they send out their best pitcher not hurting, Kyle Lohse, to face Chris Volstad.  Volstad's never faced the Cardinals, having only six games of MLB experience.  He's done pretty well in those six, though, including six scoreless innings in Philadelphia last time out.  This could be another low-scoring night for the Redbirds.  The Marlins have seen a little more of Lohse than they had of Pineiro and with reasonable success.  He'll really have to be wary of Wes Helms, who has gone yard twice against him.

The Cards are three back in the wild card after the Brewers won last night as well.  They've won six in a row, so they should be due for a setback, though they are going out to San Diego and facing that struggling offense.  A win tonight would be a very good thing!    

Riding the Roller Coaster

It's been an emotional run the last few days.  Let's see if I can capture any of it.

Thursday
Hero: Cesar Izturis, the only player with more than one hit.
Goat: Kyle Lohse, for allowing runs early and not keeping the team in the game.
Emotion: Disappointment.  Tough losing the chance to tie for the wild card lead and losing a half game to the Cubs.

Friday
Hero: Joe Mather.  A home run in a low-scoring game.
Goat: Troy Glaus.  0-5 with 5 men left on.  You could consider Franklin, but he did pitch one scoreless before losing the game in the 11th.
Emotion: Despair.  Losing another game in both standings in a game that the Redbirds should have won.

Saturday
Hero: Troy Glaus.  Two home runs, 5 RBI.  Not much more you can ask for there.
Goat: Ron Villone.  More of a proxy assignment, because what was TLR thinking bringing him in with two outs and a 7 run lead?  Just leave Wellemeyer out there!  And the one guy he's supposed to get, he walks.
Emotion: Hope.  A break or two on Friday and we're looking to get a sweep with Carpenter on the mound.

Sunday
Hero: Joe Mather.  Broke up the shutout and scored a run as well.
Goat: Brad Thompson.  Wasn't able to stop the bleeding, though it may not have mattered anyway.
Emotion: Acceptance.  The season is basically over.

The Cardinals now sit seven games behind the Cubs and three behind the Brewers for the various postseason tickets.  There's hope that Carpenter's early exit last night will not be an extensive problem, but any start he misses is huge.  The Cardinals still think that it's best that Wainwright return as a closer, something I don't agree with.  I think it'd help the team more to get Pineiro out of the rotation and replace him with more regular quality innings.  I know the bullpen needs help too, but with McClellan and Perez closing out games, I think they'd be fine.

And this business with Ankiel is really getting nuts.  If they'd have DLd him when he first got injured, he'd be back this week, having hopefully healed up and, if nothing else, allowed the club to have a usable bat.  But instead they sit him on the bench, maybe get him an AB every once in a while, and he's still not able to play the field.  If this was the AL, fine, they have a DH.  But this is real baseball.

Another aside: does anyone pop up to the infield more than Pujols?  Not that it's a flaw or I'm really deriding him, it just seems like I see him pop up like that more often than anyone else.  Last night's was pretty painful, when he did it with two on and one out.

All in all, though, as much as this team has achieved, as much as it has beaten the odds, I just don't know that they can overcome this kind of gap with only seven weeks left.  As sickening as it is to say, the Cubs look like they are for real, so it really boils down to beating the Brewers.  I'm not sure they don't have another implosion in them, because that team has been known to play a little out of control, but they still probably have the talent edge over the Cardinals.

This week is really big, because you go to Florida for four.  Florida's in both a divisional race and is only two behind the Cardinals in the wild card race.  A series loss down there and you can start playing out the string.  A series win, followed up with a series win against the Reds, and maybe you can get back into the hunt.  That's a lot of ifs, though.

