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Postseason Playing Pepper: Philadelphia Phillies

If you were reading this blog before this season started, you may remember a series I did called "Playing Pepper", where I asked five questions of a blogger covering each major league team.  With the season coming to a close, I thought I'd tap into the talents of the newly formed Baseball Bloggers Alliance and ask five new questions of the bloggers covering the postseason teams.
They have eight players with double-digit HR totals and can make it nine if Carlos Ruiz can hit one more before the season ends. Four players have 90+ RBI and four have scored 100+ runs for the first time since the 1932 Phillies.
Even with Madson covering the ninth inning, the Phillies are still going to be relying on Lidge, Chad Durbin, Clay Condrey, and Tyler Walker for important outs late in the game, which isn't really something a World Series contending team should feel comfortable about doing.  Continue Reading

Pitching, Anyone?

While there's not a whole lot to take out of this weekend, at least the offense seems to be improved.  Not necessarily to the levels of Philadelphia, though, which may haunt us in October.  Quick recap:

Friday (8-1 win)
Hero: Matt Holliday.  Let's get the guy on the board straight off.  Just making the extra effort to play in the game after the deal was impressive enough, but four for five with a run and an RBI and a stolen base?  That's filling up the box score.

Goat: It's a tough call, because nobody had a real bad night.  I guess I'll go with Brendan Ryan, since he left four men on, though he did have a hit in his four at bats.

Notes: Nice to see the bats really working.  Rick Ankiel went three for four, Julio Lugo made his debut with a triple and a homer, and things were all well and good in Cardinal Nation.

Saturday (14-6 loss)
Hero: Rick Ankiel.  Whatever has gotten into Rick, I hope it sticks.  Not only did he go three for five with, at the time, the tiebreaking home run, he made a couple of spectacular catches, including one that robbed Jayson Werth of a home run.  He was the star of the game until the bottom of the sixth.

Goat: Jason Motte.  He and Josh Kinney proved that the bullpen is best in small doses.  With Kyle Lohse struggling through the first and not being able to go past four innings, the bullpen got overexposed in a big way.  Motte has got to figure out how to keep the gopher balls to a minimum.  Was there much surprise when Shane Victorino followed up Jimmy Rollins's grand slam with a homer of his own?

Notes: You know when Tony LaRussa saw Lohse have to leave early, he was wanting his 13th pitcher back. Especially when he knew who was supposed to start on Sunday.

Sunday (9-2 loss)
Hero: Mark DeRosa.  Two for four with a HR.  The new guys were all right this weekend.

Goat: Todd Wellemeyer.  As if the combination of him and Philly's lineup and ballpark weren't obviously explosive.  I'm really surprised he hung around and kept the team in the game as long as he did.

Notes: The Cubs take over first place.  This is not a good thing.

The Cardinals proved that they still are a little off of the level that the Phillies are at.  Of course, it could have been a different series if Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright had pitched, but it's not like the Cards faced Cole Hamels, either.  The upcoming series with the Dodgers at home will be another true test.

The farm system took another hit this weekend as Jess Todd was sent to Cleveland to finish the Mark DeRosa deal.  I indicated at the time that I had concerns about who was going to complete the trade and those worries were justified, apparently.  Todd's absence was sorely noted this weekend as the bullpen started imploding.  It does explain why Todd hadn't been promoted since the deal even with his stellar AAA season.  The Razorback in me really hates to see him go as well!

Needless to say, a farm system that had started rebuilding itself, positioning itself as a top 10 system, has been devastated in the past few weeks.  It's really gotten Future Redbirds a little glum, to no surprise.

With the Cardinals apparently in win-now mode, there is no reason or justification for letting Todd Wellemeyer have another start.  I'm not real convinced you can put him in the bullpen either.  I'd like to see some small move for a real fifth starter, but as much as the farm system has already given up, I can't believe there are too many more bullets there.  You don't need a fifth starter in the postseason, but as tight as the NL Central is, you sure may need a tolerable one to get there.

Blake Hawksworth made a quick return to the majors.  While I know he allowed a long ball as well yesterday, I don't think you'd have found many people that wouldn't have rather seen him start than Wellemeyer.  Apparently TLR has stated that Wellemeyer will get the ball for the first game in the Houston series.  I sincerely hope that's just a smokescreen.  You can't afford to hand a game to a team that, as of right now, is just a game or so behind you in the standings and could easily be ahead of you by time you meet.

