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Recently in San Diego Padres CategorySo Close To The SweepPosted on May 27, 2011 at 2:35 PM
I had a nice outline of a post saved up for yesterday, but things got in the way and I never got around to fleshing them out. I'm taking advantage of the fact that yesterday was an off day to hit some of the general points that I was going to talk about. First off, let's look at Tuesday's game. Extra innings on the West Coast aren't really conducive to sleep and I wasn't able to see the end of it. Gotta give the Hero tag to Daniel Descalso for putting yet another game away, as he seems to be able to get the hits when the Cards really need them. Also, as Travis from Fredbird Follys pointed out in an e-mail to me as we prepared for Wednesday's UCB Radio Hour, how often do you see a player make his major league debut and outhit the other team, especially when the game goes long? Tony Cruz with three hits was able to do that, as the Padres only managed two in the whole contest. Nice intro to the bigs for the rook. Another very strong outing by Kyle McClellan and the bullpen did well also, with Jason Motte having three strikeouts and Miguel Batista even putting up two scoreless innings. The latter might have been the biggest hint that the Padres are struggling at the plate right now. On the down side, Skip Schumaker went 0-5. He struck out three times and one of the times he actually made contact, he hit into a double play. Pretty much a night to forget for Skip. Wednesday, the Cards got to play some afternoon ball meaning that a lot of people got to watch the game. I was actually out of town and traveling home through most of it, so I wasn't able to do so. It was another tight contest, as the Cards scored in the first and Brad Hawpe hit a home run for his second consecutive day in the second. Got down to the ninth before the Pads broke through and the Cards couldn't answer. So close to finally putting together a three-game sweep, but we'll have to wait for that a little longer. If you aren't going to sweep people, winning two out of three is a perfectly acceptable alternative. I'll give the Hero tag to Lance Berkman, who had two hits including driving in the only run of the game. Jon Jay also had two hits, stepping into the void left by injury and Colby Rasmus's slump. Goat-wise, I'll go with Tyler Greene. He did have a hit, but he struck out twice and his throw in the ninth that short-hopped Yadier Molina turned out to be the difference in the game. He makes a better throw, Molina puts on the tag and we go into the ninth tied up. Instead, the run scores and the batter makes it to third, where he easily scores on a Ryan Ludwick base hit to give insurance. There's a lot of talk about Chris Carpenter not being able to get wins, that his record is 1-5, etc. I'm fairly sure that it is driving Pip completely up the wall, as the emphasis on pitcher wins is a personal bugaboo of his. He's right, though. It doesn't matter if Carpenter won or lost, really. Carpenter had one of his effective games on Wednesday and he put the team in position to get the win. The offense didn't support him, that's all. If he gets even 2-3 runs early, the whole complexion of the game would have changed. Carpenter is probably going to be a bit erratic this year. You'll see some vintage Carp but you'll see some games that make you wonder if he's losing it. Right now, with the rotation as strong as it is, the Cards can afford to take the bad with the good. It might be a little early to claim Albert Pujols is back. After his strong opening game in San Diego, there wasn't much heard from him. It could have been the pitching, it could have been the ballpark, but if that was a turning point in his season, it's not going to be a continuous one. We'll see if this weekend at Colorado helps out somewhat. Nick Punto is eligible to return June 3, but unlikely to do so. Being that there is an entire glut of middle infielders, this wouldn't seem to be an issue, but Punto has produced more than some of the others and, even though he's only been healthy a limited amount of time, he's worked his way into the good graces of the team. Hopefully his injury won't keep him out an extended period of time. Carlos Martinez pitched last night at Busch and did an outstanding job. Really excited about the 2013 rotation of him, Shelby Miller, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia. That could be very impressive! The daughter is calling me, so the matchup numbers will have to be the last part of this. Be sure to check out Wednesday's UCB Radio Hour or last night's Padres Trail if you want to hear some more from me. Not sure why you'd want to do that, but I'm glad if you do. Have a great weekend and I'll hopefully be back in this space before it is over! Jake Westbrook vs. Colorado
 A Late-Night ExtravaganzaPosted on May 24, 2011 at 12:24 PM