Starting off the Florida series is Joel Piniero vs. Anibal Sanchez.  Pretty much a fresh slate game as the Marlins have all of 7 PAs against Pineiro while Felipe Lopez is the only Cardinal to have faced Sanchez (so THIS is what he was signed for....though that's a little unfair, since he did have a pretty big game this weekend.  But still, outfield?  This is what he was signed for?)  This is only Sanchez's third game back from injury and he's been moderately effective in the first two.  We'll see if the Cardinals can continue their usual success in Florida tonight.  They are 35-23 all time against Florida in their park.

UCBers, our August project is scheduled for the 31st.  If you aren't in the Facebook group, e-mail me and I'll let you know the plan.

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of posting.  Our three day weekend (which happened to contain my birthday) is being followed by three days out of the office for CPE.  So I don't know when I'll get another one up.  Let's quickly try to run through the last few games.

Thursday
Hero: Cesar Izturis.  Three for five in the leadoff slot.  Too bad the people behind him couldn't drive him in more.
Goat: Joel Pineiro.  A yucky game in a series of yucky games.  Will he be the first one removed from the rotation when Wainwright returns?
Notes: Missed out on a chance to sweep the struggling Braves, which would have really helped the overall race a lot.

Friday
Hero: Jason Isringhausen.  It wasn't exactly pretty--a definite Izzy save--but it was a save for the all-time Cardinal relief ace.  Hopefully that's a great step in the right direction for him.  Of course, Ludwick probably should get it for his 4-4, 2 HR game.  But Izzy's return might have been even bigger.
Goat: Albert Pujols.  0-4 with a double play.
Notes: Nice to get a win and chop a game off the Cub lead.  Even if it didn't last..........

Saturday
Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Call it a makeup from Friday, but he did drive in the only run with yet another HR.
Goat: Joe Mather.  0-4 in front of Pujols (who didn't do much to stay out of the Goat level either).
Notes: At least the pitching staff did their part.

Sunday
Hero: Ryan Ludwick.  Two hits including yet another HR.  Glaus was a close runner up with a ninth-inning blast of his own.
Goat: Russ Springer.  Even the best of the bullpen can have an off day.
Notes: Another series loss, making the Birds 2-3 in series since the All-Star Break.

So, where do the Birds stand after all of this?  Well, depending on the outcome of tonight's Cubs game (hopefully it'll just be called for the Astros) they sit 6 out of the divisional lead but only 1/2 game out of the wild card.  Amazingly, they still have the third best record in the NL.  Still, seeing the Cubs extend their lead is pretty sickening, though hopefully the Redbirds can do something about it this weekend.

Carpenter goes tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing how he builds on last week's outing.  Hope the bullpen won't be blowing a good outing for him.

I'll try to get back here before the end of the week!

Who Was That Masked Team?

It was a game unlike many others this year.  The Cardinals got out to an early lead and kept extending it.  The starter pitched seven strong innings.  And the bullpen--well, at least the lead was big enough to keep it from really worrying the fan base.  (I'm not sure that everyone felt completely comfortable even with the nine-run lead.)

The Hero would have to be Joe Mather.  Three for five, the two-run HR that put the Cards on the board, a double that drove in a run.  Nice to see him finally get a breakout game in the majors, especially since Rick Ankiel's status is still up in the air.  (My gut feeling is that they'll wind up putting him on the DL Wednesday when they activate Carpenter.)

I'm going to give the Goat to Troy Glaus for his 0-5, 4 LOB night.  Ron Villone definitely was a consideration, but he wouldn't have been out there for that extended of an outing if the lead wasn't as big as it was.  Villone really should be used for just one or two batters, something LaRussa's been good at doing but could be better.

Other stuff: Just a day after saying Ryan Franklin was the ninth inning guy, Jason Isringhausen has been reinstalled as closer.  That's not a magical fix-it move--I was worried about Franklin even before he was the closer, this just may move the blowups to the eighth instead of the ninth--but I think that Izzy will cause less heartburn in that slot.  He's had some good outings since he came off the DL.  There will still be some bumps in the road, I'm sure.  And that should mean that the Fuentes talk is probably dead.