Is it about time to say Albert is slumping again?  While he's still getting his hits here and there, he's not gone yard since the 17th.  We all know he reads this blog, so we'll see if he can stoke the fire tonight.

I was starting to wonder if this Holliday trade had cut Colby Rasmus out of the picture.  Some people wouldn't put it past Tony to play Ankiel ahead of Rasmus, even if it wasn't justified.  So I was at least partly relieved to hear that there was an injury issue involved instead.  Rasmus is doing better, but with Ankiel's reviving bat, it could become a tough call on who to play.  Rasmus should still get the majority of the time.

You have to figure the Cardinals are done dealing, really, unless they can get something for Troy Glaus.  With Holliday in left and him still not able to throw across the diamond, it's a tough situation for him.  He might be a nice bat off of the bench, especially if he replaces Joe Thurston, but could he stay sharp just getting pinch hitting appearances on a semi-regular basis?

You also have to guess, with Lugo around, we won't be seeing much more of Khalil Greene.  Though Brian Barden is still up, I believe, so I guess those two could swap spots.  Right now, though, the roster calculus is pretty set, especially if the team expands back to 13 pitchers.

Cardinals take on the first-place Dodgers in Busch starting tonight.  Four game set, the first on ESPN.  Chris Carpenter gets back on the mound facing Randy Wolf.  Carp's had good numbers against Los Angeles, holding them as a whole under .200.  Of course, Manny Ramirez has been able to solve Carpenter somewhat, tagging him for two home runs.

Wolf, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as stingy with the Cardinals.  While Pujols has never gone yard against him, he does own a .357 average against the starter.  Holliday has done OK against him as well, including a home run.

The Cards really have to make some hay at home.  They can't let the Cubs start to pull away, because if they get ahead and then get healthy, they may be uncatchable.  And that's an untenable position to be in.

Cards Beat Nationals, Tie Mother Nature

Sometimes the elements just won't be denied.

What's Wrong With Wainwright?

If there was one constant expected in this 2009 season, it was that Adam Wainwright would be the rock of the rotation.  He'd stop the losing streaks, give a solid outing every time out, and generally be the joy of the rotation.  After six starts this year, though, he's not quite been there.  The question is, why not?

I don't have any answers to that, but I wanted to see if it really has been that bad.  I mean, Wainwright did go into last night's game with a 3-0 record and a 2.76 ERA.  What more can you expect out of him, huh?

Still, watching him, you know there's been problems.  He's walked 20 batters this year against only 30 strikeouts.  Batters are hitting him for a .274 average and reaching base 36% of the time.  Some of his problems might come from the fact he has a .327 BABIP, but that's not extremely high.

For comparison's sake, in his first six starts of 2008, he was also 3-1, but he had a 2.60 ERA, a BA against of .207 and an OBP against of .256.  Even if you mark that down to a fast start, you wouldn't expect the numbers to increase as much as they have.

Another way to look at it is game scores.  A Bill James invention, game scores are used to note how dominant a pitcher is.  Last year in the span we are talking about, Wainwright had only one game score that was under 60, and that was a 51.  This year, Wainwright has only hit 60 twice (exactly 60, even, not over it) and has three starts that were below 50, including last night's 29.

On Twitter last night, Matthew Leach opined that he liked this start more than some of Wainwright's other, nominally more successful starts because he didn't walk batters.  He did only walk two, including a unintentional-intentional pass to Ryan Howard with two outs in the fifth which was completely justifiable, if moot when the next batter, Jayson Werth, went yard to land another punch on the Cards' comeback.  If he's going to throw strikes (something I believe we all want to see), they definitely need to be better than the ones he threw last night.

Last night's game felt like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill.  Just when the Cards would look like they were coming back, the pitching staff would give up more runs and make the boulder roll back down.  When they were able to rally to 4-3 after home runs by Hero Ryan Ludwick and Yadier Molina, I thought they had a chance, but those hopes were pretty much dashed by Werth's blast.

So the Cardinals finally lose their 10th game of the season and have now lost three in a row with Pittsburgh coming in tonight.  Mitchell Boggs goes up against Zach Duke.