You can't beat fun at the old ballpark, even when that fun keeps you up too late and makes you yawn through the morning the next day. It seems like perhaps Albert Pujols figured out where his bats were. He was only 1-4, but as I mentioned yesterday, it's more about how he's making his outs. Last night, there weren't any weak ground balls. There were two fly balls that were deep enough to leave a couple of park (to go along with a borderline strikeout). That kind of game gives me more confidence about him taking off on a run. It does seem like the man reads his press clippings at times, as I've noted before, and sometimes likes to prove those writers wrong. Even with the turning point (hopefully) in Pujols's season, the Hero tag has to go to Kyle Lohse. Another remarkable outing, only marred by a misplaced pitch to Chase Headley, which led to the Padres' run. You can keep up with Lohse's remarkable season at On The Outside Corner, and while many of us thought Lohse would be better this year, Bob's really been the driver of his fan club. (Lots of fan clubs this year!) Glad to see Lohse's resurgence and look forward to seeing how he does in Colorado this weekend. Daniel Descalso also came up big with the game-winning single in the eighth along with a solid double earlier in the contest. Descalso drove in Skip Schumaker, who had a nice game coming back off the DL with a single and a couple of good defensive plays. More on his activation in a bit. The highlight of the game, though, may have been this awesome catch by Colby Rasmus to rob Ryan Ludwick of a home run. If the Pads get on the board there, does it change the way the game plays out? I don't think it would have made a huge impact, but you never know how things could change when you trail rather than when you are tied. Our Goat for last night was Yadier Molina, who went 0-4 with a double play. Molina's been on such a tear that you have to figure he'll slip a little soon, just due to the law of averages. OK, so yesterday's big news, besides the swap of catchers that we talked about yesterday morning, was that Schumaker was activated and, instead of Pete Kozma being sent down, it was Mitchell Boggs.making the trip down to Memphis, which was met on Twitter with a collective, "Huh?" Not only was Boggs being demoted, they are putting him in the starting rotation. To some degree, because of the way the roster has been constructed, the move was just about inevitable. They didn't need to go with 13 pitchers (which, as I've argued, they didn't need to do this weekend either, so it was a hole of their own digging) so making a hitter for pitcher swap makes sense. You know that Miguel Batista and Ryan Franklin, being players that management still believes in (and, in the case of Franklin, are still paying well) aren't going to be cut. That just leaves a pitcher with options and it wasn't going to be Fernando Salas or Eduardo Sanchez. Putting Boggs in the rotation, though, still strikes me as a strange thing. Sure, you know when he's going to pitch and he can pitch a bit longer, but this is the minor leagues. They want to win, but if you say Boggs has to pitch two innings every third day, they'll put him in there then. He's not going to need four pitches as a reliever, so have him come in with the express purpose of throwing changeups or off-speed stuff. I'm not sold on the fact that you can bounce a guy from starter to reliever and back and forth without worry. I assume that Kozma's here until Nick Punto gets healthy or the 10 days on Mark Hamilton are done and he's eligible to return. Right now, it seems like we have the complete collection of middling middle infielders with potential scrappiness abilities, something that has to have Matt Sebek in heaven. That quad injury for Matt Holliday didn't clear up overnight and it sounds like he'll probably be out the entire San Diego series. Lance Berkman played left yesterday and, well, maybe Jon Jay should flip with him. I'm still a proud member of the LB Fan Club, but he didn't look graceful at all in left last night, even more than normal. Speaking of last night, I was able to make my I70 Baseball podcast debut as part of a roundtable of notable Cardinal bloggers. Lots of good topics including Jaime Garcia, Berkman, and the NL Central standings, so check it out if you weren't able to listen live. Cardinals are donating $25,000 to Convoy of Hope to help those in Joplin, which is desperately needed there. Seeing that devastation and imagining how long it will take to rebuild is a heart wrenching thing. We're glad that some of our UCB members in that area were safe and sound, though I understand that Kevin from Cards 'N Stuff lost his place of business. Another late one tonight as we get Game 2 in this series. At least Wednesday's starts at a more reasonable hour. Here's how the pitchers stack up. First, Kyle McClellan vs. San Diego:
Nothing you can really take out of that. 14 total plate appearances is almost by definition a small sample size. See our old friend Ludwick took him yard after being traded to San Diego last year.