Adam Wainwright's going on rehab.  Sounds like it's going to be a short one so he can be ready for the trip to Wrigley.  Whether that means he'll be a bullpen guy or not is not clear.  I think, with this Izzy move, they'll probably put him back in the rotation.  I'd rather have five good innings out of Wagonmaker than one every once in a while.

Cards catch a bit of a break in that Tim Hudson went on the DL yesterday, which means they don't have to face him tonight.  Instead, they get Jorge Campillo.  Which means it's another case of a pitcher the Cardinals have never seen before.  If they treat him like they treated Morton last night, there's no worries there.  Todd Wellemeyer goes for the Birds.  The Braves haven't seen much of him either.

Cubs beat the Brewers, so the Cards stay four out in the divisional race but move to two out in the wild-card.  

Holiday Happenings

I really did mean to get to the computer this holiday weekend, but it didn't happen.  Let's take a look at the games in our own special way and then hit some of the other happenings.

Thursday
Hero: Yadier Molina.  Two hits, including a double.  There wasn't much to choose from in this game.
Goat: Mitchell Boggs.  Give up 10 runs, you probably are going to get the goat.

Friday
Hero: Albert Pujols.  #300 and the only run the Cardinals scored.
Goat: Troy Glaus.  Popping out with two on and one out and striking out (even if umpire-aided) to start the ninth.

Saturday:
Hero: Rick Ankiel.  Home run and game winning hit.
Goat: Troy Glaus.  0-4 with 3 K.

Sunday:
Hero: Adam Kennedy.  Two hits are pretty nice for a guy that didn't even start.
Goat: Russ Springer.  Could have chosen any of the pitchers, but two runs in an inning pretty much put the game out of reach.

Some big shifts in the roster on Sunday.  Brian Barton goes on the DL with a hand injury.  How realistic this injury is remains debatable, since it allows the Cards to put the Rule V player on the DL and not lose him.  We'll see if he's back before September.  Joe Mather comes up to take his slot.  Cesar Izturis is back, as Boggs takes that beating and works on it in Memphis.

And, of course, the big news is that Mark Mulder is going to start.  Which is not all that bad of an idea, but the execution leaves a little something to be desired.  I mean, to start him against that offense in that park?  I know that there is a day off today and the All-Star Break is coming (congrats to AP and Ludwick for their nods) but it seems like the bullpen is going to get a lot of work this week.  Even in a best-case scenario, he can't go past five innings, can he?

And what to do with Wellemeyer?  It is starting to look like he's coming back to earth.

Gotta run, unfortunately.  Try to do better tomorrow.

Catching Up (Again)

Our office just went to doing 40 hours in four days, so as to have Friday off, which meant I've been away from the computer for most of the weekend.  Let's recap, then discuss:

Thursday (vs. Cincy)
Hero: Troy Glaus.  1-4, but drove in both runs with a homer.
Goat: Randy Flores.  Both he and Mark Worrell were credited with two runs in the box score, but Flores let them all score.  A bases-loaded walk and then a bases-clearing triple?  Ouch.

Friday
Hero: Skip Schumaker.  As much as anyone can be in a 20-2 game.  Three hits, including a home run.
Goat: Pick a pitcher.  I guess I'd have to go with Todd Wellemeyer, since his eight runs in three and 1/3 innings really put the game out of reach.  Ron Villone's six in an inning and two thirds was pretty ghastly as well, and Worrell, Russ Springer and Ryan Franklin didn't cover themselves with glory either.  When the best pitcher of the night is Aaron Miles, that's a bad night.

Saturday
Hero: Kyle Lohse.  To come out the afternoon after that shelling and to shut down the same offense is pretty impressive. Runner up to Ryan Ludwick for his acting job.
Goat: Rick Ankiel.  0-4 with two left on.