The Pirates haven't seen Boggs before (well, Brandon Moss has, but that's it), but the Cardinals are well acquainted with Duke.  I believe he will be the first pitcher St. Louis has seen twice in 2009, as he gave up three runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 in the season-opening series, getting a 7-4 win against Todd Wellemeyer.  In his career, he's struggled some against the Cardinals, though he's usually kept them in the yard.  Duke seems to have recaptured some of that promise that he had early in his career, as he sports a 2.21 ERA coming into tonight's game.

Various other things.  It looks like Rick Ankiel won't be out for an extended period of time.  Thank goodness that crash didn't happen at Wrigley, because I'm thinking the padding was better on Ankiel's head than bricks would have been.  While he's OK now, as it happened, Ankiel wasn't quite as sanguine about what was going on.

Krylon is running a sports trivia contest and the winner gets tickets to the World Series.  Head over here and try your luck!

Jay from Riding the Pine hasn't done a lot of blogging lately, but did want me to mention that he's got a forum for St. Louis autograph hunters, no matter the sport.  If that's one of your interests, head on over there and see if you can make some connections.

Finally, it's Wednesday, and you know that means UCB Radio Hour.  I'll be hosting it tonight as most of the regulars are out of pocket, so tune in and call in with questions or comments to try to keep the dead air to a minimum.  Tonight's featured blog is Baseball Digest and we'll be talking to Andrea at the top of the show.  Hope to see you there!

Catching Up With The Cardinals

Hello, my name is Cardinal70.  You might remember me from such posts as Reading The T-Shirts and Casey In Today's Baseball...... 

OK, maybe it's not been that long, but it's been a while since I've had a chance to write about the Cardinals.  Since we have a week's worth of games, I'm not going to sit down and talk about all of them.  We'll just hit the Heroes and Goats and then look at the overview and what's coming next.

Monday at Atlanta (Win 3-2)
Hero: Joel Pineiro
Goat: Albert Pujols
Notes: Normally Brendan Ryan's 0 for 4 would have given him the Goat tag, but his spectacular defense in this game spares him.  Pujols was 1-5 but left 6 men on, something that could have easily haunted the Cards.

Tuesday at Atlanta (Loss 2-1)
Hero: Yadier Molina
Goat: Kyle McClellan
Notes: Kyle Lohse had an outstanding game, but he did walk four, which is why Molina got the nod.

Wednesday at Atlanta (Win 5-3)
Hero: Ryan Franklin
Goat: Colby Rasmus
Notes: The closer doesn't get the Hero tag very often, so since he went four outs, I'll give it to him.  Adam Wainwright would have been in line but five walks is not good at all.

Thursday at Washington (Win 9-4)
Hero: Albert Pujols
Goat: Joe Thurston
Notes: Nice to see Tyler Greene make his debut, even though it came at the expense of Ryan heading to the DL.

Friday at Washington (Win 6-2)
Hero: Albert Pujols
Goat: Skip Schumaker
Notes: Albert's two extra runs gave him the slightest of nods over Chris Duncan.

Saturday at Washington (Loss 6-1)
Hero: Colby Rasmus
Goat: Chris Duncan
Notes: Duncan's 0 for 4 was bad enough, but the error didn't help matters.  I just missed watching Colby's homer, sitting down to the computer and catching it on Twitter.

Sunday at Washington, rained out

Monday vs. Philadelphia (Loss 6-1)
Hero: Joe Thurston
Goat: Kyle Lohse
Notes: If he's not using the HBP as an excuse, then I can't either.  But I do think that had to have some effect.  And a Cardinal starter has to be fully healthy to even have a chance against Ryan Howard.

So that brings us to the present.  After the jump, more talk and looking forward to tonight's game.
 
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Splitting The Cardinal Weekend

A win and a loss this weekend.  While neither were all that dramatic, they are worth taking a look at.

The best part about Saturday's game against the Braves was that it was on KSDK and those games get put on a station down here, so I got to get my first look at the 2009 Cardinals.  The fact that they pulled out a win was nice as well.

Adam Wainwright worried me early in the game.  He was giving up a lot of hits, though he did a good job of keeping runs off the board.  He settled down later in the game and you'll take five innings, one earned run any day of the week.

The bullpen did good work as well.  It was interesting to see Josh Kinney come in to get the save.  He really looked good doing it.  That slider can be a deadly weapon when its on.  Right now, I think I'm fine with any of the young guns, including Kinney, closing down games.