Related articles  New YNOT: San Diego YNOTPosted on May 23, 2011 at 2:57 PM
A Shaky WeekendPosted on May 23, 2011 at 12:05 PM
It's been a busy time the last week, but I've got a chance here to catch my breath and get caught up on what's been going on with the Cardinals. It's been a busy few days! Wednesday (5-1 win vs. Houston) Hero: Kyle Lohse just keeps going out and putting up zeros. He allowed a run in the seventh, but otherwise handcuffed the Astros. Granted, Houston's not the strongest team out there, but the more Lohse does that, the better Cardinal fans feel. Goat: A bit of a tough one, because everyone did just enough to possibly be out of the running. Matt Holliday only saw one pitch before leaving with a quad injury--a guy that sees one pitch can't be the goat, right? Lance Berkman also went 0-1 before leaving hurt. Can't be him. Allen Craig went 0-3, but he walked and drove in a run, so I guess we'll go with him even in spite of the RBI. Notes: Pete Kozma was called up before this game when Nick Punto was placed on the disabled list. It wasn't necessarily a merit-based promotion--Kozma has had a tendency to be moved up no matter what his results at the current level are and was hitting under .250 at Memphis--but more to the point he was the only middle infielder left on the 40-man roster. Of course, since he was a shortstop all through the minor leagues, he made his first big league appearance at....second base. He also has played third base since he's been up. Not sure that he's actually play short yet, though. (In-game edit: noted that's where he played Sunday.) Yadier Molina went three for four and is having a career year with the bat. A lot of people seemed to write his offensive production possibilities off after his weak first half in 2010, but it's pretty clear that either Molina has learned something or Albert Pujols has loaned him whatever hitting mojo he has. If the latter is the case, I think it's time for AP to get that back now. Thursday (4-2 win vs. Houston) Hero: Allen Craig. Maybe that'll make up for the Goat tag. Craig went 3-4 with a big home run to give the Cardinals a bit of cushion. Goat: Tyler Greene. 0-4 with two strikeouts, edging out Jon Jay (0-4 with 1 K) and Pujols (0-3). Notes: Another good outing for Kyle McClellan, who got through the 8th using only 90 pitches. So far there's crow to be eaten in regards to McClellan, whose only test left is the length of the season. Can he still be effective in August and September? So far, he's not given many reasons to doubt that he can. Friday (3-0 loss at Kansas City) Hero: Jon Jay. Jay went 2-4, the only Cardinal with multiple hits, as no Redbird dented the plate. Goat: Tyler Greene. Colby Rasmus had one more hitless at-bat than Greene, but Greene hit into one of those pervasive double plays (with the bases loaded, of course) plus went 0-2 with runners in scoring position. A lot of very smart people like Greene and think he'd be fine if just left alone to play. Perhaps so, but he's not really showing any of that in his extended trial. Notes: Chris Carpenter was cruising along until the seventh when it all came unraveled for him. Ironically when compared to Sunday's game, it was Carpenter who was left in too long. Perhaps a shorter leash might be needed for him? Carp seems to be showing his age a bit this season, with more problems and blowups than in the past. With all that, though (and, for once, some helpful work out of Trever Miller, who did still walk the first guy he faced), he gave up three runs and if the offense had been running like it normally was, he'd have possibly gotten a win. Also should note that Ryan Franklin pitched a scoreless inning in relief after sitting for about a week. Good to see him have a successful outing. Saturday (3-0 win at Kansas City) Hero: Jake Westbrook. The change in Westbrook's results in the last few starts has been stark and very welcome. Eight scoreless innings, allowing only four hits and three walks, is acceptable any time out. Westbrook still hits a bump here and there, which is not surprising for a guy that needs command and a good infield behind him, but he's not the weak link he was back in April. Goat: Colby Rasmus. 0-4 with two strikeouts. Even though the Cards didn't put up a lot of runs, most everyone did get a hit. Notes: Big home run by Matt Holliday to put the Cards on the board. Nice to see him back in the lineup, though it didn't last very long. A solid inning of work for Fernando Salas as well, as he locked down the save. Sunday (9-8 win in 10 at Kansas City) Hero: Yadier Molina. 