Sunday
Hero: Can we say Tom Gordon?  No, the rules say just Cardinal players.  So it comes down to Schumaker and Glaus again, both with two hits and a home run.  We'll go with Skip this time, since he left one fewer man on base and his home run came in a tighter game.  (Granted, Glaus's was just a couple of batters later, but you have to drawn the line somewhere.)
Goat: Randy Flores.  You come in with two on and two out. Then you walk two guys, forcing in a run?  Springer wasn't much better, walking in another one, but at least he got an out.

Wonderful thing about baseball.  The Cards scored less in the series than the Phillies did in the first game, yet they won two of three.  It really proved that momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher.  The Cards still couldn't gain any game on the Cubs, but it could have been much worse.  Sitting 3.5 out at this time of year is pretty much beyond anyone's wildest expectations.

And best wishes to Yadier Molina.  That was a nasty collision in the ninth inning.  All reports seem to indicate that it wasn't as severe as it appeared on the field (I thought it was great to hear "Yadi! Yadi! Yadi!" as he was being taken off) and it should "just" be a concussion.  Hopefully he'll rejoin the team quickly--with Pujols and Wainwright already being down,  you'd hate to see Molina be out as well.

Lot of activity this weekend, with Joe Mather and Mark Worrell going back to Memphis in exchange for Jason Isringhausen and Anthony Reyes.  Izzy's definitely saying all the right things, so hopefully he's got his mindset right and he'll be able to restore order to the ninth inning soon.  Reyes already got a win in his first game back and apparently will be used out of the pen as a long relief guy, though he could start for Wellemeyer Thursday if there are medical questions.  In other words, we may not see him again for a week.

Speaking of medical questions, Chris Carpenter is getting a second opinion after being shut down last week.  I don't think a lot of people are surprised.  Carpenter was being talked about as being back in the next couple of weeks, but that seemed like a stretch for the surgery he had.  Besides, it's the Cardinals and pitching.  Everyone has at least one setback that extends the return timetable.  It'd be nice to hear that it's not needing more surgery or that it isn't anything serious, but that may be too much to ask.

The rehab calvary might actually be close to arriving, though.  Mark Mulder had a very impressive outing in Springfield Saturday, getting up into the 90s on the gun and throwing five shutout innings.  Granted, he's been good before in the minors, but he never was throwing that hard.  Matt Clement was a little less impressive, but he had a decent outing.  We'll see if the innings continue to take a toll on him, however.  Personally, I'm a little more excited about Mulder now.  I don't know if it'll hold up, but as excited as people that should know are about this new arm slot and seeing the first results, it's very encouraging.

Day off today for the Redbirds (Yadi needs it, for sure) before the Royals series starts Tuesday.  I'll take a look at the pitching matchup, etc. then.

Playing It On The Field

My father used to tell me, "That's why they play the game."  You don't play it on paper (unless it's fantasy baseball, but that's a totally different topic), you have to actually go out there and try to win a game that everything says should be yours.

The Cardinals would have liked to have it stay in the realm of the theoretical last night, though until the seventh everything was panning out just like you'd expect.  I didn't get to see much of the game, having a meeting to go to last night, but when I turned off the radio the Cards had just scored their third run and were looking for more.  I figured it was their night, since Pujols smashed a 3-0 pitch right to the third baseman and everyone was safe.

I turn the game back on after my meeting and Pittsburgh is up 5-4.  It wasn't until later when I read about the pinch-hit grand slam, which turned the game completely around.

I think Adam Wainwright said it the best:

"You just can't give up a grand slam right there. It's the worst I've ever felt after a game."

Again, the Cards showed that they have trouble finishing off a struggling pitcher early and adding on to early leads.  There is no way that Gorzelanny should have gone six innings with the way he started off the game.  This offense tends to sputter sometimes, catching early then dying off.