Even though I'm not a big fan, I've got to admit Ryan Franklin has had a good spring as well.  He gave up just one hit in two innings and lowered his spring ERA to 1.50.  If he can keep that going forward, he wouldn't be as nerve-wracking in the ninth.  I'm not sure that he can, though I figure he'll get some save opportunities early in the year.  I think Tony La Russa is really looking forward to some mixing and matching in that closer role.

Looking at the hitters, Skip Schumaker had another good day at the plate, going two for three and making no errors at second.  In fact, the only error of the game came from Brendan Ryan when he came in for Skip on an easy ball that he just didn't take enough care with.  He was too worried about ending the game to keep his eye on it.  I'd be surprised if La Russa didn't notice.  Not something you want to do when you are fighting for a slot.

There wasn't much else that happened, but watching it definitely got me fired up for another season.  Just three more weeks!

Sunday's game was another good day for the pitching staff, though the offense didn't do a lot.  Khalil Greene had a couple of hits, keeping his strong spring going.  Brendan Ryan made up for that error on Saturday by driving in the only run of the game.

On the mound, though, the Cards shone, for the most part.  Kyle Lohse gave up an early home run, but pitched five innings and didn't allow any more to cross the plate.  He struck out five as well, which helped.  You figure you are going to get some value out of Lohse this year and possibly next year.  The end of the contract, though, is where there is going to be some pain.

Adam Ottovino might have learned something playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.  He struck out the side in his appearance, which is something he's got the talent to do more of.  I think that if he can get his stuff under control (which is what he started doing some last year, I believe) he can be a pretty good prospect and someone to keep an eye on.

The only bad outing came from Jess Todd.  One inning plus, two hits and, unfortunately, two walks.  Sounds like it was an off day for Todd, who's been pretty effective this spring and could be one of the first callups from Memphis this year.

More cuts should be coming this week with an eye toward the 25 man roster.  A lot of the questions going into camp have been answered in the affirmative.  The most difficult cuts may be in the bullpen.  If all three young guns are carried, plus the two lefties and then five starters, that leaves two slots available.  Figuring out exactly who takes those positions may be a lot of what is decided this week.

Chris Duncan pulled down a 69.5% rating from 45 voters over the weekend.  I gave Chris a 70, because while I'm not a huge fan of his off-field persona and his defense is pretty iffy sometimes, he can definitely hit when he's healthy and is an asset to the team.  I think he's proven that to some degree this spring.

We'll be doing this for another week, unless there is huge demand for more (or to quit early).  Today, we go back to the broadcast booth and ask your opinion about John Rooney.  He's sitting in Jack's chair, though obviously no one could replace the master.  Is he a worthy successor?  Does he drive you nuts?  Leave your percentage approval in the comments!

Playing Pepper 2009: Philadelphia Phillies

As the players start getting themselves ready for another season, I thought it'd be a good idea to do the same.  I contacted a blogger for each major league team and posted them five questions.  This is the result.  You can find the tentative schedule of teams here and today's main post is right here.

A long drought of suffering was wiped out last October as the Phillies finally took another World Series title.  It didn't quite have the same impact nationally as the Red Sox in 2004 or the White Sox in 2005, but it still was quite a wonderful time for the Philadelphia fans after 28 years.

Those Philly fans can be on the rough side (as the Cardinals saw when they went into the Vet with JD Drew and Scott Rolen) but one man's insanity is another man's passion.

Bill from Crashburn Alley is one of those passionate fans and I asked him about what the 2009 season means and how the bullpen will stack up.  Programming note: this exchange happened before Ryan Howard signed his recent three-year extension.

  Continue Reading

Congrats To the Champs

The Phillies finally finished Game 5 and did so in winning fashion.  When they quickly put up a run there in the sixth, I figured that might be the end of it.  Say this about the Rays, though, they don't give up.  Even in the ninth they had a chance.  Brad Lidge may have been perfect in save opportunities, but everytime I've seen him this postseason it seems like he's just a more successful version of Izzy.  He walks the wire but comes through at the end.

For the last few years, I've kept a running list of World Series droughts.  After last night, this is what it looks like.  (I can't figure out how to do tables so bear with the formatting.)