4-5 with a double and a triple, plus an infield hit. Yadi can do it all! Goat: Miguel Batista. Perhaps you blame it somewhat on rust, as Batista hadn't pitched since last Friday, leaving us sadly lacking in poetry. Whatever the reason, he was terrible, turning a 7-3 game into 7-5 very quickly. While the rest of the bullpen didn't necessarily win any awards either, their foibles would have been immaterial without Batista's combustion. Notes: Lot of different points in this one. First off, Colby Rasmus walked five times in this affair, something that doesn't happen often. Rasmus did drive in the tie-breaking run with a walk in the 10th, which is one way to get an RBI. Good to see the patience from Rasmus and, honestly, it's something that Pujols might want to think about. More about AP in a moment, but in general, he seems to continue to chase bad pitches. Another nice game for Allen Craig, who went 2-2 with a home run before being pulled when the Cards had the big lead. Which leads to a discussion point, in my mind. I understand what Tony La Russa says, that the Cards are up by six when Craig comes out and if they can't hold that lead, they don't deserve to win. Very valid point and I agree to some extent. That said, you've gone into this series with 13 pitchers, which naturally leaves 12 on the offensive side. Nine of those 12, since you are in an AL park, are going to be in the lineup, leaving you a bench of three. You likely aren't going to use Gerald Laird (though TLR did wind up having to with Holliday leaving due to injury and probably regrets that now that Laird wound up breaking a bone, forcing a DL stint) so you have a regular bench of two guys. One of those guys, Ryan Theriot, is sick which is why he wasn't starting, so he's not that available. Do you really think this is the time to start resting players, especially a guy that could use the playing time? It'd make a bit more sense if it was Pete Kozma coming off the bench rather than Tyler Greene. It's not that Greene hasn't played, he's playing fairly regularly. It's not that Greene is a raw rookie, he's gotten some experience. There's no big pressing reason to get him into that game. Besides that, you've got two outfielders in Holliday and Lance Berkman that have been injured. Both were able to play in that game, which was surprising on the part of Berkman, but don't you hedge in case you need to take one of them out? Granted, Holliday was in the DH role which meant that Laird could stay in the game after pinch-running for him, but it just doesn't seem to be the best of roster management. And that's not even getting into the pitching staff. I didn't get to watch much of the game yesterday, but according to Bill during Gateway To Baseball Heaven last night, there was some surprise on Jaime Garcia's part that he was coming in after allowing a home run to Jeff Francoeur to start the sixth. Looking at Garcia's pitch history this season, it appears that La Russa is trying to baby Garcia a bit. Garcia has thrown 100 pitches four times this season. We're not talking 110-120 or anything, as the high for the year is 103. So right at 100 four times. Three of the four times, including yesterday, the next game out Garcia has thrown less than 85 pitches (82, 84, 84) with the exception being a 91-pitch outing against Houston. It's true he's struggled a little bit more in those games than others, but he still has a 3.13 ERA in those four contests. There seems little reason to have such a dramatic policy for him, especially in an outing yesterday where he still had a comfortable lead and had started the inning. Pulling him after one batter in the sixth seems strange--either don't let him start the fifth or let him continue. It'd be different if it was a 3-1 game or something after the home run. The other side of that coin is that, with 13 pitchers you have 8 relievers. You also have a starting staff that tends to go into the seventh or eighth on a fairly regular basis. The starters are good and they are able to be workhorses. That means, however, that the relievers do a lot of sitting around, especially those that aren't in a defined role right now. Let's look at the usage of the relievers from last Friday (5/13) to yesterday. An X means they pitched, a - that they didn't. Miguel Batista X--------X Mitchell Boggs --X------- Ryan Franklin -X-----X-- Trever Miller X-X----X-X Jason Motte XX-------X Fernando Salas X--XX-X-XX Eduardo Sanchez X--X-X---X And, of course, Brian Tallet has been injured and pitched yesterday for the first time since he was activated this weekend. Look at that, though. Boggs hasn't been used in a week--can that be good for him? Jason Motte went a lot time between appearances. For the post part, the