Heroically, Albert Pujols was at it again, with a 2-4, 2 RBI night.  Pujols said that not having the postseason to worry about would probably help him be rested and ready for the season.  I think we've seen that theory has some merit.  Joe Mather also had a very nice game as the rookie gets adjusted to major league life.

That wasn't the best way to send the team off on a long road trip, but you deal with what you have.  Tonight the Cardinals will be playing in our nation's capital, with Kyle Lohse taking on Odalis Perez.  Lohse has been OK against the current National hitters, giving up a home run only to Dmitri Young.  Lohse also has faced the Nationals this year and threw seven scoreless innings against them in April.

And, though he doesn't have the greatest numbers against Lohse at least, the Cards will probably dodge a bit of a bullet this series as Ryan Zimmerman continues to sit out nursing an injury and could be placed on the DL soon.

Perez has always been Pujols's favorite whipping boy. The rest of the Cardinals aren't anything special against him, but AP has 5 HR and 14 hits in 21 ABs.  That's dominance and it'll probably get him four wide ones in any situation with runners on tonight.  Perez gave up five runs in four innings against the Redbirds in the earlier meeting between the two teams.

The Washington YNOT is up and the series preview will be up later this morning.

Oh, there's been a Matt Clement sighting!  Apparently today will start his 30-day rehab stint in the minors.  Hopefully it has a better ending that Mark Mulder's did.  It's not obvious who he'd replace in the rotation, really, but a fresh arm around the All-Star Break could be a nice addition to the team.

And congratulations to Todd Wellemeyer for being NL Pitcher of the Month, an award that puts him in good company.  (Hat tip: VEB)

Making Them Walk The Plank

The series isn't over, of course, but this weekend was a pretty solid weekend for the Cardinals.  Assuming you ignore the ugliness that was Saturday evening.

I actually didn't get to see much of the games this weekend, having various things take me away from the TV, and the only extended time I did see was the first three or so innings on Saturday.  Even with that bad taste, though, winning two of three and having Wainwright on the hill tonight has to give you a pretty good feeling.

Friday night, Albert Pujols did some great work again.  Two hits, two RBI, a home run to support Todd Wellemeyer, whose seven innings of one-run ball puts him in Hero consideration as well.  However, due to his amazing catch, his first hit driving in what turned into the game-winning run, all in his first game, you've got to give the kudos to Joe Mather.  Doing all that with the butterflies that had to be swimming in his stomach is pretty impressive.

That game got much closer than it needed to be as the bullpen had another ragged outing.  Even though Randy Flores has the worse line in the box score, the Goat has to go to Ryan Franklin.  Coming in with two on and two out and giving up two hits and three runs (two charged to Flores)?  That's not closer material.  Will many more of this missteps lead to Chris Perez getting more ninth inning time?

Saturday....well, what do you say about Saturday?  Not much.  Kelvim Jimenez probably won't get too many more calls to the big club after that performance.  Giving up a grand slam to your first batter?  Yuck. Giving up two more home runs was just icing.  Not surprising he got sent down to Memphis for Mark Worrell.  For a Hero, I'll go with Troy Glaus, if only because of his timing.  Right after Dan said that Glaus had commented pre-game that, as the weather warms up, so does his bat, he launched a home run.  Timing is everything.

Sunday, Braden Looper pitched fairly well, but when you couple that with his hitting prowness, he'll get the Hero nod.  Glaus was right there, though, with his three hits.  Goatily, I think I'll go with Ryan Ludwick, being that he had an 0-4 with 4 left on, but Ryan Franklin was right there, allowing the tying run to get to the plate before retiring the Pirates in the ninth.  Is there something about closing in St. Louis that brings out the daredevil in these pitchers?

Tonight, the Cardinals look to take the series before heading out on the road for nine games.  They've got Wainwright on the mound, like I said, so that's got to give them some confidence.  Friends of mine are going to be at the game and I told them everything is lined up for a Cardinal victory.