	Last won	Years
Philadelphia	2008	0
Boston	2007	1
St. Louis	2006	2
Chicago White Sox	2005	3
Florida	2003	5
Los Angeles of Anaheim	2002	6
Arizona	2001	7
New York Yankees	2000	8
Tampa Bay	1998	10	*
Atlanta	1995	13
Colorado	1993	15	*
Toronto	1993	15
Minnesota	1991	17
Cincinnati	1990	18
Oakland	1989	19
Los Angeles	1988	20
New York Mets	1986	22
Kansas City	1985	23
Detroit	1984	24
Baltimore	1983	25
Pittsburgh	1979	29
Seattle	1977	31	*
San Diego	1969	39	*
Milwaukee	1969	39	*
Washington	1969	39	*
Houston	1962	46	*
Texas	1961	47	*
San Francisco	1954	54
Cleveland	1948	60
Chicago Cubs	1908	100

*--Never won a series

I think we've also figured out why the NL keeps losing the All-Star Game.  It's a subtle swipe at the AL, since no Series goes 7 anymore.  (Last 7-gamer was 2001, before the Great All-Star Debacle.)  With only 4 or 5 games in the Series, it either means the AL team has to win the Series on the road, away from their fans, or the NL team gets to win it at home in front of their fans.  Very, very subtle!  The Cardinals and the Phillies are the only teams to win on their home field since 2002.

Now, can someone open up the grate and stoke that Hot Stove?

Odds and Ends

Not much going on, but let's post anyway!

First off, there will be a chat with John Mozeliak at the Post-Dispatch site today.  No matter your opinion of Mo, at least he gets out there and interacts with the fans.  I'm not sure I could picture Jocketty doing that, though obviously there really wasn't this kind of technology in wide use until close to the end of his term.  Maybe a situation of old dogs new tricks.

Secondly, let's talk World Series.  Everyone else is!  Like most people, I have no problem with the suspended game.  Selig is right (for once) in that the Series should not be decided on a rain-shortened technicality.  That said, if he had actually told the team representatives before the game, as he said he did, that they were playing nine one way or another, he should have stopped the game somewhere before the sixth.  I didn't see all of the game, but I turned it on in the top of the sixth and saw that slop.  I knew then that they were just hoping for the Rays to tie or take the lead so they could legally stop the game and not have to worry about calling it.  Selig most likely expected a lot of grief if he stopped it with the Phillies leading but didn't award them the win.

I heard Selig refer to his "four more years" and realized that he is going to wind up being commissioner for 18 years, assuming he actually leaves the position at the end of this contract.  He'll never be considered the best commissioner, I don't believe, but he's done enough to make sure his tenure is remembered.  Not necessarily in the best of ways, but it'll be remembered.

I still want to see the Rays win this thing, but having the Phillies win doesn't bother me much either.  I'm just, in some ways, ready for the Series to be over so we can really stoke the Hot Stove and get the fire going.

Of course, since few are watching, it may be one of those things where if a team wins a title in a forest, does it count?  Though I bet the viewing for the last three innings of Game 5 is much higher than for the rest of the game!

Not sure if I'll get a post up tomorrow, but my Halloween themed one is already prepped and ready to go, so be sure to check back on Friday!

Hodgepodge

Good start to the Series last night.  A game the Phillies had to win, because if you squander a Cole Hamels start, well, chances are you don't deserve to take home the title.  We'll see if the Rays blow up like they did last time they lost a Game 1, though!

Bernie tells us what we already know: Albert should be MVP.  Nice to see the players agreed.

Since the last UCB update, Redbird Ramblings has talked about the bullpen, BertFlex has taken up the outfield issue, Fungoes asked about changing the Busch Stadium experience, and Pitchers Hit Eighth asked when we start thinking about an Albert Pujols extension.

CardinalsGM should have a transcript up soon (for some reason the new filter in my office blocks that site, along with a ton of other things) as we start to wind down the discussions.  I still have to come up with a question that hasn't been used yet!

Also on the Network: √ Playing Pepper 2010: Oakland Athletics [C70 At The Bat] √ Book Review: Joe Cronin, A Life In Baseball [C70 At The Bat] √ Happy Birthday, Loge 13 [Loge 13] √ Things to Read: 3/11 [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ The Farm Team to Watch [El Lefty Malo] √ Wounded Birds [C70 At The Bat] √ Julius Peppers Continues Being a Great Quote [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Things to Read: 3/10 [Tremendous Upside Potential]