bullpen is Miller (to face lefties), Salas and Sanchez. I'm not complaining about the use of those last two--I think they should get work. But is there really a demand for 13 pitchers? So when you have guys that aren't pitching, you have to be tempted to let them "get their work in" when the game is apparently in hand. The problem with that is that leads disappear quickly and it always seems to be the case that when you "disrespect the game", as it were, it comes back to bite you. Taking Garcia out just to get others in is a shame. After that weekend, though, there are a few issues outstanding. First is that Gerald Laird is out for a considerable amount of time, meaning that a backup must be summoned from Memphis. I don't think that it's a big surprise to anyone that Bryan Anderson is again passed over, with Tony Cruz being scheduled to come up and make his major league debut. While Anderson has had some success in the bigs, at least with the bat, he's not hitting much at Memphis now, making it much easier to justify the Cruz callup. Again, it's obvious that Anderson needs to be dealt to another organization to have much of a chance. The prevailing opinion seems to be that his bat won't be strong enough to offset his glove. Perhaps that's true, I don't know. He's hit in the past and there was at least some talk last year that he'd made strides defensively. However you come down on it, it's pretty obvious the organization doesn't think much of him. The problem now is that they've taken this one-time top prospect and, by being blatant about their thought process, eliminated any trade value for him whatsoever. If he's more than a throw-in for a middling player, I'd be shocked. The other issue I want to discuss (I know, this is running on, but that's what happens when I have five days worth of pent-up talk to get out) is the big guy at first base. If anything should have woken up Pujols's bat, it was a trip to Kansas City. He thrives there, whether it's because he likes the area or he's got a chip on his shoulder about not being drafted by them, I'm not sure, but he's usually good for a strong series against the Royals. This time, though, he managed four singles in 12 at-bats, drawing only one walk and none on a day when the team walked 13 times. His homerless streak now has reached 103 at-bats, the longest of his career by a significant margin. Bob wrote a great piece recently on how he wasn't worried about Albert just yet, citing his 2004 numbers. I've heard that some before, including on Gateway last Sunday when Kevin from Cards 'N Stuff and Mike from Stan Musial's Stance joined me, and there's some comfort in that. However, I took a look at the numbers last night and I wasn't as encouraged. First off, all the standard caveats that I throw out there when looking at numbers are in force (basically that I'm no sabermetrician and you shouldn't be surprised if there are big logical errors in my discussion), but after the same about of games in 2004, Pujols batting average was already on the way up to .294 and his OPS was over 1.000. He had 14 doubles and 14 home runs and, IIRC, had a 32/9 BB/K ratio, something of that nature. This year, Pujols is at .269 BA, .750 OPS, has 5 doubles and 7 HR and, most tellingly in my mind, has a 20/19 K/BB ratio. These numbers are easily the worst of his career and, being that he's seven years older than in 2004, gives me a lot of concern for concern. I'd like to look at AP's line-drive rate and ground-ball rate for the first 48 games of 2004 vs. the first 48 of 2011. Without being able to get to that, I'd guess that he's hitting a lot more ground balls this year and, as we know, grounders don't go over the wall and very rarely do they go for extra-bases. Can he turn it around? Sure. But every day that goes by when he doesn't makes it more and more likely that he won't. Of course, even with all these issues, the team is still leading the division by 2.5 games, one game shy of the best record in the National League, and ranked as the top NL team in at least one power ranking this week. Could have bigger problems, I guess! OK, that's plenty from me. Cards head out to the West Coast (more late night baseball, but for the last time this year) and take on the Padres. If there's another place you don't need 13 pitchers, it's Safeco, because odds are they are going to be low-scoring games that the starter can get deep into. The Cards will take 13 out there anyway.
Looks like our old friend Ryan Ludwick's done well against Lohse in the past in his small sample of work. This could be a test for Lohse, but his healthy season may be able to override many of these numbers.