First, you have Wainwright, who can be a dominant pitcher, though he's had some struggles against Pirate hitters in the past.  He last faced Pittsburgh in his final 2007 start, allowing three runs in seven innings at PNC.  The last time he faced them in Busch was May 22 of last year, when he gave up 2 in 5.1 innings.  That was before his second half surge last year.

Then there is the Pittsburgh pitcher, Tom Gorzelanny.  A 7.38 ERA is never something you want to see if you are a pitcher, but the hitters are excited.  Gorzelanny had control issues the last time he faced the Cards, walking seven Redbirds and two dogs for Tony LaRussa.  The Cardinals have had reasonable success against him, though only Rick Ankiel has a home run off of him.

Hopefully everything plays out and the Cards are able to get a win.  The way the Cubs have been going at it, they'll need it!

In other news, it looks like Joel Pineiro will be on the disabled list longer than expected.  I would expect that Mike Parisi will make another start, but as rough as he looked on Saturday, I'm not sure that's the wisest idea, though it would be against Washington.  There's passing talk that Anthony Reyes could come back up and take the start.  Eventually, the club needs to get him back up here and effective if they plan on making any kind of trade with him.  Showing that he can pitch in the majors only strengthens Mozeliak's hand.

Duncan Down, Mather Up

Per Bernie, who should know, it appears that Chris Duncan is heading down to Memphis and Joe Mather will be replacing him on the Cardinal roster for a time.  (EDIT: It's up on the PD main site as well.)

Mather's had a fairly successful season at Memphis and we all probably remember how well he looked in spring training.  It was definitely time for him to get a shot at the bigs, and it probably would have come sooner if the Cardinal outfield had performed as many thought it would.  With the relative success of most all the outfielders, though, it was going to take some kind of break for him to get up to St. Louis.

It's interesting that there didn't seem to be this drumbeat to send Duncan down until the last couple of days, then all of the sudden it happened.  Maybe it was because I was out of the loop last week.

As Bernie shows in his post, getting Duncan on track could provide huge benefits for the Cardinals.  When we looked at this season, I think most of us expected the production that Ryan Ludwick is having coming from Duncan instead, that he'd be the extra power source behind Pujols and Troy Glaus.  That hasn't happened, for whatever reason.  If it's because he needs reps after the injury last year, then sending him to AAA to get into the lineup basically every day could be of great use.

But what if it's not?  VEB has shown that everyone tends to pitch Duncan inside more this year.  If he can't make that adjustment, the Cardinals may regret not actively trying to move him last offseason.

I expect that the Cards were hoping he'd have a positive game like last night's to ease the sting of being sent down.  So they could legitimately tell him, "Look, we know you can do it.  See what you did against Oswalt?  You just need more playing time, and we don't have that here right now.  Go down, get straightened out, you'll be back up here before you know it."

It's interesting that the first outfielder called up this year is Mather and not Colby Rasmus, but there are obvious reasons for that.  Besides the fact that Rasmus is only hitting .202 (though coming on--reading the daily reports at Future Redbirds made me see that was happening and now I see he's hitting .303 over his last ten games), the idea is that this is a stop-gap, fill-in measure.  The Cards have said they don't want to bring Rasmus up until he can play every day.  Right now, that's not happening.  Mather is going to be more of a bench guy than they want Rasmus to be.

I wonder if Mather will get the start tonight.  Lefty on the mound, a home game, and the fact that LaRussa has thrown the pitchers called up into their first game to get their feet wet makes me think that he might be.  It could be a lineup like:

Barton
Mather
Pujols
Ludwick
Glaus
Molina
Izturis
Wellemeyer
Ryan

I was way off the last time I tried to guess a lineup, so I probably will be again, but that could be an interesting one to throw out there.

It's been fun seeing young players come up to contribute so far this year, hasn't it?  Much better than bringing up retreads or signing DFAs to fill gaps.

Oh, and in case you wanted to know, the CCH Pittsburgh series preview is up.

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]