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Cardinal Weekend Recap

Posted on April 4, 2011 at 3:31 PM
Filed Under: Heroes and Goats | Pittsburgh Pirates | San Diego Padres | St. Louis Cardinals | United Cardinal Bloggers
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.

Saturday (Padres 9, Cardinals 3)
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.

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.....

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Ryan Doumit 13 10 3 1 0 1 2 2 2 .300 .385 .700 1.085 0 0 1
Ronny Cedeno 9 9 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 .333 .333 .333 .667 0 0 0
Andrew McCutchen 9 9 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 .444 .444 .667 1.111 0 0 0
Pedro Alvarez 8 7 4 2 0 1 4 1 1 .571 .625 1.286 1.911 0 0 0
Garrett Jones 8 7 2 1 0 1 3 1 0 .286 .375 .857 1.232 0 0 1
Jose Tabata 8 7 5 0 1 0 1 0 0 .714 .714 1.000 1.714 0 0 0
Neil Walker 8 6 2 0 1 0 2 2 1 .333 .500 .667 1.167 0 0 0
Matt Diaz 7 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 .143 .143 .286 .429 0 0 0
Lyle Overbay 7 6 3 1 0 1 2 1 1 .500 .571 1.167 1.738 0 0 0
John Bowker 5 4 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 .250 .400 1.000 1.400 1 0 0
Charlie Morton 5 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .200 .200 .200 .400 0 0 0
Paul Maholm 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 88 78 29 8 2 5 16 8 13 .372 .425 .718 1.143 1 0 2
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/4/2011.

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:

PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS IBB HBP GDP
Albert Pujols 14 10 4 1 0 0 4 3 1 .400 .500 .500 1.000 1 0 1
Skip Schumaker 14 12 6 0 0 0 1 2 0 .500 .571 .500 1.071 0 0 0
Ryan Theriot 10 9 4 0 0 0 1 1 1 .444 .500 .444 .944 0 0 0
Matt Holliday 9 9 4 1 0 1 4 0 2 .444 .444 .889 1.333 0 0 1
Colby Rasmus 9 9 5 0 0 0 1 0 1 .556 .556 .556 1.111 0 0 0
Lance Berkman 8 6 5 3 0 2 5 2 1 .833 .875 2.333 3.208 0 0 0
Daniel Descalso 6 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .167 .000 .167 0 1 0
Yadier Molina 5 5 4 1 0 0 2 0 0 .800 .800 1.000 1.800 0 0 0
Allen Craig 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 .667 1.333 0 0 0
Jon Jay 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Kyle Lohse 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0
Total 84 73 34 6 0 3 18 8 10 .466 .518 .671 1.189 1 1 2
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/4/2011.

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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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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