 Filed Under: Heroes and Goats
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Cardinal Weekend RecapPosted on April 4, 2011 at 3:31 PM
I know, dedicated reader(s), that you are waiting with breathless abandon to know how the well-hyped UCB weekend went. It was an amazing and wonderful time and I'm going to have to get my pictures in order before I can tell that story, so it may be later in the week before that happens. Until then, head over to the official site and you can read some of the other bloggers who were there. I was extremely excited to see them all and look forward to doing it again. Until then, though, the blogging life goes on, and I'm going to talk about two games that I didn't see--one because I was on the road, the other because I was at the game and running my mouth with bloggers and others. That's OK, though. You won't be able to tell any differences between this weekend and any other recap. Hero: Albert Pujols. I'm going with the big guy because of numerous factors, including having two hits, but how nice was it that he hit a home run on the 10th anniversary of his first game? Been an amazing decade. If you were going to give a runner-up in that one, you'd probably go with Allen Craig. That early two-run single seemed to get the Cardinals on their way, but they just weren't able to keep that lead. Goat: Jake Westbrook. All spring we worried about Jaime Garcia, but Westbrook wasn't that strong either. I wonder how much the lessened defense is really going to affect him, since he's such a ground ball pitcher. Does that get into his head, making him try to aim his pitches so they are more likely hit in the right place? I don't know. Whatever the face, five walks in less than five innings is a problem, especially when they all seem to score. I wasn't completely sold on walking Brad Hawpe with two on in the big fifth. Sure, he's a stronger bat, but you are loading them up for Ryan Ludwick, who is no slouch. Besides the fact that Hawpe hadn't hit yet and Ludwick was having himself a nice series. Seemed like a lot of Tony La Russa's moves backfired on him on Saturday. Speaking of backfiring, Jason Motte had a major stumble as well, being unable to not only keep his inherited runners form scoring, he allowed runs of his own. His biggest sin, though, would be walking the pitcher with the bases loaded. You just can't do that, especially when you throw like Motte does. Put it over the heart of the plate at the very least. Sunday (Cardinals 2, Padres 0) Hero: Jaime Garcia. If you are looking for overall performance, which I usually do, Garcia is a nobrainer. A complete game shutout, especially after his spring? I know his family was in town, which had to make it more special. Plus, he was obviously trying to show his appreciation to the Pitchers Hit Eighth guys that were in the house for their Honkin' for Jaime campaign last year. Between that outing and the fact that La Russa did hit Garcia eighth yesterday, I'm starting to think those guys have some real pull. If you like your heroic moments more concisee, though, Daniel Descalso gave you that. The guys in the suite had just been commenting on how low Garcia's pitch count was and wondering if he could go the distance when he wound up loading the bases in the sixth. However, Descalso turned a nifty unassisted double play on a Ryan Ludwick liner and got Garcia out of the only real jam he was in all day. Goat: Albert Pujols. Another rough day for the big guy. 0-4 with another double play and a ball that would have been two had there not already been two outs. You can't jump to any conclusions, though if AP doesn't have a good series starting tonight against his usual whipping boys in Pirate black and gold, you might wonder if he's starting to press. There are still a number of issues with the defense. Ryan Theriot made his second error on Saturday and there were plays on Sunday that looked like they should be made, including another dropped ball on a steal attempt. I know there was a lot of talk in the offseason about this, but it really isn't looking like it was overblown as of yet. Good news, Theriot got another hit and now is likely hitting more than John Mozeliak's daughter's weight. (UCB Weekend joke, I'll explain later.) Interesting discussion with owner Bill DeWitt over at the Post-Dispatch. Can you believe it's been 15 years since this ownership group took over? We were talking to Ron Watermon, director of media relations, and he said he was looking at the GameDay magazines recently from that time period, noticing articles about interleague play being a possibility and that the Cards had just put up a website where you could print off a form to mail in for tickets. So much has changed in that time period! This ownership group, by and large, has been very good for the organization. Anyway, I found it fairly intriguing that, for a bench guy or a "win-now" type of player there's minimal flexibility, maybe a few million. Yet, if they could get a franchise player, a guy like Matt Holliday was, they could possibly go more. Which either means that if they got this franchise guy, it's likely they've given up on Pujols or that they expect the additional revenues from a guy like that would offset the added increase in payroll. I don't think it matters--not many of those guys out there and I can't think of any that would fit the Cardinals' immediate needs--but something to chew on. Cards face off against the Pirates in a series that they need to come out and play well in to help remove some of those lingering thoughts of 2010 and not playing well against bad teams and bad pitchers. Kyle Lohse goes for the Redbirds. After his stellar spring, Lohse gets his first test against a team that you might not expect to pose a problem. Then you look at the numbers.....
Granted, a lot of those results were probably generated in the last 2-3 years, when Lohse has been anything but good. If he's actually taken a step back to his 2008 form, he may be able to put some of those numbers to rest. It's something to watch out for, especially since the young guns there just have roped him. Charlie Morton goes for the Pirates. Here's what he's done against the guys in red:
Cards have beaten him around the park as well, with Lance Berkman really looking forward to the game tonight. Only Descalso has had much trouble with him and he'll not be starting tonight, as David Freese returns to the lineup. Should be a matchup with lots of things to watch for. Looking forward to the first night game of the season!
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A New Beginning, The Same EndingPosted on April 1, 2011 at 9:35 AM
In all the hoopla surrounding the start of the season, perhaps I misunderstood. I thought we were turning the page to 2011, not reliving 2010. Yet, for one game at least, a lot of last year's issues reared their head in St. Louis. It was extremely frustrating to see how many two on, nobody out innings wound up quickly becoming two on, two out or one on, two out frames. That big hit that the Cardinals searched for so often last year proved elusive again, even with an upgraded offense. All that said, and we'll get to Albert Pujols in a moment, but for all of the problems this team was one pitch away from having a nice 3-2 opening win and having all of these frustrations be side notes. Instead, Cameron Maybin launches one to dead center, halfway up the grass, and the game is tied. For that, our first Goat of the year is Ryan Franklin. There are going to be days like that, sure. You just can't do it in the home opener. If Franklin had gotten that out, Pujols would have started off the season as the Goat, and he'd have just been 0-4 with two double plays at that time instead of 0-5 with three as he wound up with at the end of the game. The first double play, it looked like Pujols had made up his mind to swing before he got in the box, lunging at a first pitch and hitting a perfect DP ball. The second one, he hit the ball hard and, at first, I thought it was going through, but Jason Barlett made a good play to get to it and start the twin killing. Couple that one with the ball that Pujols hit deep to center, a ball that would have likely left the yard if he'd been able to pull it a little bit, and you can't have too much concern about the big guy. These days do happen, though it's probably part of his secret plan to get the players' union off his back so he can sign a more reasonable deal with St. Louis. It also wasn't the way Bryan Augenstein wanted to start his Cardinal career, either. He got two quick outs and it looked like we were on our way to the bottom of the inning, but then three hits became two runs and he was on the hook for the loss. Another problem from last year--not finishing off innings. So what did go right? Chris Carpenter was very good. I'm pretty sure we'll all take two runs over seven innings all year long. It could have easily just been one run as well, if a play had been made behind him. Skip Schumaker had the ball and was going to tag Ryan Ludwick out, but Ludwick got his elbow in there and knocked the ball loose. Don't know how much of that you can blame on Skip and how much credit goes to Ludwick, but the next batter doubled him in and tied the game. Defense had been a concern of fans going into the season and it reared its head yesterday. You had the Schumaker play, then the play at the end of the game, where Chase Headley scored the winning run, defense apparently fell apart all the way around. It was hard to see on TV, but apparently Jon Jay's throw wasn't very good, then Ryan Theriot couldn't get a handle on it and then sailed his throw to Yadier Molina. Ironic, isn't it, that Jay was in as a defensive replacement, after Lance Berkman didn't have a ball hit to him all day? Sorry, wandered down the negative road. OK, the first Hero of the year goes to Matt Holliday. Not only did he hit what should have been the game-winning home run, but he drove in the first run of the season with a single in the first, showing that his early season struggles with runners in scoring position isn't likely to be repeated this year. Three hits for Holliday was a great start to another year in Cardinal red. Of course, the day wasn't perfect for him, as he did get picked off of third in one of the numerous rallies that died on the vine. Colby Rasmus had a great day at the plate as well. Two hits, including a triple, and two walks. Normally, days like that will hurt the other team if he's hitting in front of Pujols. Not so much yesterday, of course. Rasmus looked good at the plate and did nothing to dampen the predictions of a strong season that were made during the winter by the national media. The new Cardinals did well also. Berkman had two hits, though he did strike out twice as well. Brian Tallet had a scoreless inning in his debut. Theriot got a hit. Miguel Batista's first outing wasn't so sharp, though, as he loaded the bases before Trever Miller came in and snuffed out the rally. All in all, though, it was a great day for baseball. The ceremony in St. Louis for Opening Day is unmatched really, with the history and the traditions. So many of the Hall of Famers there. You had Stan Musial there with his Medal of Honor. Someone, I believe it was Bernie Miklasz, pointed out (and I agree)that Bob Gibson looks way, way younger than 75. I wish I looked that good now. Then you had Jim Edmonds and his son throwing out first pitch. How great was it to see Jimmy Ballgame again? Then again, if you were watching on FSMW, you may not have seen much of him. FSMW came under some fire for cutting out of player intros for commericals and almost missing Edmonds' heave. You can find those on the FSMW website in their entirety, but that didn't ease aggravations at the time. (Personally, I was more disturbed by the fact they are bringing Jay Randolph back. I guess as a featured story guy, it won't be that bad. Just keep him away from the play by play!) One thing I noticed in the coverage of yesterday was there were a lot of questions directed to Albert about the fan reaction. I guess it's a legitimate question, but it wasn't that there were a lot of boos out there. Sure, Holliday and others got similar cheers to Albert, but there were still a lot of excitement and happiness to see him on the field. I'd hate to see this become a self-sustaining circle, where Albert starts to wonder about the fan reaction because the media keeps mentioning it and maybe seeing problems where there aren't any. Sure, if Albert had signed his contract in the offseason, the place would have gone historically bonkers for him when he was introduced. However, if he's getting cheered at a similar level to Musial, Brock, Gibson, etc., then I think he's doing all right with the fan base. So, for the first time ever, the Cardinals have a Friday off day. Strange, isn't it? They pick up Saturday with the Padres. I'll be on the road at that time, heading up for the big UCB weekend, starting with dinner at Pujols5 tomorrow night (7 PM if you are in the area and want to join us. Ask for the United Cardinal Bloggers party) and then a blogger event and game on Sunday. I'll set up the Cover It Live portal on my site here sometime this afternoon, and you can check back during the Sunday game and feel like you are there with some of your favorite Cardinal bloggers. It's going to be a blast and all of us are very excited about it. Regular posting back on Monday, most likely. Enjoy the weekend!
Let's Go: It's Opening Day!Posted on March 31, 2011 at 7:33 AM
Can you feel it? That shift in the air. You woke up this morning feeling a little different, didn't you? Today had that extra bounce, that extra excitement. Call it Baseball Easter, call it the real New Year, call it whatever you like but call it great. Opening Day is here, folks! It's time for some Cardinal baseball! May I say to those of you that are in St. Louis today, I'm envious. To be a part of an opener in St. Louis, with the pep rally, all the red-clad fans milling about, the buzz and energy, to see the Hall of Famers and the Clydesdales, that's something devoutly to be wished. One of these days, I want to make that happen! There have been a lot of changes this offseason and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Can Kyle McClellan fill that fifth role? Can Kyle Lohse (who finally was touched up yesterday in a Triple-A game) keep his spring results as the games begin to count? What can we get out of Lance Berkman? He's not concerned about his spring and he does have a point that he has reason to be confident the numbers will be there in the end, but last year did a lot to throw some doubt on that A stronger spring would have made people a bit more confident, but lousy springs sometimes presage great years. There's not a lot of correlation. (At least we hope!) It's interesting to hear that Matt Holliday is feeling more relaxed and ready to go this year. With a year under his belt and less pressure to live up to expectations, it could be a strong April for him instead of the frustrating start last season had. It's always refreshing to hear an athlete actually acknowledge that the contract played a role and that he was trying to hard to come through. We saw what happened the rest of the year when he relaxed and played, so hopefully we'll see that from the get-go this year. After about a week of speculation, Brian Tallet says he's ready to go today. That doesn't mean that Tony La Russa will use him, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Tallet come in around the seventh to get a lefty out. Give him a chance on Opening Day in front of the home crowd. As the spring concludes, that means you have to find places to put the minor league prospects. Zack Cox and Shelby Miller will be teaming together at Palm Beach, while Carlos Martinez will technically be on the Quad Cities roster, but he'll actually stay in the extended spring training facilities down in Florida for a while to continue to get acclimated to the US (and to avoid pitching in the cold, I imagine). When I purchased MLB.tv yesterday, I had to take advantage of adding MiLB.tv for an extra $10 just to be able to watch these guys and the rest of the heralded prospects the Cardinals have. (Plus there are so many other names out there on other teams, especially the Royals, that it seemed like a solid move.) So, finally, we have real games to talk about. You can see some of the statistics about today's game in the preview that's up at Baseball Reference. Chris Carpenter ties a legend today, as his fifth Cardinals opener puts him in the same sentence as that good old Arkansas boy, Dizzy Dean. You know Carp's going to be one of the Redbird legends when you can compare him to Dean and Bob Gibson in the team record books. Here's what Carpenter has done against the Padres:
Not a lot there for those guys. Hawpe's done a little damage and he is the one that's faced Carp the most, but all in all there aren't many of those guys looking forward to opening the season with Chris Carpenter on the mound. Carpenter will be opposed by Tim Stauffer. What's he done against this current Redbird crop?
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